Paper guidelines for LIN 514 – Syntax



Paper guidelines for LIN 514 – Syntax

Elly van Gelderen

Below is a list of paper topics and the syllabus gives you some resources to get data. Here I’ll just give some suggestions and guidelines on the outline and the paper. I will give feedback on the outline you hand in after week 8 and am happy to look at a draft of the paper if done at least a week before the deadline.

Let’s take one of the topics on the list ‘Imperatives’. This is a topic we don’t deal with in the course. Be careful, however, to relate it to the class by using the tree structures we have used (with CP, TP, and VP) and possibly using features and feature checking and possibly pointing out some problems. Use relevant terminology as well.

A paper/outline could look like the following. I really like to number the separate sections and will do so here. Note that the finished paper should have a 200-word abstract but your outline doesn’t need that yet.

Title, your name, and affiliation (i.e. ASU)

1. Introduction. Say something about imperatives in general and then narrow your focus and say what you are going to be working on. If possible provide a thesis statement such as `Imperatives in Khmer and Thai can be analyzed as having a CP but no TP’ (I don’t know this at all about Khmer and Thai so don’t take this for truth). Also give an outline/road map for the rest of the paper and if needed your methodology (e.g. use of a native speaker or a corpus).

2. Short review of the relevant literature. In the list, I gave one reference to a relatively recent book, namely van der Wurff (2007). That is the starting point for you. Look at it and its list of references; it has a `state of the art’ article that is very long and complex, however. If that’s too hard, try to see what other people have said about the structure of imperatives in general and, if anything, about the structure of the languages you have selected.

3. The data: these can be new (e.g. that you found from a native speaker or from corpora) or reinterpreted (from a paper that was already published). If the picture is complicated, it is ok if you focus on one aspect of the imperative.

4. Your account. This would minimally involve a tree for imperatives. Go through all the data of section 3 and show how your account/tree accounts for them and where some problems might be.

5. Conclusion and References used in the text. Rephrase what you have found and say how this is relevant. If possible, indicate limitations and areas for future research.

If you weren’t doing a traditional paper but a handout for a conference/workshop, you’d have the same division in sections and you’d list your references but you wouldn’t have as much text. You would focus on the examples and your analysis. You would include an abstract and also have your name and e-mail listed at the top.

Things to keep in mind:

Take something that interests you!

The title is important! Do not use a title like `The Syntax of English’.

Audience: for a paper Elly is the audience; for a conference handout, think of the participants.

IRB: for research using human subjects

Keep it narrow (and doable) without losing sight of the broader issues (why are you doing this).

Give lots of examples; if sentences, gloss them well!

When you cite/paraphrase anything, it is really helpful to give the author, year, and page, even when the APA/MLA doesn’t explicitly say!

Use the LLBA, Scholar Google, ASU’s One Search, etc wisely:

The point to the paper is to:

- find out something new and to relate it to what you have learned in the class thereby consolidating both.

- present ideas in a clear manner to a particular audience.

- using linguistic resources

Possible paper/project topics:

NB: These are ONLY possibilities; you are free to select your own as long as you check with Elly. For references, search the regular catalogue (), LLBA, Google scholar (), and Lingbuzz (). Notice that the difference in difficulty between textbook and articles may be huge. Come see me with articles you have trouble with.

1. Negation. Is a NegP universal? Is it always in the same position? Possibly compare negation in languages of different language families. See Ouhalla, Haegeman, Zanuttini.

2. Auxiliaries. What is their structure? Are tense and aspect universal categories?

3. The structure of intransitive verbs in Maori or any other language. (for more theoretical perspective, see Hale & Keyser 2003; Burzio 1986).

4. The NP and DP. Look at a complicated DP, e.g. in Chinese. Ji 2001.

5. Clitics. Take a (Romance or Slavic) language and examine the clitics. Work has been done by Sportiche, Jaeggli, Rizzi (on acquisition), Tomic, etc.

6. Topic and Focus and the split CP. Explore languages with a heavy left edge.

7. Agreement. Asymmetries in agreement depending on word order (Arabic). Object agreement. The status of agreement morphemes in e.g. Navajo.

8. Reflexives. Differences between Chinese/Korean etc and English. Different kinds of morphemes (long and short in Romance and Chinese). Reuland & Reinhart.

9. The place of Adverbs. Do they have a fixed position? Cinque 1999.

10. The verb `to be’: existential, location verb, and possessive. Freeze 1992.

11. Imperatives. Van der Wurff 2007.

12. Pronouns. Difference between emphatic and `regular’. Are they in D or are they DP? Ritter, Cardinaletti & Starke.

13. Verbal complementation. What kinds of clausal complements does a language have (infinitives, subjunctives, etc)? Link the type of verb to its complement. Van Gelderen 2004, Rochette 1988, Givon 2006.

14. The structure of relative clauses in an asymmetric approach. Kayne 1994.

15. Copy and delete. Advantages over traces. Nunes 2004.

16. Is there an order to adjectives? What does the AdjP look like? Cinque 2010; Laenzlinger.

17. Recent approaches: labeling. (Chomsky 2015; van Gelderen 2015)

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