This course pursues two related goals: to introduce the students to the empirical complexity of languages of the Caucasus and to discuss theoretical analyses in phonology, morphology, and syntax motivated by these languages.
The Caucasus is often referred to as “the mountain of tongues”, and it richly deserves this name. Three language families are exclusive to the Caucasus: Northwest Caucasian (NWC), Northeast Caucasian or Nakh-Dagestanian (ND), and Kartvelian. In addition, there are Turkic and Indo-European languages spoken in the Caucasus. The languages are relatively...
This class will explore current syntactic work in the structure of Austronesian languages, with a particular emphasis on the challenges they pose for grammatical theory
Utterances in natural language are partitioned into topic and comment (focus). How much, if at all, does this partition of information interface with the syntactic structure of a clause? This course addresses the interface between syntax and information structure looking at information structure from the vantage point of syntax. On this approach, the crucial goal is reductionist, seeking to understand what information structural effects play a role at the interface and are therefore necessary and sufficient. We will discuss and analyze judgment types (thetic, categorical) and major categories... Read more about Grammar at an interface: Syntax and information structure
Instructors: Suzanne Flynn and Maria Polinsky
Thursdays, 9:30am – 12 noon (or a new time, if necessary)
MIT, 32D-808
Overall Goals:
By investigating various special populations, late learners, heritage speakers, clinical populations, aging populations, etc, we hope to identify:
- critical linguistic generalizations that have emerged or may emerge from various special populations.
- crucial tools (methodologies) for investigating these various populations.
