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Courses SS 2009Introduction to Linguistics 1: Morphosyntax [Einführung] Mi 12-14 First Language Acquisition [Hauptseminar] Mi 16-18 Empirical Methods of Linguistic Research [Hauptseminar] Do 12-14 Language and Cognition [Vorlesung] Do 16-18 Linguistics Colloquium Mi 18-20
Course Descriptions and Course Evalutions
Language and Cognition [Vorlesung]The lecture is concerned with the cognitive foundations of language and is closely related to some of the seminars that are regularly taught at the FSU Jena in English linguistics: Topics include: (i) the structure of human categories and their expression in language, (ii) the cognitive principles of language acquisition, (iii) the cognitive principles of diachronic change, (iv) the conceptual basis of linguistic structure, (v) functional and cognitive motivations for language universals.
First Language Acquisition [Seminar]Child language is different from adult language. Children might call everything that is round and flat a moon or they might say 'goed' instead of 'went' for the past tense of 'go'. Why do children make these mistakes? And how do they eventually learn the correct forms? This course provides an introduction to some central topics in child language research, focusing on grammatical development. Students will have the opportunity to work with transcripts of computerized child language data and to write an empirical research paper.
Empirical Methods of Linguistic Research [Seminar]The seminar is concerned with methodological and statistical issues in linguistics: basic design of experimental and questionnaire studies, description and presentation of frequency data, basic methodological issues of observational studies, and basic statistical methods (descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing, correlational analysis). Students will be introduced to a statistical software package (SPSS) and will have the opportunity to apply the learned methods to concrete linguistic data. Requirements: homework assignments, final exam, (short) empirical research paper.
Linguistic Typology and Language Universals [Seminar]Human languages, especially those spoken by members of unfamiliar and distant cultures, appear on the surface to be very different from one another. But closer examination reveals that languages differ in systematic ways and that they can often be divided into a relatively small number of basic types. In this course we will identify and study some of these basic patterns and consider the English language from a cross-linguistic point of view. Further, we will explore possible reasons for the existence of language types and linguistic universals, seeking explanations where possible in the communicative function of language as well as in the historical evolution of languages.
Contrastive Linguistics: English-German [Seminar]Given that English and German are historically closely related, their grammars are surprisingly different. In this seminar, we will take a close look at the major differences between English and German grammar. Some of the topics to be discussed in this class include the marking of grammatical relations, tense and aspect, relative clauses, infinitival constructions, word order, word formation, and contrastive phonology. It is the goal of the course to make students aware of the differences between English and German grammar and to introduce them to functional-cognitive explanations in the study of morphosyntax.
Statistics for Linguistics [Seminar]The seminar is concerned with statistical methods for analyzing linguistic data. The focus will be on multivariate statistical models for the analysis of categorical data (e.g. configurational frequency analysis, logistic regression, discriminant analysis) but will also consider some other statistical models (e.g. ANOVA). Participants should have some background in statistics and should be familiar with SPSS (or some other statistical software package).
Quantitative methods for analyzing linguistic data [Schlüsselqualifikation]The seminar provides a practical introduction into the analysis of linguistic data. Students will learn how to analyse different types of quantitative data and how to use an electronic database. The seminar will focus on methods for the description and presentation of linguistic data and does not presuppose any background knowledge in quantitative data analysis or linguistic theory. The course involves extensive exercises providing students with the opportunity to practice their learned skills.
Syntactic Development [Seminar]During their second year of life, children produce their first simple utterances, which soon develop into more complex structures. In this seminar we will investigate the acquisition of morphosyntax in English. In the first part of the class, students will learn to work with the CHILDES database to do their own empirical analyses. The CHILDES database is an electronic corpus of child language that is freely available on the internet (http://www.cnts.ua.ac.be/childes/). In the second part of the class, we will discuss different theoretical approaches to the study of language acquisition and consider some of the empirical work on the development of morphosyntax. At the end of the semester, students will present the results of their empirical investigations.
Second Language Acquisition [Seminar]The course provides an introduction to the field of second language acquisition concentrating on theoretical and methodological issues (i.e. this is not a class on language teaching or language pedagogy). Taking a functional-cognitive approach, we will look at the development of grammatical and lexical phenomena and consider their implications for a general theory of language. In addition, the course provides an introduction to some of the main methods in L2 research, providing students with the opportunity to conduct an empirical investigation of a particular research topic.
Historical Linguistics [Seminar]The seminar is concerned with the linguistic mechanisms of language change, the sociolinguistic aspects of language change, and the implications of language change for linguistic theory. The first part of the seminar provides an overview of typical patterns of language change in phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. The second part of the seminar concentrates on theoretical issues: the social and psychological mechanisms involved in language change, the relationship between language variation and language change, the role of language contact, grammaticalization, creolization, and the invisible hand theory.
Cognitive Linguistics [Seminar]Cognitive linguistics is concerned with the relationship between linguistic and conceptual structure. One of the central tenets of cognitive linguistics is that language reflects the way we categorize and conceptualize the world. The course introduces to central topics of the field. We will consider different theories of categorization; we will see that metaphors play an important role in the organization of grammar and that metaphorical thinking is essential to human cognition; we will consider the linguistic structuring of space, time and causation; and we will discuss the Sapir-Whorf-hypothesis, which holds that linguistic structure determines the way we see the world.
Formal and Functional Approaches to the Study of Language [Seminar]The seminar is concerned with the two major approaches to the study of grammar: The formal approach, in which linguistic structures are independent of their functions and meanings; and the functional approach, in which linguistics structures are motivated by functional and cognitive forces. The first part of the course provides an introduction to formal theories of grammar. In particular, we will consider the basic principles of generative grammar and its major developments since Chomsky’s early writings. The second part of the course is concerned with various functional-cognitive approaches to the study grammar, notably with construction grammar, and considers the basic differences between the two approaches.
Introduction to Linguistics: Morphosyntax [Einführung]The course provides an introduction to the study of English morphosyntax. The following topics will be discussed: parts-of-speech, phrase structure, grammatical relations, tense and aspect, definiteness, infinitival and participial constructions, subordination, coordination, sentence types, word formation. The course does not presuppose any background knowledge in morphosyntax and will give students the opportunity to analyze the structure of concrete linguistic data.
History of the English Language [Vorlesung]The lecture provides an overview of the history of the English language from its earliest known Indo-European ancestry, through its most profound developments in the Old English, Middle English, and Early Modern English periods, to recent changes in Modern English. The lecture is concerned with both the socio-economic factors that affected the development of the English language and the most important linguistic changes that occurred since the Anglo-Saxons came to Britain. In addition, we will talk about some general principles of language change.
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