CJJ21 Approaches to Morphosyntax

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2021
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 6 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
doc. Mgr. Pavel Caha, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. Michal Starke, Docteur es Lettres (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Pavel Caha, Ph.D.
Department of Czech Language – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Jaroslava Vybíralová
Supplier department: Department of Czech Language – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Thu 12:00–13:40 D33
Prerequisites
English, basic linguistc terminology, a prior course in syntax and/or morphology is an advantage.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 20 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/20, only registered: 0/20, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/20
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The goal is to become familiar with the analytical tools used in two current theories of morphology. One theory we will look at is Distributed Morphology, the other is Nanosyntax. Both of them are syntactically oriented theories of morphology, and both are in their own way trying to explain the general rules of interaction between morphemes (ordering, allomorphy) as well as relations between form and meaning (agglutination, fusion, etc). In the course, we will focus on empirical data, and we will learn how to make best sense of such data using these theories.
Learning outcomes
At the end of the course, the student is able to:
- analyse the distribution of markers in paradigms;
- generate simple paradigms using rules of exponence and their interaction;
- decompose categories of person, number and case into features;
- understand the Subset and the Superset Principle, and use them in order to model the interaction of exponents;
- analyse the structure of words using head movement and phrasal movement;
- navigate in the landscape of current theoretical frameworks;
Syllabus
  • Case morphology;
  • morphological structure and syntactic structure;
  • phrasal spell out;
  • competition;
  • allomorphy.
Literature
  • Harley, Noyer: State-of-the art article: Distributed Morphology.
  • Caha (2016): Some notes on Insertion in DM and Nanosyntax.
  • Starke (2011): Linguistic variation reduces to the size of lexically stored trees.
  • Halle, Marantz (1993): Distributed Morphology.
  • Caha (2013): Explaining the structure of case paradigms. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory.
Teaching methods
Lecture, discussion.
Assessment methods
There will be a (single choice) test at the end of the course.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2020, Autumn 2021, Autumn 2022, Spring 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2021, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2021/CJJ21