Tentative schedule. Particular topics may take more than the allotted time; if so we will readjust the schedule. Schedule for precise dates can be seen on the Calendar on the WebCT site for Ling 416. As of March 15, we are pretty much on schedule.
Week 1. What is 'typology and language universals'? Major approaches. Reading: Comrie Ch. 1.
Week 2. Nature and uses of linguistic typology. Methods, Goals. Morphological typology as illustration. Phenomenon: Possession. Readings: Comrie Ch. 2. (Useful for grad students: Velazquez 1993).
Week 3. Investigative tool: The implicational hierarchy. Phenomenon: Possession continued. Review Comrie Ch. 3 as background.
Week 4. Word order universals. Implicational hierarchies and the use of logic. Competing functional motivations: dominance vs. harmony. Nature of predictions. Comrie Ch. 4.
Week 5. The Subject. Subject criteria in English. Problems in defining subject. Comrie Ch. 5.
Week 6. Subject as a universal vs. language-specific category. Cross-linguistic criteria. The nature of "syntactic criteria". Ch. 5 cont.
Week 7. Case marking patterns and their functional motivations. Ergativity; Split subject; other kinds of case marking systems. Final remarks on Subject. Comrie Ch. 6.
Week 8. Spring break, no classes.
Week 9. Review. Parts of Speech. Assigned reading.
Week 10. Parts of Speech cont. Causative constructions. Comrie Ch. 8.
Week 11. Causatives, cont. Cognitive models and other cognitive-typological aspects. Kemmer and Verhagen 1992.
Week 12. Predicative constructions. Nominal and adjectival predicatives; locative, existential and possessive predicatives.
Week 13. Other constructions. Typology and diachrony. Comrie Ch. 9.
Week 14. Diachrony cont. Grammaticalization; evolution of constructions.
Week 15. Other diachronic issues. Conclusion and evaluations. Comrie Ch. 10.
Last modified 15 March 05
© 2005 Suzanne Kemmer