160126 PR Scientific Practical Training in Theoretical Linguistics (2023W)

Theoretical linguistics is concerned with finding regularities in language that shed light on the cognitive linguistic capacity of humans. Our methods differ depending on the type of data we have available. We will consider introspection by native speakers, designing a questionnaire to obtain written or spoken data from native speakers, and how to study theoretical linguistics questions in large corpora. We will also consider what the possibilities are if we are faced with a limited dataset, such as in historical linguistics. As part of the course you will have the opportunity to try out all these methods, including collecting your own data in the field. For some of the classes you will need to bring your laptop or tablet with you. By the end of the course, you will develop an understanding of how to use different kinds of data efficiently to explore theoretically informed research questions.