Universität Wien

160135 VO Lecture on Morphology (2022W)

4.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 16 - Musikwissenschaft und Sprachwissenschaft
Moodle

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Details

Language: English

Examination dates

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Friday 07.10. 17:00 - 18:30 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
  • Friday 14.10. 17:00 - 18:30 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
  • Friday 21.10. 17:00 - 18:30 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
  • Friday 28.10. 17:00 - 18:30 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
  • Friday 04.11. 17:00 - 18:30 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
  • Friday 11.11. 17:00 - 18:30 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
  • Friday 18.11. 17:00 - 18:30 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
  • Friday 25.11. 17:00 - 18:30 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
  • Friday 02.12. 17:00 - 18:30 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
  • Friday 09.12. 17:00 - 18:30 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
  • Friday 16.12. 17:00 - 18:30 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
  • Friday 13.01. 17:00 - 18:30 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
  • Friday 20.01. 17:00 - 18:30 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
  • Friday 27.01. 17:00 - 18:30 Seminarraum 2 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

To the average working linguist, morphology has, at best, a marginal interest: the few concepts that vaguely makes part of the linguist's Allgemeinwissen seems already enough for the morphological aspects of one's daily linguistic research; why actually learning about it? This course will attempt to convince you otherwise.

In the first part of this course, we will rediscover the all-too-familiar basics: prefixes, suffixes, stems, ablaut, suppletion, ... up to the diverse types of morphological expression in human languages. The second part of the course will focus on the phenomenon of morphological form itself. The theoretical framework followed is the “word-based” or “implicative” approach (Aronoff, Ackerman, Blevins...), or, in general, the study of various phenomena that happens to word forms qua forms.

Some of the questions we'll attempt to answer in this course include:
- Is German more difficult than Malay? (Morphologically: yes)
- How can a speaker of West Solpor Kranomalian conjugate the 4,000 different verbs in 92,160 forms each? (The answer is almost as complicated as learning to speak West Solpor Kranomalian)
- Verb class A28 and D15 in Classical Gagaga merged in modern Gagg. Why are the modern forms traceable to A28 and not to D15 forms? (Frequency plays an important role)

Assessment and permitted materials

Mid-length written exercise (Take-Home-Exam) at the end of the semester, where all materials are permitted.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

The student is expected to have a deep, if not particularly detailed, understanding of the concepts and topics treated in the course.

Examination topics

The student will be graded on their ability to understand recent discussions of linguistic morphology in particular languages.

Reading list

Aronoff, Mark. 1994. Morphology by itself: Stems and inflectional classes. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Blevins, James P., and Juliette Blevins, eds. Analogy in grammar: Form and acquisition. OUP Oxford, 2009.
World Atlas of Language Structures Online: https://wals.info/

Association in the course directory

MA1-M3
MA4-WM1.1
MA4-WM1.3
MA4-WM1.4

Last modified: Fr 03.02.2023 12:08