https://unibuc.ro/user/alexandru.nicolae/
Alexandru Nicolae
University of Bucharest
Basic notions in comparative and contrastive syntax
Major parameters of linguistic variation.
The goal of this class is to introduce the main concepts and tools employed to carry out research in comparative linguistics (with a focus on syntax), and to concentrate on the framework that generative grammar employs to analyse linguistic variation: parameters. Employing linguistic parameters represents a coherent framework that can lead to fruitful results in understanding differences both between languages, and between different stages of the same language, therefore it is an appropriate manner to carry out research in comparative and contrastive linguistics from a diachronic and synchronic point of view.
Main objectives of the class include:
(a) basic notions in comparative and contrastive syntax;
(b) methods of analysis in comparative syntax;
(c) major parameters of linguistic variation;
(d) parameter hierarchies.
Selected references
Biberauer, Theresa (ed.). 2008. The Limits of Syntactic Variation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Chomsky, Noam. 1986, Knowledge of Language. Westport/Connecticut/London: Praeger.
Cinque, Guglielmo, Richard S. Kayne (eds.). 2005. The Oxford Hanbook of Comparative Syntax. New York: Oxford University Press.
Haspelmath, Martin, 2019, ‘Can cross-linguistic regularities be explained by constraints on change?’, in Explanation in typology: Diachronic sources, functional motivations and the nature of the evidence. Berlin: Language Science Press (Conceptual Foundations of Language Science, 3), pp. 1–23.
Kayne, R. S. 2000. Microparametric syntax [chapter 1]. Parameters and Universals. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 3-9.
Newmeyer, Frederick J. 2005. Possible and Probable Languages. A Generative Perspective on Linguistic Typology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Roberts, Ian. 2012. Macroparameters and Minimalism. A Programme for Comparative Research, in Parameter Theory and Language Change. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 320-335.
Roberts, Ian. 2019. Parameter Hierarchies and Universal Grammar. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, <https://academic.oup.com/book/38726> (27 April 2023).
Smith, N. and Law, A. (2009) ‘On Parametric (and Non-Parametric) Variation’, Biolinguistics, 3(4), pp. 332–343. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5964/bioling.8733.
Velupillai, V. (2012) An Introduction to Linguistic Typology, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
ECLASS:
> Participants will receive a link for an e-class & dropbox.
