This chapter looks at the mechanics of Agreement, and the role that Agreement plays in Case-marking and A-Movement. It starts (Module 3.1) by characterising Agreement, Case-marking and A-Movement as involving a probe-goal relation, and outlines how agreement and case features are valued in the course of a derivation. Module 3.2 goes on to look at how agreement works in expletive it clauses, and contrasts this with multiple agreement in expletive there clause: it also examines conditions on the use of expletives. Module 3.3 then turns to explore the potential role of abstract agreement in Passive, Raising, Exceptional Case-marking, and Control infinitives. Next Module 3.4 investigates non-standard structures involving agreement across a finite clause boundary (e.g. He seems is very active), and at Copy Raising structures (e.g. He looks like he’s winning). The chapter concludes with a Summary (Module 3.5), Bibliography (Module 3.6), and Workbook (Module 3.7), with some Workbook exercise examples designed for self-study, and others for assignments/seminar discussion.

This chapter examines the syntax of the subperiphery (between the verb phrase and the periphery). It begins (Module 6.1) by arguing that subjects are housed in a separate SUBJP/subject projection which is positioned above the TP/tense projection housing finite auxiliaries. Module 6.2 goes on to argue that subperipheral adverbials are not adjuncts (as in earlier work), but rather specifiers of dedicated functional heads (e.g. probably is the specifier of an epistemic modal head). Module 6.3 then looks at word order variation in the position of adverbs with respect to subjects and auxiliaries, noting that this can arise when subjects/auxiliaries move around adverbs. Module 6.4 subsequently argues that subperipheral prepositional phrases and floating quantifiers are likewise housed in functional projections of their own, leading to the broader conclusion that all peripheral and subperipheral constituents are housed in dedicated functional projections. The chapter concludes with a Summary (Module 6.5), Bibliography (Module 6.6), and Workbook (Module 6.7), with some Workbook exercise examples designed for self-study, and others for assignments/seminar discussion.

This chapter argues that subjects originate internally within VP, and from there raise to spec-TP via an operation known as A Movement. The chapter begins (Module 2.1) by outlining the VP Internal Subject Hypothesis, and discussing evidence for it. Module 2.2 considers predicates, arguments, theta roles and theta marking. Module 2.3 turns to explore the syntax of unaccusative subjects, and compares unaccusatives with other type of predicate. Module 2.4 goes on to look at Passivisation, contrasting short/clause-internal and long/cross-clausal passives, and discussing constraints on Passivisation. Module 2.5 looks at the syntax of Raising structures, and compares them with Control structures, establishing criteria for determining whether a given item is a Raising or Control predicate. Module 2.6 notes that many sentences are mixed structures, containing more than one type of predicate (e.g. a passive and an unaccusative predicate). The chapter concludes with a Summary (Module 2.7), Bibliography (Module 2.8), and Workbook (Module 2.9), with some Workbook exercise examples designed for self-study, and others for assignments/seminar discussion.

This chapter discusses how constituents come to be dropped in abbreviated registers of English. It begins (Module 7.1) by examining Subject Drop in colloquial English sentences like ‘<I> can’t find it’, discussing whether they involve Truncation of the periphery above SUBJP. Module 7.2 then goes on to look at Auxiliary+Subject Drop in sentences like ‘<Are you> doing anything tonight?’ and considers whether this results from Weak Syllable Drop in the phonology. Next Module 7.3 considers Article Drop in newspaper headlines, and whether this results from syntactic Truncation, or Article Drop. Module 7.4 goes on to look at omission of Be in newspaper headlines (and its correlation with Article Drop), asking if this involves Truncation, or a tense/agreement deficit. Subsequently Module 7.5 examines Object Drop in product labels (like ‘Don’t stir <it>’), arguing against Topic Drop and in favour of pro-drop. The chapter concludes with a summary (Module 7.6), Bibliography (Module 7.7), and Workbook (Module 7.8), with some Workbook exercise examples designed for self-study, and others for assignments/seminar discussion.

