This course serves as an introduction to the study of syntax within a non-derivational constraint-based formal framework, namely Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). We will explore a number of phenomena of natural language morphosyntax in a variety of typologically diverse languages. Topics to be covered include relative and interrogative clauses, auxiliaries and clause structure, mixed category constructions, and computational grammars.

Requirements

The grade for the course will be based on readings and problem sets (20%), in-class grammar implementation lab projects (40%), and a final paper (40%).  The final paper should present an analysis of some syntactic phenomenon in a constraint-based framework.

Readings

The text book for this course is:

Ivan A. Sag, Thomas Wasow, and Emily Bender. 2003. Syntactic Theory: A Formal Introduction (Second edition). CSLI Publications.

The software we will be using for the lab part of the course is described in:

Ann Copestake.  2002. Implementing Typed Feature Structure Grammars. CSLI Publications.

The additional readings will be made available in class or via the "Resources" section of the course web page.

Proposed schedule

• Week 1 Introduction and sloganeering (SWB 1-2)
• Week 2-3 Basic phrases (SWB 3-6)
• Week 4-5 Hierarchical lexicon (SWB 8, 10)
• Week 6-7 Case and agreement (Pollard and Sag, Przepiórkowski)
• Week 8 Binding (SWB 7,Manning and Sag)
• Week 9 Complementation (SWB 11-12)
• Week 10 Auxiliaries (SWB 13-14)
• Week 11-12 Unbounded dependency constructions (SWB 15, Sag, BMS)
• Week 13-14 Unification and parsing (Malouf)
• Week 15 Wrap-up