This is the current view of how the semester will proceed, but the schedule will be adjusted from time to time. Do not rely on the printed copy; instead, consult this page (http://ling.bu.edu/blogs/lx500a1s10/schedule/ ). Homework will generally be assigned on Thursdays and due on the following Thursday. The readings in the Readings column are those that pertain to the lectures that week (“G” refers to the Guasti textbook, “W” refers to the White textbook). Readings listed as “Related” constitute (part of) the source material for the discussions they are listed with, but it is not necessary to read “related” papers (usually because they assume a fair amount of background).
| Date | Topic | Homework | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thu Jan 14 |
The acquisition of syntax | No homework | (G ch 1) |
| Tue Jan 19 |
First steps into syntax | G ch 4:101-120 | |
| Thu Jan 21 |
Root infinitives | HW1: Root infinitives | G ch 4:128-132,141-146 |
| Tue Jan 26 |
Agreement, case, ATOM, and the UCC | G ch 4:133-140 Schütze & Wexler (1996) |
|
| Thu Jan 28 |
Second language acquisition of syntax | HW2: Swahili | W ch 1 (skip 1.3.1) W ch 2:22-23, 35-42 Kanno (1996) |
| Tue Feb 2 |
The initial state in L2 acquisition | W ch 3:58-87,95-98 | |
| Thu Feb 4 |
Parameters in L2 acquisition | HW3: L2A parameters | W ch 4:127-132, 141-149 MacLaughlin (1998) Izumi (2007) |
| Fri Feb 5: Field trip: Lydia White talk, 3pm KCB 106. |
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| Tue Feb 9 |
Morphology/syntax interface in L2 acquisition | W ch 6 Prévost & White (2000) |
|
| Thu Feb 11 |
Null subjects, pro drop, subset principle CHILDES demo |
CHILDES lab | G ch 5:160-185 Snyder 2007 ch 4:51-58 Hyams & Wexler (1993) |
| Tue Feb 16: Monday schedule, no class |
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| Thu Feb 18 |
Null subjects, acquisition of binding principles | G ch 8:271-285, 290-300 Chien & Wexler (1990) |
|
| Tue Feb 23 |
Acquisition of clitics and pragmatic constraints | (Kapia 2010) | |
| Thu Feb 25 |
Passives and A-chains in L1 acquisition | HW4: ACDH | G ch 7 Babyonyshev et al. (2001) |
| Tue Mar 2 |
Wh-movement in L1 acquisition | G ch 6:186-202, 209-220 Guasti et al. (1995) |
|
| Thu Mar 4 |
Wh-movement in L2 acquisition, critical periods, ultimate attainment | Final project: Proposal |
W ch 8:241-251 |
| Mar 6–Mar 14: Spring break | |||
| Tue Mar 16 |
Acquisition of semantics in L2 acquisition | Ko et al. (2008) Ionin et al. (2004) |
|
| Thu Mar 18 |
Designing experiments | Final project: Design |
Snyder (2007), ch 5:74-95 White et al. (20??) |
| Tue Mar 23 |
Methodological issues in acquisition studies | No reading | |
| Thu Mar 25 |
Acquisition of semantics in L1 acquisition | Final project: Data collection |
G ch 9 Gualmini et al. (2008) Wexler (2003) |
| Tue Mar 30 |
Morphosyntactic acquisition, Optimality Theory | Legendre et al. (2000) | |
| Thu Apr 1 |
Specific Language Impairment | Rice, Wexler, Schaeffer | |
| Tue Apr 6 |
Analyzing and reporting results, second language acquisition of argument structure | W ch 7 | |
| Thu Apr 8 |
Language attrition, language mixing | Final project: Analysis |
Sorace, MacSwan |
| Tue Apr 13 |
Early first language acquisition, lexical acquisition | G ch 2:22-30; G ch 3:55-80 |
|
| Thu Apr 15 |
The state of the enterprise | Final project: Presentation prep |
No reading |
| Tue Apr 20 |
Presentations Topic (CG) Topic (JL) Topic (KJL) Topic (RM) Topic (AR) |
Final project: Writeup |
No reading |
| Thu Apr 22: Monday schedule, no class | |||
| Tue Apr 27 |
Presentations Topic (BA) Topic (AK) Article use in L2 English/L1 Russian/Polish (AS) Subjacency and binding in L2 acquisition (HS) Topic (JW) Topic (BZ) |
No reading |
|
| Thu Apr 29 |
Presentations Topic (KB) Topic (EC) Topic (SH) Topic (BL) Topic (GP) Topic (MY) |
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| Semester ends | |||