Universität Wien

160130 SE Seminar in this subject area (2014W)

8.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 16 - Musikwissenschaft und Sprachwissenschaft
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

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. 30 participants
Language: German, English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Tuesday 07.10. 10:30 - 12:00 Seminarraum 8 Sensengasse 3a 5.OG
  • Tuesday 14.10. 10:30 - 12:00 Seminarraum 8 Sensengasse 3a 5.OG
  • Tuesday 21.10. 10:30 - 12:00 Seminarraum 8 Sensengasse 3a 5.OG
  • Tuesday 28.10. 10:30 - 12:00 Seminarraum 8 Sensengasse 3a 5.OG
  • Tuesday 04.11. 10:30 - 12:00 Seminarraum 8 Sensengasse 3a 5.OG
  • Tuesday 11.11. 10:30 - 12:00 Seminarraum 8 Sensengasse 3a 5.OG
  • Tuesday 18.11. 10:30 - 12:00 Seminarraum 8 Sensengasse 3a 5.OG
  • Tuesday 25.11. 10:30 - 12:00 Seminarraum 8 Sensengasse 3a 5.OG
  • Tuesday 02.12. 10:30 - 12:00 Seminarraum 8 Sensengasse 3a 5.OG
  • Tuesday 09.12. 10:30 - 12:00 Seminarraum 8 Sensengasse 3a 5.OG
  • Tuesday 16.12. 10:30 - 12:00 Seminarraum 8 Sensengasse 3a 5.OG
  • Tuesday 13.01. 10:30 - 12:00 Seminarraum 8 Sensengasse 3a 5.OG
  • Tuesday 20.01. 10:30 - 12:00 Seminarraum 8 Sensengasse 3a 5.OG
  • Tuesday 27.01. 10:30 - 12:00 Seminarraum 8 Sensengasse 3a 5.OG

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

This seminar is on Differential Object Marking (DOM), a phenomenon whereby some objects but not others are marked in some way (e.g. case, object agreement). Though the vast typological work on DOM converges on the generalization that objects which are prominent in ways usually associated with subjects (e.g. high in animacy, specificity and/or definiteness) are more likely to be overtly marked than those which are not, languages vary substantially in terms of exactly which classes of objects are marked and how they are marked. Precisely therefore DOM is an interesting phenomenon for the study of the relation between universal linguistic principles and language-particular variation.

Assessment and permitted materials

Students are expected to do the readings before coming to class, come to class, participate actively, take turns in protocoling the sessions, make a presentation with a handout, and write a paper analyzing something having to do with differential object marking and giving arguments for preferring a proposed analysis to alternatives from the literature. Details will be discussed in class.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

To deepen, consolidate and advance students' knowledge on syntactic typology and linguistic theorizing (specifically the relation between formal features like case on the one hand, and animacy, specificity, definiteness and (other) information structure ingredients on the other), as well as to encourage students to engage in and carry out independent research.

Examination topics

Interactive teaching, handouts, slides

Reading list

Selected literature:
Aissen, Judith. 2003. Differential Object Marking: Iconicity vs. Economy. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 21:435-483.
Baker, Mark 1988. Incorporation: A Theory of Grammatical Function Changing. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Bossong, Georg. 1985. Differentielle Objektmarkierung in den Neuiranischen Sprachen. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.
Dalrymple, Mary and Irina Nikolaeva. 2011. Objects and Information Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Enc, Mürvet. 1991. The semantics of specificity. Linguistic Inquiry, 22(1):1–25.
Lopez, Luis. 2012. Indefinite Objects. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Association in the course directory

Master Allgemeine Linguistik: MA1-M3

Last modified: Mo 07.09.2020 15:35