Syntax 2

More syntax that goes into more in-depth analysis of various syntactic phenomena. Discusses the role of the two interfaces (phonetic form and logical form) and the current trends in syntax connecting the two interfaces. Goes into comparative studies of specific syntactic phenomena and gives detailed accounts of them.

In order to successfully participate in in-class discussions and to follow the lectures, the student should take the introductory linguistic courses, in particular Syntax I. This course is related to other courses in the Language curriculum.

The course is about numerous topics that represent the core of generative syntax. Special emphasis is given to the study of movements, building of the syntactic structure, and on interfaces between syntax and semantics and phonology. As for syntactic movements, the central question is the nature of the cyclic movement, or more generally, the question of locality of movements, the motivation for A-movements and wh-movements. We will discuss data from various languages and see what we can learn from them while building linguistic theory.
Material discussed in lectures also forms the main part of recitations, where more time and care is devoted to the main issues. Emphasis is given to practical knowledge and actual analysis of language data.

Students deepen their knowledge of syntax and syntactic phenomena. Students familirize themselves with the core syntactic literature and most common syntactic phenomena. Students can recognize interesting linguistic topics, they can do independent syntactic research, they can find relevant literature by themselves. To prove all this, they have to write a term-paper.

• Adger, David. 2003. Core Syntax. Oxford University Press. Catalogue E-version
• Chomsky, Noam. 1995. The Minimalist Program. MIT Press. Catalogue E-version
• Hornstein, Norbert, Jairo Nunes, and Kleanthes Grohmann. 2005. Understanding Minimalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Catalogue E-version
• Articles from various magazines, mainly from Linguistic Inquiry Catalogue E-version E-version, Syntax E-version, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory E-version, Lingua Catalogue E-version ...
• Handouts issued during lectures.

In-class participation 20 %
Term paper 80 %

Prof. Dr. Franc Marušič is a lecturer in linguistics at the School of Humanities and the School of Postgraduate Studies at the University of Nova Gorica. His main area of research is syntax, mainly on Slovene data, but he also occasionally focuses on the interface between language and other cognitive abilities, sociolinguistics and language counselling. At the University of Nova Gorica, he is also a lecturer in the Individual Research I course in the Linguistics Department of the second cycle Slovene Studies programme.

Selection of articles:
MARUŠIČ, Franc, ŽAUCER, Rok, SAKSIDA, Amanda, SULLIVAN, Jessica, SKORDOS, Dimitrios, WANG, Yiqiao, BARNER, David. 2021. Do children derive exact meanings pragmatically? : evidence from a dual morphology language. Cognition 207, [COBISS.SI-ID 42393347],
MARUŠIČ, Franc, ŽAUCER, Rok. 2021 Investigation of Slovenian copular agreement. V: FRANKS, Steven, TIMBERLAKE, Alan, WIETECKA, Anna W (ur.) Selected proceedings of the 14th meeting of the Slavic linguistics society : in honor of Peter Kosta. Berlin [etc.]: Peter Lang. Str. 141-170. [COBISS.SI-ID 95704579].
MARUŠIČ, Franc, ŽAUCER, Rok. 2021. Dual in Slovenian. V: HOFFHER, Patricia Cabredo (ur.). The Oxford handbook of grammatical number. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Str. 428-444. [COBISS.SI-ID 72925187]
MARUŠIČ, Franc, SHEN, Zheng. 2021. Gender Agreement with Exclusive Disjunction in Slovenian
Acta Linguistica Academica 68(4): 516-535. [COBISS.SI-ID 84895491]
SCHNEIDER, Rose M., SULLIVAN, Jessica, MARUŠIČ, Franc, ŽAUCER, Rok, BISWAS, Priyanka, MIŠMAŠ, Petra, PLESNIČAR, Vesna, BARNER, David. 2020. Do children use language structure to discover the recursive rules of counting?. Cognitive psychology, 117. [COBISS.SI-ID 5520635]
MARUŠIČ, Franc, MIŠMAŠ, Petra, ŽAUCER, Rok. 2020. Zakaj velika okrogla rdeča čestitka in ne rdeča velika okrogla čestitka? : poskus razlage nezaznamovane stave pridevnikov. V: KRAJNC IVIČ, Mira (ur.), ŽELE, Andreja (ur.). Pogled v jezik in iz jezika : Adi Vidovič Muha ob jubileju. Maribor: Univerzitetna založba, 2020. Str. 103-115. [COBISS.SI-ID 21145603]