https://studiegids.vu.nl/en/courses/2025-2026/L_AAMPALG015To broaden and deepen the students’ knowledge of linguistic typology, by letting them get acquainted with languages from different language families and different typological profiles; To enhance the students’ skills for using linguistic terminology in a precise and consistent manner; To enhance the students' ability to apply principles of linguistic analysis, argumentation and explanation to language data that are new to them;To enhance the students’ ability to use grammatical notions from phonology, morphology and syntax as analytical tools in applied linguistic research. To enhance the students’ ability to reflect critically on linguistic analyses put forward in the literature;To broaden and deepen the students’ knowledge of grammatical theory and of current debates in the field of linguistics.In the first week, the focus will be on phonetics and phonology. We will go into the typology and the building blocks (chunks) of phonological systems and the factors constraining the variation in phonological systems. In the second week, we will study the internal structure and classes of words and the acquisition of vocabulary. In week three we will focus on grouping words into phrases: nominal categories and syntax. In week four we will study how phrases are grouped into simple clauses. We will explore the relation between null subjects and rich verbal inflection in the world's languages and the role of person marking on the verb to identify rich vs. poor inflection languages and what this means for L2 learners of a given language. In the fifth week, the focus will be on clause combining. This includes relative clauses, adverbial clauses, complement clauses, clause conjoining, clause chaining, serial verb constructions, the recursion debate, binding and local dependencies. In the sixth week, we will go into the field of pragmatics and focus on aspects such as speech acts, politeness and honorific systems..In order to make a connection between the readings from Velupillai (2012) and your own specialisation or track, you will need to present a research proposal in class, during one of the lectures. In this proposal, you take one of the topics discussed in Velupillai (2012), and explain how you would set up an investigation related to that topic (for example: acquisition of gender, word order, verbal inflection by children or adults in language X or Y) . You can prepare and present in small groups of two to four persons. In the presentation of your research, you need to refer to Podesva and Sharma (2013), from which you choose one or more chapters of your choice. The grade for this presentation will form 10% of your final grade. The course will be closed off with a written exam, which will consist of a number of simple ‘language puzzles’, a few theoretical questions related to Velupillai (2012) and one or two questions relating to Christian and Chater (2016). The grade for this written exam will form 40% of your final grade. During the seminars you will receive assignments. The averages of the grades for these assignments will form 50% of your final grade. The presentation plus the written exam will be graded by Wilco van den Heuvel, while the assignments that you receive during the seminars will be graded by Hennie van de Vliet and Fleur van Houwelingen. You will need to score a pass grade for both: the average of your presentation and the written exam should be 5,5 or higher, and you will also need to score a pass grade (5,5 or higher) for the average of the assignments that you receive during the seminars.Handbooks:Viveka Velupillai. 2012. An Introduction to Linguistic Typology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Morten H. Christiansen and Nick Chater. 2016. Creating Language. Integrating Evolution, Acquisition, and Processing. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Chapter 1-3.Selected chapters from: Podesva, Robert. J and Devyani Sharma, eds. 2013. Research Methods in Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Further readings for each week will be listed in the course manual (available through Canvas).Students of the Master's programme Taalwetenschappen, Students of the Research Master's programme in Humanities (specialisation Linguistics).Basic knowledge of Linguistics is assumed. If students have deficiencies in this regard, they have to take an introductory course in linguistics prior to participating in this Master's course, for instance the free online course Miracles of Human Language (https://www.coursera.org/learn/human-language). Students of the Research Master's programme Humanities (specialisation: Linguistics) join these lectures (as fulfillment of the Core Course General Linguistics, 9 ECTS). They take extra seminars, do extra assignments, have added required reading materials and a different exam.