GENERAL LINGUISTICS 2

General aim of the course is to consolidate the linguistic reflection capacities acquired in General Linguistics 1 and introduce the students to the formal analysis of syntax, with particular regard to Italian syntax in comparative perspective with other languages present in the curriculum.
The course is mandatory for the linguistics curriculum and optional among the linguistic disciplines in the literary and politic curricula.

1. Knowledge and understanding
The student knows the basic linguistic terminology and understands the texts that make use of it.
The student knows the basic syntactic phenomena and understands their interaction with other modules of grammar (Lexicon, Phonology, Semantics, Pragmatics).
The student knows the basic properties of the sentence and understands the dimension of variation in synchrony (dialectal variation) and diachrony (language change).
The student knows and understands the glosses that are used to annotate linguistic examples.

2. Applying knowledge and understanding:
The student is able to correctly use the linguistic terminology in all stages of application.
The student can provide simple syntactic analyses, using the correct methodologies (tree diagrams, constituency tests, constituent analysis) of examples, which can be not only in Italian, but also in other languages (duly glossed)
The student can provide relevant examples, autonomously built, to argue for or against a given analysis including logically possible though ungrammatical examples.
The student can provide a parametric analysis of a pair of examples.

3. Making judgements:
The student is able to report a hypothesis, providing the emprical evidence in favor of against it,
The student is able to capture points of divergence and convergence between alternative hypotheses.
The student is able to distinguish disseminative literature from scientific sources.

4. Communication skills:
The student is able to argument in oral form and with appropriate terminology the linguistic hypotheses presented in the course.
The student is able to interact with the instructor, with the tutor and with the peers defending and criticizing appropriate hypotheses face to face or in the virtual classroom.

5. learning skills:
The student is able to take notes and to share them with the peers.
The student is able to find and read part of the references present in the handbooks and recommended in the virtual classroom.

General linguistics1
A basic capacity of reflecting on the two foreign languages chosen in the curriculum at the first year level, with attendance of the two modules of language 1.

The content will concern in particular the "generative" approach to syntax.
1. What is syntax
2. Syntactic units: features
3. Constituency tests, what they are, what they are for.
4. «Merge»
5. «Muove»
6. Dislocation and XP-wh movement
7. Cases of DP-movements
8. Inflexion and the structure of the sentence (verb movement and functional verbs)
9. Case and theta theory
10. Verb classes
11. Binding theory
12. The structure of noun phrases
13. Complementizers and clause types

Donati, Caterina (2016) La sintassi. Regole e strutture. Il Mulino: Bologna.
Cardinaletti, Anna (2009) Esercizi di sintassi. Carocci: Milano.

Papers for in-depth study:
Cardinaletti, Anna (1993) "On the internal Structure of Pronominal DPs". University of Venice WPL 3.2: 1-20.
Cardinaletti, Anna and Giuliana Giusti (1992) "Partitive 'ne' and the QP hypothesis: a case study". Proceedings of the XVII Meeting of Generative Grammar. Elisabetta Fava (ed.), 121-141. Turin, Rosemberg & Sellier.
Cinque Guglielmo (1993) "On the Evidence for Partial N-Movement in the Romance DP". University of Venice WPL 3.2: 21-40.
Giusti, Giuliana (1997) "The categorial status of determiners". In Liliane Haegeman (ed.) The new comparative syntax, 95-123, Longman: London.
Pollock, Jean-Yve (1989) "Verb-movement, Universal Grammar and the Structure of IP". Linguistic Inquiry 20.3: 365-424.
Rizzi, Luigi (2001) "Relativized Minimality Effects". In Baltin (ed.) The Handbook of Contemporary Syntactic Theory. 89-110. Oxford: Wiley
RIzzi, Luigi (1997) "The Fine Structure of the Left Periphery". In Liliane Haegeman (ed.) Elements of Grammar, 281-337, Kluwer: Dordrecht.

The exam to verify the skills acquired will consist of an oral interview lasting approximately 30 minutes.

oral

The oral exam evaluates learning outcomes in terms of:
knowledge and understanding of the principal concepts of formal and descriptive syntax of Italian in a comparative perspective with other languages studied;
capacity of applying the acquired knowledge to carry out constituency analyses, even complex syntactic analyses, structural representations using the X-bar Theory;
capacity of formulating a sound original hypothesis, make predictions and verify them with data;
capacity of arguing following inductive and deductive approaches;
capacity of describing data and linguistic phenomena with the correct terminology.
The grading of points assigned to each question formulated will be structured as follows: 1. provide the structural analysis of a complex sentence in Italian and justify its configuration (range 9 points); 2. present a syntactic phenomenon chosen by the student among those studied during the course and provide a well-argued analysis (range 6 points); 3. present a syntactic phenomenon chosen by the teacher among those studied during the course and provide a well-argued analysis (range 6 points); briefly present and comment on one of the in-depth papers proposed in the bibliography, highlighting the research questions and the suggested hypotheses (range 9 points).

Class lectures. Exercises uploaded in the Moodle space of the course.

The course also includes 30 additional hours of exercises that will be held by a specialist tutor. The exercises will be held online and the day and time will be set at the beginning of the course.

For good learning success, it is important to attend classes.