Structure of Language

2nd Semester 2011-12

Tuesday (1st)

Final Project: Syntax Research Paper

1 Instructions
For this class you will write a nal paper (2-3 pages) that describes the basic syntactic structure of a language. Find a book or dictionary from the library that gives you data on a language. The language cannot be Japanese or English. Your paper should discuss the structures of phrases in the language. If possible, nd out and explain the phrase structure rules for the following types of phrases, give examples, and draw trees. CP/TP NP VP PP AdjP AdvP You will hand in an outline and a nal draft. You must use the template that is posted on Moodle. Use 12 point font. Use Times or Times New Roman font. All paragraphs must be indented. Do not hit return in the middle of a paragraph or in the middle of a sentence. Be careful with spelling, formatting, and punctuation. You must use the Word templates that are posted on Moodle. Any instructions in the templates must be deleted. You may draw trees by hand or using the Draw function of Word. References: You must use a book or dictionary from the University of Aizu library. Check with me if you are not sure if your reference1 is suitable. You may not use an Internet source. If you use an Internet source, you will get a 0.
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Structure of Language

2nd Semester 2011-12

Tuesday (1st)

You may not use your textbook as a source. If you use your textbook as a source, you will get a 0. For example:

Name Name Structure of Language 2nd Semester, 2011 The Syntactic Structure of X X is a language spoken in . . .

Outline: Due on Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 5 pm

Use the template OutlineTemplate.docx to write your outline. Your outline should answer the following questions. Write the number for each question followed by your answer. 1. What language will you be examining? 2. Where is this language spoken? 3. What sources will you use (you should have at least one reference, although you may need more than one)? Give the following information for each source: Author (family name), Author (rst/given name). Year. Name of Source. Location: Publisher. 4. What do you think is the basic word order in your language? 5. List (at least) two sentences from your language (look for very simple sentences), and cite the source. Below is a sample sentence from Irish. The rst line is in Irish - note that it is italicized. The second line is the gloss; the word-for-word English translation. The third line is a translation into normal English. The translation is followed by a citation. This example is from the textbook that we are using in this class. (1) Chonaic me an mhuc mhor. saw I the pig big I saw the big pig. (Carnie 2007: 133)

Structure of Language

2nd Semester 2011-12

Tuesday (1st)

3 Final Version: Due on Friday February 3, 2012 by 5 pm

Note: I may change the due date if it is too close to the nal exam date. Use the template FinalPaperTemplate.docx to write your outline. Your paper should have the following parts. Introduction: State what language you are discussing. Give background information about the language (where it is spoken, what language family it is in, etc.). State what you will discuss in this paper. What types of phrase structures in your language will you discuss? Body: Discuss the basic syntactic structure of the language. If possible (note that it may not be possible for you to nd out all of these phrase structures), give the structures of CP/TP, NP, VP, AdjP, and AdvP. I recommend explaining a phrase structure rule, giving an example, and drawing a tree. Discuss one type of phrase per paragraph. Conclusion: Summarize the important points of your paper. For example, restate the phrase structure rules that you found in the language. References List your reference(s).

4 Important points
You must use a book from the library as a reference. If you use an Internet source, you will get a 0. If you do not cite a reference, you will get a 0. If you are not sure if a reference is suitable, please see me. If you submit a machine translated document, you will get a 0. Your document must have paragraphs. If you submit a list and/or just tree diagrams, you will get a 0.

Structure of Language
Please do your own writing.

2nd Semester 2011-12

Tuesday (1st)

If two or more students submit the same document, they will get 0s! You must do your own writing. If you do research together with a classmate, you each must use different data and you each must do your own writing. If you do not submit the outline on time, you will get a 0, even if you submit a nal version of your paper. If there is a major problem with your nal paper, you will be asked to x the problem. If you do not x the problem, you will get a 0. If your outline or nal paper are submitted late, you will get a 0.