Modern syntax

The aim of this course is to present modern syntactic theories. The main three approaches covered are: Categorial Grammars (stemming from the work of Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz), Dependency Grammars (originating in the work of Lucien Tesnière, but its modern and computationally-oriented version – Universal Dependencies – will be covered in some detail in the course) and Formal Grammars (usually associated with Noam Chomsky). Some emphasis will be put on modern constraint-based theories which build on these three general approaches, namely, on Lexical Functional Grammar (Joan Bresnan and Ron Kaplan) and Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (Carl Pollard and Ivan Sag).

The course is devoted to contemporary syntactic theories.

We will start with approaches originally developed around mid-20th century, but still popular and actively developed today. The first of these –

Categorial Grammar – has its origins in the work of Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz (of 1930s). The second is Dependency Grammar, first fully developed in Lucien Tesnière's “Éléments de Syntaxe Structurale” (1959). The third is Formal Grammar (including to some extent Transformational Grammar, although the latter will not be extensively covered) associated with the name of Noam Chomsky, actively pursued since 1950s. The distinction between model-theoretic and generative-enumerative syntactic frameworks (Pullum and Scholz 2001) will be illustrated with these three approaches.

The second part of the course will be devoted to Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG; Bresnan and Kaplan 1982, Dalrymple 2001, Bresnan et al.

2015, Dalrymple et al. 2019), a theory proposed in late 1970s and early 1980s, and actively developed since then. LFG combines elements of Formal Grammar and Dependency Grammar and is the host formalism of many linguistic analyses of various phenomena from typologically diverse languages. Due to the high level of formalisation, there exist computer implementations of various grammars (including for English and Polish)

which make it possible to automatically verify analyses proposed by linguists.

In the third part of the course we will look at the purely model-theoretic contemporary syntactic theory of Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG; Pollard and Sag 1987, 1994; Sag, Wasow and Bender 2003), which also boasts of a number of implemented grammars. This theory is makes use of some ideas from Formal Grammar and from Categorial Grammar. Within the time limits of this course, it would not be possible to look at the treatment of a broad range of phenomena within each theory, so we will concentrate on one phenomenon, which is textually very frequent but surprisingly problematic for all linguistic theories, namely on coordination.

Bibliography:

Ajdukiewicz K., 1935: Die syntaktische Konnexität, Studia Philosophica, 1,

s. 1–27.

Borsley R.D., Börjars K. (eds.) 2011: Non-Transformational Syntax: Formal and Explicit Models of Grammar, Blackwell, Oxford.

Bresnan J. (ed.) 1982: The Mental Representation of Grammatical Relations, MIT Press Series on Cognitive Theory and Mental Representation, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

Bresnan J., Asudeh A., Toivonen I., Wechsler S., 2015: Lexical-Functional Syntax, Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics, Wiley-Blackwell, 2nd edition.

Chomsky N., 1956: Three models for the description of language, IRE Transactions on Information Theory, 2(3), 113–124.

Chomsky N., 1957: Syntactic Structures, Mouton, Hague.

Dalrymple M., 2001: Lexical Functional Grammar, Academic Press, San Diego, CA.

Dalrymple M., Lowe J., Mycock L., 2019: The Oxford Reference Guide to Lexical Functional Grammar. Oxford University Press.

Kuiper K., Nokes J., 2014: Theories of Syntax: Concepts and Case Studies, Palgrave Macmillan.

Müller S., 2015: Grammatical Theory: From Transformational Grammar to Constraint-Based Approaches, Language Science Press.

Patejuk A., Przepiórkowski A., 2018: From Lexical Functional Grammar to Enhanced Universal Dependencies: Linguistically Informed Treebanks of Polish. Institute of Computer Science, Polish Academy of Sciences.

Pollard C., Sag I.A., 1987: Information-Based Syntax and Semantics, Volume 1: Fundamentals, CSLI Publications, Stanford, CA.

Pollard C., Sag I.A., 1994: Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Chicago University Press / CSLI Publications, Chicago, IL.

Pullum G.K., Scholz B.C., 2001: On the Distinction between Model- Theoretic and Generative-Enumerative Syntactic Frameworks, in P. de Groote, G. Morrill, C. Retore: LACL 2001, LNAI 2099, pp. 17–43.

Przepiórkowski A., Kupść A., Marciniak M., Mykowiecka A., 2002: Formalny opis języka polskiego: Teoria i implementacja, Akademicka Oficyna Wydawnicza EXIT, Warsaw.

Sag I.A., Wasow T., Bender E.M., 2003: Syntactic Theory: A Formal Introduction, CSLI Publications, Stanford, CA, 2nd edition.

Steedman M., 1996: Surface Structure and Interpretation, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

Tesnière L., 1959: Éléments de Syntaxe Structurale, Klincksieck, Paryż.

As a result of the course, students will get to know:

– the basics of diverse contemporary syntactic theories (K_W01, K_W02,K_K01)

– various syntactic approaches to coordination (K_W02, K_K01)

Students will also learn to:

– understand analyses of various syntactic phenomena within a broad range of syntactic theories (K_U01, K_U08, K_K02)

– develop syntactic analyses of simple phenomena in selected syntactic theories (K_U08, K_K02)

Because of the partly interactive nature of the course, students will also enhance their ability to:

– concisely articulate arguments concerning syntactic structures (K_U07)

– listen to – and evaluate – arguments of others (K_U07)

The default assessment method is an exam, with the following mapping between the percentage of obtained points and the final mark:

< 55% – fail

< 64% – 3

< 72% – 3+

< 79% – 4

< 88% – 4+

< 95% – 5

>= 95% – 5!

In the case of linguistically advanced students, who also attended other linguistic courses, an alternative assessment is possible, on the basis of an essay presenting an original analysis of a selected linguistic phenomenon in a chosen linguistic framework, or comparing and evaluating existing

analyses of a selected phenomenon across frameworks. Any student that wishes to take advantage of this alternative assessment method should

consult this with the Instructor by the middle of the course.

As this course covers the state of the art in syntactic theories, there is no textbook, and attendance is obligatory. Up to two unexcused absences are permitted (but not recommended). Missing more than 3 classes for whatever reason results in failing the course.

Students must respect the principles of academic integrity. Cheating and plagiarism (including copying work from other students, internet or other

sources) are serious violations that are punishable and instructors are required to report all cases to the administration.