COMPARATIVE SYNTAX

Consolidate advanced knowledge of minimalist syntax with particular attention to the comparative approach that studies microparametric and macroparametric variation.
Develop the ability to find bibliographic sources of a high scientific level, understand them critically, and take them as inspiration for new applications to a linguistic phenomenon (of any linguistic variety) not yet fully analysed (understanding, independent judgment, and autonomous learning ability)
Report data from languages ​​other than the vehicular language, applying transcription, glossing, and translation systems that allow the entire linguistic community to understand the relevance of the empirical data used. (knowledge and understanding)
Develop the ability to extract empirical generalisations, formulate simple hypotheses and verify them with data. (application of knowledge, independent judgment, autonomous learning)
Develop the ability to present one's research in the written form of a short scientific article to a specialised international audience, critically presenting the consulted literature, establishing the relevance of the research question, and showing the effectiveness of the proposed analysis.

1. Knowledge and understanding
The student knows the minimalist framework and understands the literature that refers to it, with particular regard to the syntax of nominal expressions.
The student knows the main phenomena that arise across languages in the syntax of nominal expressions and understands divergences and convergences in macro/microvariation in familiar and unfamiliar languages.
The student knows the general syntax-semantics interaction and understands how it applies to the empirical domain of nominal expressions.
The student knows and understands the macrovariation among modern European languages, and/or languages belonging to different groups and families, and/or the microvariation among diachronic, dialectal, diastratic varieties of the same language with particular regard to indefinite nominal expressions.
The student has a full understanding of the technical terminology and annotation methodologies that permit to do research on languages of which she/he has no direct competence.

2. Applying knowledge and understanding
The student knows how to conduct a bibliographical search on an empirical domain, using web-resources such as catalogues (Cerca'; Opac; ecc.); and digital archives (Wos, Scopus, MLA International Bibliography, LLBA, Ebrary, Ebsco, etc).
The student knows how to select bibliographical resources, use them in a critical fashion, pointing out convergences and divergences between alternative hypotheses, spelling out empirical predictions and the contribution of each hypothesis to the understanding of the phenomenon, pointing out the empirical fieldwork needed to validate alternative hypotheses.
The student knows how to conduct fieldwork, with one or more of the following methodologies: create stimuli for data elicitation, collect grammaticality judgements, create on-line questionnaires, collect a corpus, consult existing corpora, collect data from reference grammars and language descriptions, etc.
The student knows how to analyse the collected data according to well-established methods in generative grammar.
The student knows how to annotate the data collected to make it accessible to the general scientific community.

3. Making judgements:
The student is able to formulate empirically and theoretically grounded original hypotheses, capturing the dialectal, diachronic, diastratic microvariation, or the macrovariation found across languages of different families and/or language groups.
The student is able to provide relevant linguistic data in favour of her/his hypothesis, to point out possible counterarguments and to treat them with independent hypotheses.
The student is able to capture points of divergence and convergence between alternative hypotheses and operate a synthesis of the two.

4. Communication skills. The student is able to
- write a paper with sound argumentation and appropriate terminology on an original phenomenon;
- keep their written contribution to the established limit (5000 words);
- write an informative abstract (500 words);
- provide 7-10 adequate keywords for the indexation of the contribution.

5. learning skills: The student is able to
- continue her/his empirical and theoretical research in the master thesis or in future PhD curriculum
- continue life-long education in support of any professional activity related to languages and language communication.

Basic knowledge and competences of analysis in the minimalist approach to syntax, as those acquired in the Introduction to Formal Syntax.

Nominal features
Parallels between nominal phrases and clauses
The categorial status of determiners
The expression of indefiniteness in Romance languages
Different types of indefinites
Non-canonical definites
Possessors as arguments and determiner-like modifiers
The status and ordering of adjectives
Bibliographical search and critical reading
Personal projects drafting and abstract submission
Abstract peer reviewing
Conference attendance
Data collection
Project development
Project presentation and discussion

The following papers by the instructor and collaborative authors will provide the content of the lessons. The student is required to start her/his bibliographical research from one of these papers, aiming at an updating of the state of the art and / or an interdisciplinary approach.

Cardinaletti, A. & Giusti, G. 1992. Partitive ne and the QP-hypothesis. A Case study. In E. Fava (ed.) Proceedings of the XVII Meeting of Generative Grammar. 121-141. Turin: Rosenberg & Sellier.
Cardinaletti, A. & Giusti, G. 2015a. Cartography and Optional Feature Realization in the Nominal Expression. U. Shlonsky (ed.) Beyond Functional Sequence. The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, Vol 10, 151-172. OUP.
Cardinaletti, A. & Giusti, G. 2015b. Il determinante indefinito: analisi sintattica e variazione diatopica. In Casini, S. et al. (eds) Plurilinguismo e Sintassi, Roma; Bulzoni, Atti SLI Siena, 27-29/09/2012. vol. 59, 451-466.
Cardinaletti, A. & Giusti, G. 2016. The syntax of the indefinite determiner dei in Italian. Lingua 181: 58-80. Indefinite determiners in two northern Italian dialects. Isogloss 8.2/8: 1-19
Cardinaletti, A. and Giusti, G. 2017. Quantified Expressions and Quantitative Clitics. In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Syntax, Second Edition (eds M. Everaert and H.C. Riemsdijk).
Cardinaletti, A. & Giusti, G. 2018. Indefinite determiners. Variation and Optionality in Italoromance. In D’alessandro, R. & D. Pescarini (eds.) Advances in Italian Dialectology. Sketches of Italo-Romance Grammars, vol. 1, 135-161. Amsterdam: Brill.
Cardinaletti, A. & Giusti, G. 2020. Indefinite determiners in informal Italian: A preliminary analysis. Linguistics 58.
Giusti, G. 1997. The Categorial Status of Determiners. In Haegeman L. (ed.) The New Comparative Syntax, 95-123. London: Longman.
Giusti, G. 2002. The Functional Structure of Determiners. A Bare Phrase Structure Approach. In Cinque (ed.) The Cartography of Syntactic Structure, vol 1. 54-90. Oxford / New York, Oxford University Press.
Giusti, G. 2015. Nominal Syntax at the Interfaces, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press.
Giusti, G. 2021a. A protocol for indefinite determiner in Italian and Italoromance. in Ihsane, T. (ed.) Bare nouns vs. ‘partitive articles’: disentangling functions. Leiden/Boston: Brill, Syntax and Semantics.
Giusti, G. 2021b. Partitivity in Italian. A protocol Approach to a tripartite phenomenon. In Giusti, G. and P. Sleeman (eds) to appear Partitive Determiners, Partitive Pronouns and Partitive Case. Linguistische Arbeiten, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter
Lebani., G. & G. Giusti. 2022. Indefinite determiners in two northern Italian dialects. A quantitative approach. Isogloss 8.2. https://revistes.uab.cat/isogloss/issue/view/v8-n2

The exam consists of an original essay supervised by the teacher to be presented at least 10 days before the exam date and defended during the oral exam, demonstrating the ability to apply the knowledge and independent judgment learned during the course.

written and oral

The paper will be graded 18-24 (sufficient); 25-27 (good), 28-29 (very good), 30-30 cum laude (excellent), according the following parameters:

participation in the activities in person and the virtual classroom (20% =1-6)
critical knowledge of the reference literature(20% =1-6).
originality and precise definition of the research questions (20% =1-6)
consistent structuring of the argumentation (20% =1-6).
methodological accuracy in data collection (20% =1-6).

Blended: lectures, flipped classroom, virtual classroom.
Students are warmly invited to the research seminars and conferences in Linguistics.