Meeting time. 12:30–2pm Tuesdays and Thursdays, room TBD.

Professor. Paul Hagstrom, 621 Commonwealth Ave., room 105, Office 401B. Email: hagstrom@bu.edu (likely to get a quick response). Phone: 617–353–6220 (x3–6220). Office hours: TBD.

Prerequisites. CAS LX 522 (Syntax I), or permission of instructor.

Forty words. Exploration of a central issue in theoretical linguistics, the typology of question formation across languages, from several perspectives. Syntactic universals and variation, semantic interpretation and discourse effects, and intonational effects will be brought to bear in developing a theoretical understanding.

Note on major requirements. This course will be accepted as satisfying the "linguistic analysis of a specific language" requirement for the Linguistics major.

Course goals. The study of question formation has played a fundamental role in the development of theoretical linguistics since its beginnings. In this course, we will look at the problem of question formation from several perspectives. We will examine the broad range of syntactic strategies used across languages and develop an account of their syntax. We will also investigate how questions can be interpreted and how their meanings and effects on discourse can be modeled, and look at the role intonation plays in the meaning of questions.

Only CAS LX 522 (Syntax I) will be assumed as background, although any of the following concurrently offered courses will complement this course well: CAS LX 502 (Semantics I), CAS LX 513 (Phonology), and CAS LX 523 (Syntax II)

Course Requirements. Homework. Weekly homework assignments. Midterm exam. Take-home midterm will be due Mar 2. Final exam. Final specifications TBD.

Homework. Whenever feasible, homework can be emailed to me at hagstrom@bu.edu. Text-only is preferred, but you may also send PDF, RTF, or Microsoft Word files. Postscript files are less welcome, and don’t even bother sending Word Perfect, TeX or LaTeX files. Wherever email won’t work for any reason (e.g., for tree diagrams), homework can be turned in at the beginning of class. Be aware that if you use any special fonts, I may not be able to read your homework–be sure you know how to "include" nonstandard fonts (or send it to me early, so I can let you know if I was unable to read it).

Late assignments. Late assignments will not be accepted without prior arrangement.

Readings. There is no textbook for this course. Individual readings (articles, book chapters) will be assigned throughout the semester. These readings will be available in the hallway outside my office suite, in a folder labeled LX500. You may take the readings out for no more than an hour to make a personal photocopy, and then they should be returned to the folder so that others may photocopy them.

CAS Student Academic Conduct Code. As a member of a CAS course, it is essential that you read and adhere to the CAS Student Academic Conduct Code. In particular, several types of plagiarism (any attempt to represent the work of another as your own) are defined by this academic conduct code. A copy is available in CAS 105.