Locality: From Syntax to the Interfaces (Graduate seminar, Georgetown University, fall 2025)
Human language syntax is non-Markovian in that it involves long-distance dependencies (displacement, agreement). One of the fundamental discoveries of Generative linguistics has been that, contrary to appearances, syntactic dependencies are always relatively local. Much work since the 1970s has focused on understanding the principles that regulate syntactic locality. In the last thirty years or so, there has also been increased interest in leveraging syntactic locality domains to explain locality effects at the interfaces with form and meaning.
In this course, we examine locality as it pertains to syntactic operations and to the transfer of syntactic structure to the interfaces. Do the same locality principles operate in the two domains? We trace the development of various locality theories (Subjacency, Phase theory, Relativized Minimality), understanding both their historical context and their place in modern syntactic theorizing. We scrutinize the successes and failures of these theories, especially (the various instantiations of) Phase theory as a unified theory of locality.
Throughout, the emphasis is on examining a maximally broad set of cross-linguistic data, with the goal of drawing wide-ranging empirical generalizations about locality effects in grammar. The overarching aim is to distill the key insights from the very rich literature on locality in order to understand whether a unified theory of syntax-internal locality and interface locality is (a) empirically desirable and (b) achievable given current theoretical offerings.
Introduction to Syntax (NYI Global Institute of Cultural, Cognitive and Linguistic Studies, 2022/5)
This course is an introduction to the foundational findings and concepts of the generative approach to the syntax of natural languages. Some of the issues we touch on include: the hierarchical organization of expressions in language; the syntax of disjoint reference and covariation (a.k.a. Binding Theory); and movement (i.e., the displacement of syntactic units) and its subtypes. For each of these, we first present a sampling of the kind of data that (hopefully) convinces us that there is a phenomenon to be explained, in the first place. Then, we present (and critically evaluate) theoretical accounts of these phenomena. In doing so, we keep our sights set on the following overarching factors: cross-linguistic differences, and cross-linguistic invariants (a.k.a. "universals"), and how to account for each; and the relationship between the linguistic system that humans end up acquiring and the data/input available to them in the course of this acquisition.
Word Formation (Undergraduate seminar, University of Maryland, fall 2022)
This course builds on students' knowledge of both syntax and phonology to seek to answer the following questions: (i) What is a word?; (ii) Where does morphology fit in our broader understanding of the language system? and (iii) What are the hallmarks of morphological processes? We explore the shape and meaning of possible words, as well as the interaction between principles of word formation and other components of a grammar: syntax, semantics and phonology. We investigate if and to what extent the principles governing the structure and form of words need to be dissociated from other modules of grammar, or whether they arise from principles shared across modules. Finally, we look at how children acquire words and how morphological processing is encoded by the brain. This course aims to address these and other issues by examining morphological phenomena from a broad typological sampling of the world’s languages.
As a teaching assistant
Language and Mind (University of Maryland, fall 2024)
The purpose of this course is to investigate the nature of the human mind, using language as a vehicle for this exploration. We study (i) how knowledge is structured in the mind such that humans can produce and understand sentences in their native language(s), and (ii) how this knowledge develops as the product of innate knowledge in combination with information from the environment.
The course is centered around two main themes that reflect two fundamental conclusions of modern linguistics: that humans have a mental grammar and that humans have innate (genetically programmed) knowledge that determines the nature of human language. Studying phonology (sound systems), morphology (word structure) and syntax (sentence structure) will help us to understand and appreciate the nature and organization of mental grammar. Studying how children acquire language (and making comparisons between humans and other species) will help us to explore the balance of nature vs. nurture in the development of mental grammar. A third theme of the course is (iii) that our minds construct our experience of what we perceive. That is, the way that we perceive and categorize sensory input is determined by the structure of our minds (for example, by innate structures or by our acquired native language system), even though we perceive the categories and information as being “out there” in the world and physically real (rather than as being a construction of our own minds).
Syntax II (University of Maryland, spring 2022)
This course is a continuation of Syntax I. We examine various syntactic patterns found in natural language (some found in English, some also found in other languages, and some only found in other languages), and develop a model of the speaker’s grammatical knowledge to account for these patterns. We expand on some topics introduced in Syntax I and explore some new ones: Binding Theory, Raising & Control, Movement (including Islands, Subjacency, and the A/A' distinction), and Ellipsis.
As in Syntax I, the goal of learning the details of a particular theory of syntax is important, but secondary; the primary goal is to master the fundamentals of how to theorize in syntax: how to formulate precise syntactic hypotheses; how to use those hypothesis to guide the search for interesting data; how to separate relevant data from “noise” that the data may contain; and how to develop (and critique) syntactic argumentation. Therefore, students will find that it is often less important to find the “right” answer (on occasion,
there might not even be a “right” answer yet!), and more important to explain, carefully and in detail, the argument or arguments that leads one to giving a certain answer.
Syntax I (University of Maryland, fall 2021)
In this course, we examine the formal structure of sentences in natural language, analyzing data from English and other languages in order to construct a theory of syntax. The goal is to build a (partial) model of the (speaker’s internal) grammar of English and at the same time to determine what aspects of that grammar might be universal (true of all languages). In addition to building up a particular theory of syntax, this course provides students with a basic toolbox (set of tests and diagnostics) that serve as a foundation for pursuing research, and for further courses, in syntax and in other areas of linguistics.
The primary focus of this class is on learning how to _do_ syntax. Students learn terminology, facts, and a particular theory of syntax (Government & Binding Theory), but more importantly, the aim is to learn the basic concepts, skills, methodology, and analytical and abstract thinking that are necessary to do formal lingistics (and that apply more generally). The focus is on solving problems and providing logical arguments, not simply on memorizing a particular system. The motivation for this is that theories change, but having skills such as making generalizations, applying tests, providing logical argumentation, and testing predictions of hypotheses will always be necessary to doing syntax.
Introduction to Linguistics (University of Maryland, spring 2021)
This course is designed to explore humans’ knowledge and use of language. In order to understand the fundamental nature of human language, we identify some of the defining features of language and compare human language with other systems of communication; we analyze the various formal components of language, identifying the basic building blocks and the unconscious rules that allow speakers to combine these building block into larger units (e.g., sounds into words, words into phrases). As a major component of this class, students develop and practice analytical skills to determine these unconscious rules in various languages, based on provided data sets from the languages in question. We also examine factors that contribute to language change and dialect differences, and we discuss social implications of language variation.