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Dominique S p o r t i c h e
Department of Linguistics |
Research
Interests
Dominique Sportiche works on formal syntax. He has focused on the
theory of constituent structure, and properties of the syntax/semantics
interface (especially in French and the Romance languages) as they bear on the
architecture of syntactic or grammatical theory and on cognition in general. He
has published work on phrase structure, agreement, clitics,
and reconstruction phenomena. His current theoretical interests and ongoing
works include phrase structure and the functional sequence, the internal
structure of VPs, reconstruction phenomena and the binding theory. From an
empirical standpoint his work focalizes primarily on various aspects of the
syntax systems of English, and of French and the Romance languages (complementizers, relative pronouns, reflexive
constructions, binding theory). In recent years his work has extended to the
relation between linguistic theory and (i) linguistic
impairment (in Huntington's disease patients), (ii) very early acquisition of
syntax and (iii) grounding theoretical choices in more systematic methods of
data collection and control (particularly regarding the binding theory, and the
French complementizer system).
Publications,
Articles To Appear or (Downloadable) Manuscripts
·
(2009)
Language in the striatum: syntax or working memory constraints. Sambin S., Teichmann M., Sportiche D., Schlenker P. & Bachoud-Levy A.C.
·
(2008) Re Re
again (or what French re shows
about VP structures, have and be raising and the syntax/phonology
interface). To appear in Festschrift for G. Cinque (OUP).
·
(2008) The que/qui Alternation:
New Analytical Directions (with Hilda
Koopman). to appear, Oxford University Press.
·
(2008) Inward Bound: splitting the wh-paradigm and
French relative qui
·
(2006) NP
Movement: 
How to Merge and Move in Tough-Constructions
(Tough-constructions.pdf)
·
(2005)
Division of Labor between Merge and Move: Strict Locality of Selection and
Apparent Reconstruction Paradoxes, in Proceedings of the Workshop Divisions of
Linguistic Labor, The La Bretesche Workshop (Sportiche_05_Division-of-.pdf)
·
(2005)
"Cyclic NP Structure and the Interpretation of Traces" in Hans Broekhuis, Norbert Corver, Jan Koster, Riny Huybregts
and Ursula Kleinhenz (eds.), Organizing Grammar:
Linguistic Studies in Honor of Henk van Riemsdijk, Berlin/New York, Mouton de Gruyter.
·
(2003)
Reconstruction, Binding and Scope, ms. UCLA ( rbs.pdf
). Prepublication version. Appeared in Everaert, M.,
H, van Riemsdijk The Blackwell Companion to Syntax,
Volume I-V,
·
(1998) Partitions and Atoms of Clause
Structure, Routledge,
·
(1998)
“Pronominal Clitic Dependencies”, in Language Typology: Clitics in the European Languages, Henk
van Riemsdijk, ed., Mouton
·
(1997)
“Subject Clitics in French and Romance, Complex
Inversion and Clitic Doubling”, in Studies in
Comparative Syntax,
·
(1995)
“Sketch of a Reductionist Approach to Syntactic Variation and
Dependencies “, in Evolution and Revolution in Linguistic Theory, H.
Campos and P. Kempchinsky, eds., 356 - 398,
Georgetown University Press
·
(1995)
"French Predicate le and Clausal Structure", in Small Clauses,
A. Cardinaletti and M.T. Guasti,
eds., Syntax and Semantics, volume 28, Academic Press, NY.
·
(1995)
"Clitic Constructions", Phrase Structure
and the Lexicon, L. Zaring and J. Rooryck,
213-276, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht .
·
(1995)
Subject clitics in French and Romance: Complex
inversion and clitic doubling. To appear in Studies in Comparative Romance Syntax,
·
(1995) Pronominal clitic dependencies. To
appear in Henk van Riemsdijk,
ed., Language typology: Clitics in the European Languages (
·
(1995)
French predicate clitics and clause structure. To
appear in Syntax and Semantics,
vol. 28,
·
(1994) with
J. Aoun and E. Benmamoun
"Agreement, Word Order and Conjunction in Several Varieties of
Arabic", Linguistic Inquiry 25.2, 195-221.
·
(1993) Sketch of a Reductionist Approach
to Syntactic Variation and Dependencies, to appear in Evolution and Revolution in Linguistic
Theory: Essays in Honor of
·
(1992)
"Clitic Constructions", to appear in Phrase
Structure and the Lexicon, L. Zaring and J. Rooryck, eds. (
·
(1991) with
H. Koopman "The Position of Subjects", in
Lingua 85.2/3, The Syntax of VSO Languages, J. Mc Closkey,
ed., 211-259
·
(1990)
Movement, Case and Agreement, ms., UCLA, 201 pages ( mac.pdf ) appeared in D. Sportiche (1998)
·
(1989) with
H. Koopman "Pronouns, Logical Variables and Logophoricity in Abe", in Linguistic Inquiry 20.4,
555-589.
·
(1989) "Le Mouvement Syntaxique: Constraintes
et Parametres", in Langages 95, p. 35-80.
·
(1988)
"A Theory of Floating Quantifiers and its Corollaries for Constituent
Structure" in Linguistic Inquiry 19.2, 425-451.
Overview of
some of the papers, and some hand outs of things which have not yet (fully)
made it in article form:
· This the handout of a talk given at MIT in
1998 presenting material taught at UCLA around 96-97. It builds on the previous
but the basic idea that there is no process of head movement at all is explored
a bit further: mittalk98.pdf
· A number of talks between 1996 and the
present were given on reconstruction under A-movement. The content of these
talks is now part of the 2005 paper: Division of Labor between Merge and Move.
Here is a description of the general ideas: SplitDPsSplitVPs.pdf
. Here are a couple of representative handouts and an abstract which people
request from time to time:
mittalk97.pdf , glow99abs.pdf
, glow99ho.pdf
·
French
predicate clitics and clause structure (1995) &
Subject clitics in French and Romance (1995): aboutclitics.pdf
· lsrl94.pdf
: This is the hand out of a talk given at the LSRL94 conference (Linguistic
Symposium on Romance Linguistics) ( it was also
presented at Cornell in 93): the basic idea is that there is no adjuncts or
adjunction in syntax, only subjects and complements. It examines several
different cases of putative adjunction, e.g. adverbs ( argues to be predicates
of events, etc..), adjectives (ditto..), successive cyclic adjunction a la
Barriers ( clausal structure has many more COMP positions than previously
believed - based on agreement phenomena found in Kilega)...
· Movement Agreement and Case (1990): aboutmac.pdf
Regularly
Taught Courses
·
Undergraduate:
§
Introductory
Syntax (
Ling. 120B )
§
Introduction
to French Syntax. (
Ling. 128A and Ling.
128B crosslisted as RLL 204A and 204B)
§
Advanced
Syntax (
Ling. 165B )
·
Graduate
§
Graduate
Introduction to Syntax I (
Ling. 200B ), II (
Ling. 206 ) or III (
Ling. 216 ),
§
Advanced
Courses: Comparative Romance Syntax (RLL 211)
§
Advanced
Courses: Topics in Romance Syntax (RLL 255)
§
Syntax
Seminars on Current Topics (Ling 252)
§
Syntax and
Semantics (Ling 262): a discussion group meeting weekly usually on Fridays
2-4pm.
Last
updated: 01/2009