Universität Wien

160149 PS Introductory Seminar on Morphology (2021W)

Continuous assessment of course work
ON-SITE

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. 40 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

Friday 01.10. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 3 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
Friday 08.10. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 3 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
Friday 15.10. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 3 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
Friday 22.10. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 3 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
Friday 29.10. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 3 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
Friday 05.11. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 3 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
Friday 12.11. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 3 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
Friday 19.11. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 3 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
Friday 26.11. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 3 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
Friday 03.12. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 3 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
Friday 10.12. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 3 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
Friday 17.12. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 3 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
Friday 07.01. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 3 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
Friday 14.01. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 3 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
Friday 21.01. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 3 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
Friday 28.01. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 3 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

As any frustrated language learner knows, morphology is an irreducible source of complexity. Knowing Swahili agglutination does not magically offer an intuition for Turkish agglutination; nor are the stress-shifts and allomorphy in the Russian inflection of any substantial use for memorizing Ancient Greek stress-shifts and allomorphy. Professional morphologists speak of the Paradigm Cell Filling Problem (PCFP, Ackerman et al. 2009): how does a human being manage to conjugate any verb at all?

This course proposes to approach morphology from three perspectives:
1) Theoretical approaches to morphology, with a particular focus on "word-based" or "implicative" approaches (Aronoff, Ackerman, Blevins...);
2) Exploration of the mechanism of concrete morphological patterns in specific languages;
3) Diachronic morphology and the effects on morphological systems brought by language contact.

Assessment and permitted materials

The grading is made up of three elements: active participation in class, a presentation, as well as a final written exam. The presentation will be on a specific morphological phenomenon in a specific language, preferentially of the student's personal familiarity.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

The attendance and participation counts for 30% of the grade, the presentation for 40% and the final exam (Take-Home-Exam) for 30%.

Examination topics

Articles and topics treated in the course

Reading list

Aronoff, Mark. 1994. Morphology by itself: Stems and inflectional classes. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Booij, Geert. 2010. Construction Morphology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Further readings will follow the choice of presentation topics.

Association in the course directory

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

Last modified: Fr 03.09.2021 11:48