Prof. David Pesetsky This course will acquaint you with some of
the important results and ideas of the last half - century of
research in syntax. We will explore a large number of issues and
a large amount of data so that you can learn something of what
this field is all about. From time to time, we will discuss
related work in language acquisition and processing. The class
will emphasize ideas and arguments for these ideas in addition
to the the details of particular analyses. At the same time, you
will learn the mechanics of one particular approach (sometimes
called Principles and Parameters syntax). Most of all, the
course tries to show why the study of syntax is exciting, and
why its results are important to researchers in other language
sciences. The class assumes some familiarity with basic concepts
of theoretical linguistics, of the sort you could acquire in
24.900.