Universität Wien

122252 AR MA+MEd Advanced Course in Linguistics - Focus: FCL (2024W)

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 12 - Anglistik
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle
Tu 05.11. 12:15-13:45 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 10 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Tuesday 08.10. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Tuesday 15.10. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Tuesday 22.10. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Tuesday 29.10. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Tuesday 12.11. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Tuesday 19.11. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Tuesday 26.11. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Tuesday 03.12. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Tuesday 10.12. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Tuesday 17.12. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Tuesday 07.01. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Tuesday 14.01. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Tuesday 21.01. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Tuesday 28.01. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Course contents

One of the most challenging aspects of language description and linguistic analysis is the fact that while languages are on the one hand regarded as relatively stable systems, which speakers can acquire and use to communicate, they are on the other hand in constant flux, with changes taking place almost as we speak. This course concentrates on a number of constructions that look like regular noun phrases and clauses, but which have developed idiosyncratic properties, and no longer adhere to the normal rules of English (e.g. a sort of holiday, that idiot of a teacher, one of the students, a number of students, the thing is that …). As constructions that defy straightforward analysis, these kinds of constructions tend to be at the forefront of linguistic research, with different treatments being proposed by linguists from different theoretical backgrounds.

In this course we will:
- Briefly discuss the regular noun phrases and clauses in English (internal structure, use)
- Read influential articles on eight non-regular, non-compositional English constructions (Sort/kind/type constructions, Evaluative Binominal Noun Phrases, Partitives, Pseudo-partitives, Head-qualifier constructions, The-thing-is constructions, Comment clauses, and Insubordinate constructions)
- Discuss these constructions in class, concentrating on their idiosyncratic features
- Look at the kind of changes that take place and account for them in terms of the processes of grammaticalization and lexicalization.

Course aim

In the course of this semester students will learn to recognize non-regular, non-compositional constructions in English, to identify their specific idiosyncratic features, to discuss these in terms of broader notions applied in language changes, and to conduct a small-scale study contributing to the debate on these constructions.

More specifically, students will learn how to:
- Select an appropriate topic for a research project
- Choose an appropriate methodology
- Collect and analyse relevant data
- Write a final report presenting their analyses and findings, embedded within the most important literature on the topic.

Assessment and permitted materials

Students are assessed on the basis of a project proposal, a presentation and a final research report.
The project proposal, presentation and seminar paper are based on a small-scale research project that students will work on individually or in groups.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Course requirements:
- a research proposal (individual or group): 15%
- a presentation (individual or group work; graded individually): 25%
- a seminar paper (individual or group work; single author: 5,000-6,000 words; two authors: 6,000-7,000 words; three-four authors: 7,000-8,000 words): 60%

Regular attendance and active participation are required (student are allowed to miss two classes over the whole semester).

Grading scale:
0–59.9% = 5; 60–69.9% = 4; 70–79.9% = 3; 80–89.9% = 2; 90–100% = 1

Examination topics

Students should be familiar with the required reading, with the general concept of (non-)compositionality, and with the most important notion in the area of language change; should be able to find further literature on a topic relevant to the course; and should be able to apply the theoretical concepts in an (individual or group) research project (qualitative and/or quantitative).

Reading list

Aarts, Bas. 1998. English Binominal Noun Phrases. Transactions of the Philological Society 96(1): 117-158.
Aijmer, Karen. 2002. English Discourse Particles: Evidence from a Corpus. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 175-209.Brinton, Laurel J. & Elizabeth Closs Traugott. 2005. Lexicalization and language change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 1.
De Smedt, Liesbeth, Lieselotte Brems and Kristin Davidse. 2007. NP-internal functions and extended uses of the 'type' nouns kind, sort, and type: Towards a comprehensive, corpus-based description. In Roberta Facchinetti (ed.), Corpus linguistics 25 years on. Amsterdam: Rodopi. 225-255.
Delahunty, Gerald P. 2012. An analysis of The thing is that S sentences. Pragmatics 21(1): 41-78.
Kaltenböck, Gunther. 2006. Some comments on comment clauses: a semantic classification. In Povolná, Renata and Olga Dontcheva-Navratilova (eds.). Discourse and interaction 2. Brno: Masarykova Univserszita, 71-87.
Kaltenböck, Gunther. 2009. English comment clauses: position, prosody, and scope. AAA – Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik 34(1): 51-77.
Kaltenböck, Gunther. 2019. Delimiting the class: A typology of English insubordination. In Karin Beijering, Gunther Kaltenböck & María Sol Sansiñena (eds.), Insubordination: theoretical and empirical issues. Berlin: De Gruyter. 167-198.
English partitives in Functional Discourse Grammar: types and constraints. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 2(1), 16. Sections 1-4 (pp 1-27).
Keizer, Evelien (2007). The English Noun Phrase: the Nature of Linguistic Categorization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 6.
Keizer, Evelien & Elnora Ten Wolde (2024). English head-classifier constructions. In Elise Mignot et al. (eds), Nouns and the Morphosyntax / Semantics Interface. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 181-208.
McEnery, Tony, Richard Xiao and Yukio Tono. 2006. Corpus-based language studies. An advanced resource book. London: Routledge.
Lindquist, Hans & Magnus Levin. 2018. Corpus Linguistics and the Description of English. (2nd edition) Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Chapters 1 & 2.
John Payne & Rodney Huddleston. 2002. Nouns and Noun Phrases. In Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey Pullum (eds.), The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 323-523. Sections 1-6, 8, 15 and 18.

Association in the course directory

Studium: MA 812 [2]; UF MA 046/507
Code/Modul: MA M04, MA M05, UF MA 4B
Lehrinhalt: 12-0260

Last modified: Th 10.10.2024 10:46