Linguistics 221A: |
| Ivan A. Sag | Office: Bldg. 460, Room 103. Tel: 723-1578 | |
| Office Hours: | M: 4-5 or by appointment | |
| Email: | sag at csli period stanford period edu |
The goal of this course is to provide an introduction to key problems in the grammar of English. This year, this course will not only provide a quick overview of Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG), it will also provide an introduction to Construction Grammar, in particular the variety of CG called Sign-Based Construction Grammar, based on forthcoming work by Charles Fillmore, Paul Kay, Laura Michaelis and Ivan Sag.
Students are expected to have some background in syntax and semantics and not to be afraid of mathematical formalisms. I am expecting that most enrolled students will have had the L222A-B sequence already, so we can move much faster than in the past. For a syllabus and further links relevant to class lecture and discussion, see BELOW.
The first meeting of this class will be Wednesday, April 4 at 5 PM.
Students are expected to complete the assigned readings before each class. This may be challenging in some weeks. Class lectures will connect with the readings, but not everything in the readings will be covered in class. There will be a 2-page essay due every week discussing some aspect of that week's readings. In addition, one of these should be an extended essay (5-6 pages), reflecting a more detailed consideration of some relevant issue(s).
Coursework reduction can be negotiated for students enrolled for fewer than 3 units. People pursuing research projects that began in last term's Ling 222B may negotiate a plan for integrating that research with this course's requirements.
| Day | Date | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| W | 4/4 | HPSG: an overview |
| M | 4/9 | Clausal Constructions |
| W | 4/11 | Semantics in HPSG |
| M | 4/16 | Unbounded Dependencies |
| W | 4/18 | HPSG: Interrogative Constructions 1 |
| M | 4/23 | HPSG: Interrogative Constructions 2 |
| W | 4/25 | Locality and Constructions |
| M | 4/30 | Early Berkeley Construction Grammar I (Let Alone) |
| W | 5/2 | NO CLASS (Sorry) |
| M | 5/7 | Early Berkeley Construction Grammar II (WXDY) |
| W | 5/9 | Sign-Based Construction Grammar: An Overview |
| M | 5/14 | Sign-Based Construction Grammar: Continue Overview. |
| W | 5/16 | Argument-Structure Constructions I (Goldberg vs. Kay) |
| M | 5/21 | Argument-Structure Constructions II (The Mueller Critique) |
| W | 5/23 | Argument-Structure Constructions in SBCG (Paul Kay visits) |
| M | 5/28 | Memorial Day Holiday: No Class |
| W | 5/30 | Filler-Gap Constructions in SBCG |
| M | 6/4 | The English Auxiliary System |
| W | 6/6 | Idioms |
Last updated 13 May 2007 by Ivan A. Sag.