122047 PS Proseminar Linguistics 2 (2021S)

This course aims to introduce students to the study of English lexis and current questions in vocabulary research. After revising basic lexical concepts, we will explore vocabulary research from different angles, such as word formation, word meaning, formulaic language and multiword units, and specialized vocabulary. For each of these areas, open questions and possible methods of investigation will be discussed and we will critically analyse selected examples of primary research.
A further course aim is to show students how to work empirically and write an empirical academic paper in linguistics. Hence, students are expected to investigate a question pertaining to the field of English lexis in a small-scale empirical research study using corpora or selected vocabulary measures and to present their findings in a presentation and written academic paper.
In this course, students gain:
- an understanding of basic concepts and problems in the field of (English) vocabulary
- an overview of the resources and tools for lexical research, in particular, the use of corpora and data elicitation using selected measurement instruments
- an insight into what it means to work empirically, i.e. to design a study, collect data and analyse it
- a greater understanding of the conventions of writing an empirical paper in linguistics.