L714 Seminar in Syntax ? Information Packaging and Formal Syntax
T/R 4-5:15, SY 212 (#18237), Instructor:  Yoshihisa Kitagawa
All the sentences in (1)-(3) express the same proposition but the
conveyed information is packaged in distinct ways:

(1) As for John, he invited Mary.
(2) It is John that invited Mary.
(3) John invited MARY.

The course will examine various notions of information structure
such  as topic, focus and contrast, and explore the ways to
incorporate  them into formal syntax.

Major queries include:

[1]  Why should we pay attention to packaging of information in
addition to ordering and constituency in syntax?  ? Starting from
Gricean pragmatics, we will seek and examine motivations for
incorporating the study of information structure into formal
linguistics.  Keywords:  Coversational maxims, Common ground

[2]  Is it ever possible to come up with the definitions of
information structural notions which are formal enough to be
incorporated into syntax?  If so, how can we achieve that? ? We will
survey the heterogeneous definitions and characterizations of
information structural notions in the literature and attempt to
arrive at a single, understandable definition of them based upon
some  simple and general primitive notions.  Keywords:  alternative
semantics, predication, categorical vs. thetic judgment

[3]  How exactly does information structure interact with
linguistic  competence (grammar) and linguistic performance
(processing and  production)? ? We will examine the
literature which attempts to  reflect information structure in
phrase structure, grammatical  features and grammatical processes
(e.g., movement) as well as  prosody and parsing.   Keywords:
Syntactic peripheries, free word  order, Scrambling, focus prosody

Class activities will involve critical survey of the literature
combined with the instructor's presentation of his original
research,  open discussion and students' presentations, and
attendance at/ participation in the Workshop on Prosody, Syntax and
Information  Structure (WPSI) III, to be held on campus on October
14-16.

For more information, contact:
Dr. Yoshihisa Kitagawa
Memorial Hall 325
kitagawa@indiana.edu / 855-0041