This chapter introduces the cartographic approach to syntax, analysing the clause periphery. Module 4.1 argues that a complementiser like that is the head of a FORCEP/force projection marking declarative force, and peripheral topics (whether dislocated, fronted, or orphaned) are specifiers of lower TOPP/topic projections. Module 4.2 goes on to argue that peripheral focused constituents move from an initial position below the periphery to the edge of a peripheral FOCP/focus projection, and contrasts topic and focus. Module 4.3 then argues that peripheral clausal modifiers are directly generated on the edge of a MODP/modifier projection, and that (non)finiteness markers (like infinitival for) are generated as heads of a FINP/finiteness projection which is the lowest projection in the periphery. Next Module 4.4 contrasts complete clauses which project all the way up to FORCEP with truncated clauses which project only as far as FINP. The chapter concludes with a Summary (Module 4.5), Bibliography (Module 4.6), and Workbook (Module 4.7), with some Workbook exercise examples designed for self-study, and others for assignments/seminar discussion.

Chapter 5 extends the cartographic analysis of the clause periphery. Module 5.1 analyses Negative/Interrogative Inversion as involving a focused negative/interrogative XP moving through spec-FINP (concomitantly attracting an auxiliary to move to FIN) before moving to spec-FOCP. Module 5.2 goes on to look at embedded wh-questions (arguing that these involve a wh-XP moving to spec-FORCEP), and at how come questions (taking these to involve how come directly generated in spec-FORCEP). Module 5.3 then analyses yes-no questions, arguing that these involve an abstract yes-no question operator which behaves similarly to wh-question operators. Module 5.4 examines exclamative clauses (taking these to involve movement of an exclamative wh-XP to spec-FORCEP), and standard and non-standard relative clauses, analysing these as involving an overt/null relative operator on the edge of a RELP/relative projection positioned above a declarative/interrogative/exclamative/imperative FORCEP. The chapter concludes with a Summary (Module 5.5), Bibliography (Module 5.6), and Workbook (Module 5.7), with some Workbook exercise examples designed for self-study, and others for assignments/seminar discussion.

This chapter begins (Module 1.1) by comparing prescriptive and descriptive approaches to grammar, and evaluating different sources of linguistic data; it goes on to consider the nature of grammatical categories and features. Module 1.2 then turns to look at the merge and adjunction operations which generate syntactic structures, and at the underlying principles of X-bar Syntax. Next Module 1.3 examines the syntax of null constituents, and the role played by the relation c-command in a range of syntactic phenomena (e.g. case-marking). Module 1.4 goes on to explore three different types of movement operation, namely A bar Movement, A movement, and Head Movement. Subsequently Module 1.5 examines the role of constraints in blocking illicit operations, and of filters in blocking illicit structures. The chapter concludes with a Summary (Module 1.6), Bibliography (Module 1.7), and Workbook (Module 1.8), with some Workbook exercise examples designed for self-study, and others for assignments/seminar discussion.

A Not Yet Exhausted Event?

IN MARY BUTTS’S short story ‘The Saint’, an apparently civic-minded elderly lady decides to pilfer a pre-Reformation communion cup from her village church. She cares little for what Charles Williams terms in his occult thriller War in Heaven the ‘stored power and concentrated sanctity’ of a time-crusted relic. By contrast, the old lady considers the altar vessel a plain ‘piece of jewellery’ – ornamental, not sacramental. She has few qualms about surreptitiously selling the trinket, for a fraction of its true worth, to an antiques dealer. Ultimately, ‘The Saint’ implies how the affective and religious significance of the artefact depends ‘largely on what you bring’ to it. As in Butts’s 1928 novel Armed with Madness and Williams’s War in Heaven published two years later, the cultural significance of the cup morphs according to which of its ‘defenders’ perceives it. The explicit and coded allusions to the Grail in all these texts transport us to a realm not of the ‘whodunnit’ but instead the ‘what-is-it’. In a 1933 review that affirms the bracingly eclectic erudition of Jessie Weston’s From Ritual to Romance (1920), Butts remarks that ‘no grail texts were clear’ about whether the receptacle formed the centrepiece of a sacred or a secular event. Butts implies that the Grail’s ongoing ability to ‘haunt men’s souls’ is inextricably tied to how it eludes scholarly interpretations which account for its cultural exclusivity. Butts notes that while Weston expounds a theory of the Grail as an ‘Aryan’ symbol, she also anchors the origin of the ‘Legend’ as it evolved as a crucial facet in ‘Welsh’ storytelling. Consequently, Weston’s claims about the roots of Arthurian romance were often treated (especially by Welsh nationalists) as a tribute to what Butts calls in her Journals the ‘Keltic’ resonance of the Grail.