A research project From competing theories to fieldwork: the challenge of an extreme agreement system starts at Surrey Morphology Group, University of Surrey, in January 2012.
The aim of the project is to create a framework for comparing and evaluating the claims of leading theories of syntax (HPSG, LFG and Minimalism) by focusing on one core area of syntax, namely agreement. Specifically, we shall use data from the Daghestanian language Archi, which has an outstandingly rich and complex agreement system, for analyses in each of the leading theories.
The project will be structured around a cycle of working seminars. The contributors will be the typology/fieldwork team (SMG), giving a clear account of the Archi material, and the three syntax experts, who will be invited to give an analysis of the Archi constructions within their theory: the HPSG account will be provided by Robert Borsley (Essex), the LFG account by Louisa Sadler (Essex) and the Minimalism account by Maria Polinsky (Harvard).
The seminars will be organised by the Surrey Morphology Group and are open to PhD students. If you would like to participate, please let us know in advance by emailing to Marina Chumakina (m.tchoumakina@surrey.ac.uk).
The first three seminar dates are:
Introductory seminar Monday January 16
Seminar 1 Friday March 2
Seminar 2 Friday June 1
The preliminary schedule for the Introductory seminar is as follows:
9:30 – 10:00 welcome coffee
10:00 – 10:30 welcome talk, Greville Corbett.
10:30 - 13:00 general overview of Archi (sound system, inflectional morphology, syntax – concentrating on phenomena essential for this project), Greville Corbett and Marina Chumakina. This will include a 30 minutes coffee break at 11:00
13:00 - 14: 00 lunch
14:00 – 14:15 basic agreement terms, Greville Corbett
14:15 – 14:45 agreement in HPSG, Robert Borsley
14:45 – 15:15 agreement in LFG, Louisa Sadler
15:15 – 15:45 coffee
15:45 – 16:15 agreement in Minimalism, Maria Polinsky
16:15 – 16:45 ontology and agreement domains in Archi, Dunstan Brown
