The Linguistics Department and the LLCC are happy to announce a two week mini course by Prof. Jonathan D. Bobaljik (U. Conn), titled Morphology: The internal syntax of words (abstract below).
Here are some practicalities.
The course will take place at the LLCC seminar room, during the following dates.
Sun 15/1 14:30-16, (2 hours)
Mon 16/1 14:30-16, 18:30-20 (4 hours)
Tue 17/1 18:30-20 (2 hours)
Wed 18/1 12:30-16 (4 hours)
Mon 23/1 14:30-16, 18:30-20 (4 hours)
Tue 24/1 14:30-16, 18:30-20 (4 hours)
Wed 25/1 12:30-16 (4 hours)
Morphology: The internal syntax of words
Prof. Jonathan D. Bobaljik
To what extent is the internal structure of words (morphology) governed by the same principles as the structure of phrases (syntax)? Is there a general theory of hierarchical grammatical structure that includes morphology as a special case, or is there a distinct theory of morphology?
In this mini-course, we will look into the types of evidence that bear on current debates about the internal structure of words, and the relationship of morphology to other components of grammar (especially, but not only, syntax). We examine the central tenets of the framework of Distributed Morphology, namely arguments for hierarchical (syntactic) structure within complex words (syntax-all-the-way-down), and that this structure is abstract, independent of the phonological pieces that realize the structure (Late insertion). A central area of investigation concerns (apparent) mismatches, for example where the syntactic structure and morphological structure appear to differ, or where a form varies for context in ways that are not phonologically predictable (allomorphy). This leads to discussion of how complex the mapping from syntax to morpho(phonology) needs to be, how additional formal devices are to be constrained, and where the trade-offs may be found, enriching one component or the other in favour of a more straightforward mapping.
A central topic in the course is the question of locality of dependencies. Is there a general theory of locality that applies within words as well as across words?
Evidence will be drawn from cross-linguistic surveys of morphological patterns, especially those that stand as contenders for universal generalizations, including (time permitting) suppletion in adjectival morphology (Bobaljik 2012 Universals in Comparative Morphology); locative morphology (Radkevich 2010); and the expression of person and case morphology (Caha 2009), and other features that appear to participate in 'markedness' hierarchies.