Dialogues on Optionality and Variation

Chris Collins (New York University)
Anthony Kroch (University of Pennsylvania)
Raffaella Zanuttini (Georgetown University)

This workshop brings together three linguists who each have a long history of investigating micro-variations in syntactic structures, and the relationship between these variations and the syntax/semantics interface. In this workshop, they present a discussion of different approaches to optionality in syntax, with a focus on the ways in which an analysis of syntactic variability can help illuminate underlying grammatical structures. Special attention is also paid to different approaches to studying dialectal syntactic variation, with specific reference to varieties of English as well as varieties of Romance (e.g., Italian dialects).