Meeting time. Mondays 4–7pm, room TBA.

Instructor. Paul Hagstrom, 621 Commonwealth Ave., room 105. Email: hagstrom@bu.edu (likely to get a quick response). Phone: 617–353–6220. Office hours: TBA.

Prerequisites. CAS LX 522 (“Syntax I”), or equivalent.

Short description. Study of recent developments in syntactic theory, within the framework of generative grammar. This course builds on the foundation established in LX 522 and provides an introduction to some of the major issues in the recent literature on theoretical linguistics.

Course goals:

This is the second half of a two-part syntax course, and assumes basic familiarity with the Principles & Parameters approach to syntax and the Minimalist Program framework. In the second semester, we will be exploring the actual linguistic literature, reading articles which have extended the theory in various directions. We will focus on functional heads and developing the structure of the clause, and historical developments in the theory of syntax. At the conclusion of this class, you will be able to read actual articles from current research journals, you will have experience doing, writing up, and presenting original research in syntax.

Course Requirements. Homework. Your homework will be to do the readings, which will often be accompanied by short summaries or exercises. These will be graded, but the lowest grade will be dropped. Leading discussion. Everyone will lead the discussion on the readings twice during the course of the semester. These are required but are not graded, and will be done in groups of two (or occasionally three). Final project. The final project is essentially a literature review and will consist of four parts. The proposal for the topic you would like to explore will be due March 22. The paper will be a summary of what you’ve discovered–it should be at most 15 pages long, and should summarize and synthesize different approaches to the topic you’ve found, with your own critical commentary. A draft of the paper will be due April 12. The paper draft is required, but will not be graded. The final paper will be due April 29, the last day of class (the day before finals period begins). The presentation is a summary of your paper for the class, run “conference-style” during the last two class periods of the semester, with your part about 20 minutes long followed by 10 minutes afterwards for discussion & questions

Homework. Whenever feasible, homework can be emailed to me at hagstrom@bu.edu. Text-only is preferred, but you may also send PDF, RTF, or Microsoft Word files. Postscript files are less welcome, and don’t even bother sending Word Perfect files. Wherever email won’t work for any reason (e.g., for tree diagrams), homework can be turned in at the beginning of class. Be aware that if you use any special fonts, I may not be able to read your homework—be sure you know how to “include” nonstandard fonts (or send it to me early, so I can let you know if I was unable to read it).

Late assignments. Late assignments will not be accepted without prior arrangement.

Readings. There is no textbook for this course. Individual readings (articles, book chapters) will be assigned throughout the semester. These readings will be available in the hallway outside my office suite, in a folder labeled LX523. You may take the readings out for no more than an hour to make a personal photocopy, and then they should be returned to the folder so that others may photocopy them.

CAS Student Academic Conduct Code. As a member of a CAS course, it is essential that you read and adhere to the CAS Student Academic Conduct Code. In particular, several types of plagiarism (any attempt to represent the work of another as your own) are defined by this academic conduct code. A copy is available in CAS 105.