Opportunities for extra credit

Analysis of another language:

Not a second extra credit assignment, but just an alternative to the BUCLD writeups (so if you already did the BUCLD writeups, doing this as well isn't going to change any scores). The task is to take a language that we haven't talked extensively about (which basically means avoid English) and try to apply what we've learned about syntax to it. There is a handout describing the task in more detail.

BUCLD:

Each year, BU hosts the Boston University Conference on Language Development, the major conference for language development worldwide. This year it runs from Friday November 1st through Sunday November 3rd. At this point in the semester, you will probably have enough background to understand at least some of the syntax-related talks given at the conference. The idea is to attend one or two talks (two maximum for extra credit, each worth about half a homework assignment) and for each one write a short summary of the talk, listing questions it raises (or questions you had). You are of course welcomed and encouraged to attend more of the talks!

Most of these talks describe two hypotheses, present some data from language acquisition, and show how that data decides in favor of one of the hypotheses. In your write-up, try to be as clear and explicit as possible about what the competing hypotheses are (as you understood them) and how the data the speaker presented bears on the choice between the two. If you have an objection to their interpretation of the data (if you don't think it shows what they say it shows), include that as well.

The writeups will be due Monday November 11th (a week and a day after the conference ends).

The BUCLD conference home page. In particular, there is information about the schedule here.

A small number of recommendations. The following talks seem like they might be of interest to (and nearly accessible to) students in LX 522. You are not obliged to choose from this list, go to any talk that interests you.

Friday Nov 1

9:00 B, Hamann, "What French normal and impaired children do with functional categories - and the implications for approaches to language development".

9:00 C, Ionin, "The interpretation of 'the': A new look at articles in L2 English".

2:00 C Lidz & Musolino, "C-command really matters".

2:30 C Meroni, Gualmini & Crain, "Universal asymmetries in child language".

2:30 B, Berger-Morales & Salustri, "Root infinitives and participial constructions: Novel evidence for the Separate Systems Hypothesis".

3:00 B, Serratrice & Sorace, "Overt and null subjects in monolingual and bilingual Italian acquisition".

3:00 C, Labelle & Valois, "Floated quantifiers, quantifiers at a distance, and logical form constructions in the acquisition of L1 French".

4:00 B, Conradie, "Parameter resetting in the second language acquisition of Afrikaans: The split-INFL parameter and the V2 parameter".

Saturday Nov. 2 (You may want to read ahead a little bit if you want to go to talks about "wh-movement", since we won't quite have gotten there yet).

9:00 B, Berk, "Why 'why' is different".

9:30 B, Hollebrandse, "Long distance WH-extraction revisited".

10:00 B, Isobe, "Head-internal relative clauses in child Japanese".

11:30 Eriks-Brophy, Goodluck, Stojanovic, "Sensitivity to A- and A'-dependencies in high-functioning individuals with Downs syndrome".

12:00 B, Schaeffer, Hacohen, & Bernstein, "On the acquisition of DP in English-speaking children with SLI".

2:45 B, Gualmini, "Some knowledge children don't lack".

4:15 C, Lam, "Subject-object asymmetry in child L2 acquisition of WH-movement: Evidence of L1 transfer".

Sunday Nov 3

10:00 C, Tsimpli, Sorace, Heycock, Filiaci & Bouba, "Subjects in L1 attrition: Evidence from Greek and Italian near-native speakers of English".

11:30 B, Sigurjonsdottir, "The different properties of root infinitives and finite verbs in the acquisition of Icelandic".

12:00 B, Ud Deen, "Underspecified verb forms and subject omission in Nairobi Swahili".

12:30 B, Salustri & Hyams, "Is there an analogue to the RI stage in the null subject languages?"

12:30 C, Guasti, Llinas-Grau & Gavarro, "Catalan as a test for prosodic and syntactic hypotheses on article omission".