Syllabus
syntactic relations the notion of distance unbounded long-distance dependency locality constraints - islands types of islands coordination structure constraint complex NP island factive island negative island etc. theories of locality and islands syntactic theories semantic/pragmatic theories information structural theories cognitive theories empirical methodology for testing locality theories gradient acceptability
Annotation
This seminar is concerned with the distance between two elements of a syntactic relation - called syntactic locality. In the sentence "Who brought the flowers?" all syntactic relations are local in the sense that they are realized within a single clause.
In the sentence "Who do you think brought the flowers?" the subject interrogative pronoun "who" is in a long-distance relation to its predicate "brought (the flowers)" because the subject is realized in a different clause than its predicate. In the seminar, we investigate the distance that a syntactic relation can span and the various limits posed on the distance.
Syntactic locality is affected by a multitude of factors - syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, information structural, and cognitive. There has been a lively debate - often based experimental data - as to which factors are crucial in which cases.
Syntactic locality thus gives students a great chance of getting acquainted with various approaches to syntax - generative and cognitive - as well as with experimental approaches to syntax.
