Course information
Advanced Syntax, Fall 2020
(CAS LX 321, GRS LX 621, MET LX 521)
| Meeting time | W 2:30 - 5:15 In The Cloud |
| Instructor | Paul Hagstrom |
| hagstrom@bu.edu | |
| Phone | (617) 353-6220 |
| Office | 621 Commonwealth Ave., Rm. 105 |
| Office Hours | MF 12:30-1:30, T 12-1 (and by appointment) |
Prerequisite: CAS LX422 / GRS LX 722 (Intermediate Syntax), or consent of instructor.
Course Description: This course assumes basic familiarity with the Principles & Parameters approach to syntax and the Minimalist Program framework, as covered in CAS LX 422 / GRS LX 722. With a basic foundation of syntactic understanding to build on, this course will begin to explore a series of narrower issues. The material will include foundational works that that were instrumental in current understanding of linguistic phenomena and the development of modern models. Other topics will include current work, which brings to light previously unknown phenomena, or proposes revisions to our syntactic models. The selection of topics will necessarily be somewhat arbitrary, and in part influenced by the specific interests of the students enrolled. They will, however, serve to provide a flavor of the current state and developmental history of the field. In addition to the areas covered as a class, each student will also select a topic to investigate independently as a course project. The course project will result in a substantial paper at the end, and will be presented in class as part of a miniature conference at the end of the semester.
This course can be taken either as CAS LX 423 or as GRS LX 723, and students registered for GRS LX 723 will have more significant responsiblities, reflecting the graduate nature of the course. It is nevertheless assumed that everyone will do the assigned readings (generally excerpts for CAS LX 423 students and the full papers for GRS LX 723 students) and will participate in the class discussions.
Students completing this course will…
Students completing this course will:
- Gain insight into the syntactic organization of human language
- Gain experience reading, understanding, and evaluating the professional academic literature in syntax
- Read classic works that had a significant impact in the field in their original form
- Sample current issues and debates within the field of syntax
- Gain experience relating to the profession of Linguistics, constructing a paper to be presented in a conference setting
- Learn how to articulate syntactic proposals, arguments, objections, and predictions
Course Requirements
Homework. Homework will primarily consist of readings done in preparation for discussion in class. Readings will often be accompanied by short summaries or exercises that relate to the reading or extend it in some way. Students registered for GRS LX 723 will generally be assigned longer portions of the papers or additional papers, and have exercises or summaries relating to those additional portions as well; these additional exercises constitute part of the homework and are included in the “Homework” portion of the grading scheme below.
Leading discussion. Everyone will lead the discussion on the readings twice during the course of the semester. These will be done in groups of two (or occasionally three). Leading the discussion will generally mean coming prepared with a synopsis of the proposal and the arguments, and some questions that arose. Leading the discussion will not be simply presenting the paper. Rather the focus is on distilling the main points and the strongest arguments, and then on discussing things that were confusing, seemed insufficiently convincing, or anything else pertinent. It is expected that the whole class will have questions and participate in the discussion; those leading the discussion are mainly responsible for getting the ball rolling and having some discussion points planned in advance.
Final project. The final project is essentially either a literature review on an area of interest that we have not covered in the class specifically, or alternatively an area of original research. It will come in four installments. The proposal for the topic will be due on October 28. The paper will be due on the last day of class. A draft of the paper will be due on November 18. 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 15-20 minutes long followed by 5-10 minutes afterwards for discussion and questions.
Late assignments. Late assignments will not be accepted without prior arrangement.
Electronic communication. We live in an electronic age. You (unlike me) have always lived in an electronic age. You are expected to be reachable via your BU email address, and to check in and partipicate in the Slack workspace regularly. The central communication center for the course is the Slack, secondarily the course blog. Announcements, notes on readings, homework errata, and other information will be posted there on a regular basis, and things that are posted there will be assumed to have been communicated. Homework assignments can be submitted on Gradescope.
Readings/Videos. There is no textbook for this course. Readings will be drawn from the syntactic literature, generally journal articles or book chapters. At various times during the semester, I might post video lectures that you will be notified of in Slack.
Grading Scheme
| Category | % |
|---|---|
| Homework (lowest dropped) | 25% |
| Group discussion leading | 20% |
| Final project: proposal | 10% |
| Final project: draft | 10% |
| Final project: presentation and write-up | 25% |
| Regular attendance, participation | 10% |
Class participation will be assessed on the basis of your attendance record and your level of participation in class discussions/in-class exercises. Participation includes activity in Slack discussions and in section meetings. It is possible to participate even asynchronously, but participation is still essential.
Course policies
Copyright. All materials used in this course are copyrighted. Reproducing class materials, or uploading them to websites, is a copyright infringement. Most course material is available already on this very site, but things that are not made available are not to be made available to people outside the course.
Assignments. Homework assignments will be handed in, graded, and returned using Gradescope. This is accessible through Blackboard. The due dates will be as listed there. Late assignments generally will not be accepted. Neatness counts, ideally trees you turn in will be typeset in some way, such as with phpSyntaxTree, TreeView, LaTeX/Overleaf. We will discuss this a bit in class.
Attendance. The class will meet once a week on Zoom, unless otherwise announced. If you cannot attend these meetings, they will be recorded for later review. However, this is a discussion class with presentations, so we need to work out some way in which everyone can participate. Once we meet, we can determine the extent to which we will need systematic alternatives to synchronous Zoom discussions. If we need them (or, if it turns out to work better in some cases), we may schedule different times to meet in Slack, possibly simultaneous to a coordinated viewing of the recorded discussion. If you wish not to be recorded, you can turn your camera off, though we may also have times when the recording is stopped as well.
Recordings. Here is the boilerplate text about recording. It holds for this class. All class sessions will be recorded for the benefit of registered students who are unable to attend live sessions (either in person or remotely) due to time zone differences, illness or other special circumstances. Recorded sessions will be made available to registered students ONLY via their password-protected Blackboard account. Students may not share these recordings with anyone not registered in the course and may not repost them in a public platform.
Students have the right to opt-out of being part of the class recording. Please contact your instructor or teaching assistant to discuss options for participating in the course while opting out of the class recording.
No student may record any classroom or other academic activity (including advising sessions or office hours) without my express written consent. Unauthorized use of classroom recordings – including distributing or posting them – is also prohibited. If you have (or think you may have) a disability such that you need to record classroom activities, or need other assistive services, you should contact Disability & Access Services to request an appropriate accommodation.
Contact.
Because this is a course being conducted remotely for the most part,
it is important that you are set up in the Slack workspace and monitoring
it regularly for announcements. That will be the main channel for
communication, discussion, posting homework keys, etc. You should
also be reachable via your bu.edu email address.
Academic integrity. It is essential that you read and adhere to the CAS Student Academic Conduct Code. Graduate students must also follow the policies of the GRS Academic Conduct code.
Collaboration. If you decide to form a study group to work together on assignments, your collaboration should not go beyond discussing ideas together. In other words, you must write up your own assignment separately from the group, using only your own words (except when quoting other work directly, in which case use citations as standard). The underlying principle is that what you turn in should reflect your understanding and show your own ability to communicate the ideas. Here of some examples of you should not be doing:
- Having one or more members of the group produce a “group draft,” “group essay plan,” or “group grammar,” which individual members of the group then customize.
- Writing up on separate computers while conferring with each other in real time (whether in person or via skype, chat services, or any other medium).
- Using another student’s complete assignment as a reference when completing your own.