Bibliography
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Week 1 1/25/00.

Week 2 2/1/00.

Week 2.5 2/8/00.

Week 3 2/8/00.

Weeks 4-5 2/15/00.

Week 6 2/29/00.

Week 7 3/7/00.

Week 8 3/14/00.

Week 9 3/28/00.

Week 10 4/4/00.

Weeks 11-12 4/11/00.

Mission statement. In this seminar, we will be looking at major recent approaches to the syntax of questions as well as introducing and linking to major approaches to the semantics of questions. Participants will presumably have some experience with syntax, but less experience with semantics; one of the goals of the seminar will be to 'de-mystify' semantics by looking at the problem questions pose from both syntactic and semantic angles. We will probably focus on problems posed by wh-in-situ languages (for example, apparent lack of island phenomena), although we will also discuss analyses of the syntactic typology of wh-movement as well. Another topic we will consider is the morphology of questions (the role of "question particles", the common crosslinguistic relation between question words and other things, such as indefinites, negative polarity items, disjunction, ...), and how these might fit into the syntactic and semantic picture. The syntactic framework we will primarily be discussing will be of the "Government & Binding" sort (intended to include both "OT" and "minimalist" approaches, but to exclude LFG, HPSG, etc.).

Readings. For each week there are generally 2-3 (all fairly short) readings listed. I tried to keep the amount of reading achievable, so try to at least look at all of them if possible---however, if the rare occasion arises when you can only read 2 of 3, they're listed in order of importance, so read the 2 listed first. If you have extra time, you might look at the "see also" readings, which will hopefully be discussed too. Readings will be placed in the "espresso lounge" upstairs with other class readings.

Structure. I envision presentations being informal, and reasonably short. On days where two papers are being presented, I'll probably take the first half hour, splitting the rest of the time between the papers being discussed. So, something like 45 minutes for each paper, though presumably this will vary depending on the complexity of the issues involved.

Life as a registered participant. The course expectations are (i) a paper at the end, (ii) two presentations/leadings-of-discussion (of readings or of own research, preferably one of each). Try to talk to me by the end of March about paper topics you might be interested in. For the grade to be recorded, your paper should make it to me by a week before I have to turn in grades. I'm happy to read drafts, discuss possible directions, etc. My office is Krieger 137C, email is hagstrom@jhu.edu.

Life as an unregistered participant. Of course, I can't formally 'require' anything, but even those who are not formally registered in the course are heartily encouraged to present readings and/or their own research.

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Mail: hagstrom@jhu.edu