Dates
| Syllabus / Topics / Issues
|
21.08.2009
(#31)
| Text: Chomsky (1995) - CT / 4.10.1
|
28.08.2009
(#32)
| Text: Chomsky (1995) - CT / 4.10.2
Neven - Chomsky (1995) - example 202a,b
|
04.09.2009
(#33)
| Text: Chomsky (1995) - CT / 4.10.3 / 4.11
The last part of Chomsky's "Categories and Transformations". This also concludes the famous volume Minimalist Program.
Michael - CT - 4.10.3
|
11.09.2009
(#34)
| We decided to jump ahead in time into discussions of a somewhat more general nature. Of Minds and Language
is a great volume. It supplies the reader with a broad array of ideas
as to the nature of the connections between language and mind. I named
all this "excursion", since the next "scheduled" text would normally
have been Derivation by Phase (Chomsky 2001) or his Minimalist Inquiries (Chomsky 1998).
Piatelli-Palmarini, Massimo / Uriagereka, Juan / Salaburu, Pello (eds.) (2009): Of Minds and Language. A Dialogue with Noam Chomsky in the Basque Country. Oxford: OUP.
Text: Chomsky (2009) - Opening Remarks.
Neven - Examples p. 20
|
18.09.2009
(#35)
| Piatelli-Palmarini et al. (2009). Text: Chomsky (2009) - Conclusion.
|
25.09.2009
(#36)
| Piatelli-Palmarini
et al. (2009). Texts: Chomsky (2009) - Conclusion. Bever (2009) -
Remarks on the Individual Basis for Linguistic Structures.
Iwo - Some Remarks on Bever (2009)
|
02.10.2009
(#37)
| Piatelli-Palmarini et al. (2009).
Texts: Chomsky (2009) - Conclusion. Bever (2009) - Remarks on the
Individual Basis for Linguistic Structures.
Since we could not quite reach the Bever text, we decided to finish the
"Conclusions" and the Bever text in this very session. We also plan
this to be the last excursion into Of Minds and Language, continuing with Chomsky's Minimalist Inquiries (Chomsky 1998).
Neven - ECM as Raising
|
09.10.2009
(#38)
| Text: Chomsky (2000) - "Minimalist Inquiries: The Framework". In: Martin et al. (eds.): Step by Step.
|
16.10.2009
(#39)
| Text: Chomsky (2000) - 3.4 - 3.5
|
20.11.2009
(#40)
|
Text: Chomsky (2000) - 3.6 / Chomsky (2001) - "Derivation by Phase". (pp. 1-15) In: Kenstowicz (ed.): Ken Hale: A Life in Language.
I somewhat streamlined Neven's brilliant handouts. You will find them here all in one document - including the wrap-up.
Neven - Chomsky (2000)
|
27.11.2009
(#41)
| Text: Chomsky (2001) - pp.16-26
|
04.12.2009
(#42)
When?
14:15
Where?
AS Uni HD
Room 116
|
Evans/Levinson (2009): "The Myth of Language Universals: Language Diversity and its Importance for Cognitive Science". In: Behavioral and Brain Sciences. (Vol. 32): 429-448.
In this excursion we shall be investigating one of the presumably most
contentious topics of general linguistic interest: Are language
universals real, as is claimed by most of the proponents of the
generative enterprise? Or are universals just strong statistical
tendencies, as is claimed by Nicholas Evans and Stephen C. Levinson. In this particular session we will examine in detail the core article (about 20 pages). Further one to two sessions should deal with the various responses and replies to the key arguments of the central text.
Links of potential interest:
Ethnologue - The comprehensive catalogue of languages throughout the world
Rare Phenomena - A collection of rare linguistic phenomena
WALS - World Atlas of Language Structures
|
18.12.2009
(#43)
| Text: Evans/Levinson (2009)
|
21.12.2009
(#44) | Text: Evans/Levinson (2009) - As one point of contention, some of the passages in the text could be interpreted as proposing that certain populations may be predisposed to learn a particular language: "[...] population genetics may nevertheless predispose to specific linguistic variants" (p. 446). The authors refer to Dediu/Ladd (2007): "Linguistic tone is related to the population frequency of the adaptive haplogroups of two brain size genes, ASPM and Microcephalin".
|
12.02.2010
(#45)
| Text: Chomsky (2001): "Derivation by Phase".
We have already started with this one before the Levinson excursions. We would now like to finish it. Have a look at the handouts. Again, a streamlined version is here:
Neven - Chomsky (2001)
|
