Spring 2012 Archive People LinksSyntax Plus is an informal discussion group on syntax and its interfaces at the University of Southern California. Syntax Plus will be meeting this term on Monday afternoons. All topics which are of relevance to syntax are welcome. To present, please contact one of our syntax faculty: Hagit Borer, Hajime Hoji, Audrey Li, Roumyana Pancheva, or Maria Luisa Zubizarreta. Spring 2012 Schedule: January Keir Moulton: "How to Embed a Clause" Abstract: It's recently been shown for a number of languages that complement clauses bear deeper similarities to relative clauses than previously thought (Adyghe (Circassian): Caponigro and Polisnky 2011; French, English (Kayne 2008); Arsenjevic 2009; Bayer 1995, 1999). We argue that this has a reflex at the syntax-semantics interface in English: finite, declarative CPs can't combine directly with verbal material. (Evidence for this comes from event nominalization (Stowell 1981, Grimshaw 1990).) We show how this forces various movements for composition, which ultimately deliver the right-peripheral position of CPs attested in English and many OV languages. February Monday, February 27th: 4:30-5:30 Barbara Tomaszewicz: "The Polish irrealis particle by and relativization" Sarah Ouwayda: "Plural projection without plural marking: evidence from agreement" March Sarah Ouwayda & Mythili Menon: "Malayalam -kaL is Plural, English ‘Plural Marking’ is Not" Priyanka Biswas: "Bangla Default Classifier Revisited" Monday, March 19th: 4:30-5:30 Alessandra Giorgi: Title TBA Monday, March 26th: 4:30-5:30 Roumyana Pancheva and Barbara Tomaszewicz April Screeners Monday, April 23rd: 4:30-5:30 Available |