Possession:
Nominal and Clause
Syntax Seminar | Ling 229 | Spring 2012
Tuesday & Thursday, 2-3:45 | The Cave
This seminar is devoted to possessive relationships and their syntactic expression. We will focus on three major ways of expressing possession: complex nominals, the verb have, and various types of external possession. What sorts of syntactic structures are in play in different types of possessives? How is the variation we find constrained by Universal Grammar? What, ultimately, are the syntactic and semantic primitives which make it possible to talk about possession in the way that we do?
| Week | Topic | Readings | Handouts | |
| 1 |
Introduction to nominal possessives. The least contentious syntax. The least contentious semantics. |
Barker 1995, chapters 1 and 2 Abney 1987, chapter 2 |
Tuesday: syntax of the English prenominal possessive Thursday: an ambiguous semantics for the prenominal possessive? |
|
| Part 1. Types of nominal possessives. | ||||
| 2 | Types of nominal possessives in English. |
Partee and Borschev 2003 Lyons 1986* Munn 1995* *=Sara, Yasu, Adam |
Tuesday: is D-poss ambiguous? Return of the raising analysis Thursday: SC/YI/AM on Lyons and Munn |
|
| 3 | Nominal possessives cross-linguistically, part I. |
Szabolcsi 1994 Delsing 1998 Cardinaletti 1998* *=Peter, Adam |
Tuesday: steps toward a typology of possessives Thursday: Delsing's world (of possessives in Germanic) | AM/PF on Cardinaletti |
|
| 4 |
Nominal possessives cross-linguistically, part II. Guest lecture: Matt Tucker |
Yang 2005, chapter 5 Toivonen 2000* *=Clara, Anna |
Tuesday: Possessive constructions in Mandarin Thursday: CS-A/AG on Toivonen | Tucker on the Semitic construct state |
|
| 5 |
Interim conclusions: how many types of nominal possessives?
Guest lecture: Boris Harizanov | (Note: No class 5/3) | Tuesday: Nominal possessives: themes and puzzles | Harizanov on possessives in Bulgarian | |
| Part 2. Clausal possessives with have | ||||
| 6 | Have: atom or portmanteau? |
Kayne 1993 Freeze 1992* *=Yasu, Matt, Peter |
Tuesday: HAVE and BE in clausal possession Thursday: YI/MO/PF on Freeze | |
| 7 |
More on the analysis of clausal having Guest lecture: Jorge Hankamer |
Boneh and Sichel 2010* *=Anna, Sara |
Tuesday: HAVE and BE in Nez Perce Thursday: SC/AG on Boneh and Sichel | |
| Part 3. External possession | ||||
| 8 | A'-extraction and left branch islands |
Szabolcsi 1984 Gavruseva 2000 Haegeman 2004* *=Taylor, Matt |
Tuesday: Variation in left branch extraction Thursday: MO/TB on Haegeman | |
| 9 | A-movement, possessor raising |
Landau 1999 Deal 2012 Lee-Schoenfeld 2006* *=Bern, Nate |
Tuesday: Possessor raising Thursday: Hebrew possessor datives | |
| 10 | Possessor binding |
Baker 1999* Hole 2005** Hole 2009** *=Bern, Karl, Taylor **=Karl, Nate, Clara |
Tuesday: BS/NA on Lee-Schoenfeld Thursday: TB/KD/BS on Baker | CSA on Hole 2005 | NA/KD on Hole 2009 | |
| 11 | Conclusions and remaining questions | (none) | Tuesday: Conclusions and open questions | |
Enrolled students will present articles twice over the course of the term, in pairs or triples.
Students will also write original research papers.
- Readings folder (password protected)
- A relevant online bibliography