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Course contents and suggested bibliography
1. Morphosyntactic typology Course aim The aim of the course is to give students an idea of current work on cross-linguistic varia-tion in morphosyntax, with particular emphasis on syntax. By examining particular topics, the course will try to answer the questions: What is the range of cross-linguistic variation found with this construction? How can we give a principled account of this variation and the constraints on it? The discussion of the selected topics will also serve as a guide to setting up research projects in morphosyntactic typology. Suggested reading Although the course has no prerequisites, students who have access to Whaley (1997) are encouraged to read it in advance as preparation for the course. Somewhat more advanced texts are Comrie (1989 — a third edition is in preparation, and some materials should be ready for distribution to course participants) and Croft (2003). Comrie, Bernard. 1989. Language universals and linguistic typology. Second edition. Oxford: Blackwell and Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Croft, William. 2003. Typology and universals. Second edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Whaley, Lindsay J. 1997. Introduction to typology. Thousand Oaks–London–New Delhi: Sage.
Schedule Monday, September 01 The nature of language universals and linguistic typology. Comparison of different approaches, in particular typological and generative. Illustration of key concepts: absolute universals versus tendencies (statistical universals); implicational universals. Explanations in typology. Tuesday, September 02 Word order typology, both in its own right and as an illustration of many of the key issues in typological research. Wednesday, September 03 Alignment typology I: Morphological issues, in particular case-marking and verb "agree-ment". Thursday, September 04 Alignment typology II: Syntactic issues, in particular the interaction of alignment (accusative, ergative) and voice (passive, antipassive). Friday, September 05 Morphological typology: Isolating, agglutinating, fusional, polysynthetic languages. Monday, September 08 Typology of agreement: Controllers, targets, and agreement features. Tuesday, September 09 Typology of relative clauses I: Accessibility. Wednesday, September 10 Typology of relative clauses II: The nature of relative clauses. Thursday, September 11 Typology of reference-tracking systems I: Switch-reference and obviation. Friday, September 12 Typology of reference-tracking systems II: Reflexives, logophorics, etc. |