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/lx500b1s09/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. 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 15 | What is a question? | Wherein we meet the cast of characters. | HW1 (Key) |
Hamblin (1958) |
| Tue Jan 20: Class canceled | ||||
| Thu Jan 22 |
Basic question typology | Wherein we consider the strategies available to languages to mark yes-no questions and wh-questions. | HW2 (Key) |
|
| Tue Jan 27 |
Covert wh-movement | Wherein we consider the idea that wh-movement happens whether or not we see a wh moving. | Related: Cheng (1997, ch. 2) | |
| Thu Jan 29 |
Referentiality, Superiority, and D-linking | Wherein we continue the discussion of islands and conditions on wh-movement. | HW3 (Key) |
Related: Pesetsky (1987) |
| Tue Feb 3 |
Partial wh-movement and scope marking | Wherein we meet German, Hungarian, and Malay. | Related: Cole & Hermon (1998) | |
| Thu Feb 5 |
Child language acquisition of questions | Wherein we wonder if this relates to the previous weeks’ topic. | HW4 (Key) |
Related: Thornton (1990) |
| Tue Feb 10 |
Homework recap | Wherein we mostly discuss issues relating to the homework assignments to date. | ||
| Thu Feb 12 |
Historical development of questions, and intervention effects (part 1) | Wherein we look at how languages change over time, with particular attention to the history of Japanese. and we begin looking at a certain kind of restrictions on wh-questions. | HW5 (Key) |
Related: Watanabe (2001) |
| Tue Feb 17: Monday schedule, no class | ||||
| Thu Feb 19 |
The effects of Subjacency in Japanese, and continuation of intervention effects and the historical discussion | Wherein we meet Akira Watanabe’s data and proposal about overt movement of silent wh-words in Japanese, and continue to talk about islands and intervention effects. | HW6 (Key) |
|
| Tue Feb 24 |
Morphology of wh-words and indefinite pronouns | Wherein we look at a very common connection between where and somewhere. Is a wh-word a wh-word a wh-word? Or do languages differ? | Related: Bhat (2000) | |
| Thu Feb 26 |
Prosody of wh-questions in Japanese | Wherein we continue to try to explore the judgments relating to Subjacency in Japanese by controlling and testing the prosody. | Midterm (take-home) (Key) |
Related: Kitagawa (2005) |
| Tue Mar 3: Snow day, no class | ||||
| Thu Mar 5 |
Homework recap | Wherein we mostly discuss issues relating to the homework assignments to date. | No homework | |
| Mar 7–Mar 15: Spring break | ||||
| Tue Mar 17 |
Interpretation of questions | Wherein we begin the discussion of how we can model what a question might mean. | ||
| Thu Mar 19 |
Basic approaches to question meanings | Wherein we meet some of the main views that have been taken on the interpretation of questions, and the arguments that have been used to distinguish them. | Hagstrom (2003) | |
| Tue Mar 24 |
The relation of questions and focus | Wherein we look at the meaning of (contrastive) focus, primarily, and how it seems to relate to the answers to questions. | Related: Rooth (1996) | |
| Thu Mar 26 |
Prosodic explanations of wh-movement patterns | Wherein we meet Minor Phrases, left and right bracketing, left and right positionings of C, and predictions that arise therefrom. | Still no homework | Related: Richards (2006) |
| Tue Mar 31 |
Questions and discourse | Wherein we consider questions under discussion. | ||
| Thu Apr 2 |
Wh-in-the-world questions | Wherein we discuss the allegedly aggressively non-D-linked wh-phrases. | HW7 (Key) |
Related: Hagstrom & McCoy (2003) |
| Tue Apr 7 |
Positive and negative yes/no questions, A-not-A questions | Wherein we consider the pragmatics of polar questions in connection with their semantics. And also look at a certain kind of Chinese question. | Related: Hagstrom (2006), Romero & Han (2004) | |
| Thu Apr 9 |
Rhetorical and echo questions | Wherein we consider some non-standard question types. | Even more no homework | |
| Tue Apr 14 |
Free-choice indefinites |
Wherein we look at Kratzer & Shimoyama’s story about irgendein and perhaps also Yanovich’s story about wh-indefinites in Russian. | Related: Kratzer (2005) | |
| Thu Apr 16 |
Parasitic gaps | Wherein we consider sentences that we use without having an analysis for. | ||
| Tue Apr 21 |
Questions and quantifiers | Wherein we look at what everyone says about questions with quantifiers. | ||
| Thu Apr 23: Monday schedule, no class | ||||
| Tue Apr 28 |
Sentence processing, brain imaging and wh-questions | Wherein we look at the processing of wh-questions and the electrical activity of the brains of people interpreting questions. | Final (take-home) (Key) |
|
| Thu Apr 30 |
The heart of the question | Wherein we try to summarize what we’ve seen about questions. | ||
| Semester ends | ||||