Linguistic Theory and the Japanese Language (24.946) will be taught on Tuesdays, 10 – 1, in 4-144. The tentative schedule is as follows. For a list of readings (more will be added), see the Stellar site:
http://stellar.mit.edu/S/course/24/fa08/24.946/index.html
Tentative syllabus
In this course we will explore some of the major topics studied in Japanese linguistics over the past 15 years or so. Each topic not only represents an important construction in Japanese, but its analysis has significant implications for linguistic universals.
September 9 Genitive Subjects
September 16 Floating Quantifers
September 23 Ditransitives, Nominalization
September 30 Scrambling/Focus/Agreement/EPP
October 7 Pro-drop and related matters, Ellipsis
October 14 Indeterminate Pronouns
October 21 TBA
October 28 Wh-questions
November 4 Causatives, Double-o Constraint
November 11 No Class, Veteran’s Day
November 18 TBA
November 25 Subject and object honorification
December 2 TBA
December 9 TBA