Describing Morphosyntax

Course

URL study guide

https://studiegids.vu.nl/en/courses/2024-2025/L_TAMATWS014

Course Objective

The student knows the fundamental notions and methods of descriptive linguistics in the domains of morphology and syntax. The student knows current typological, functional and cognitive frameworks within which morphosyntactic phenomena can be understood and explained. The student is able to apply fundamental notions and methods of descriptive morphosyntax to data obtained from independent fieldwork. The student is able to evaluate the adequacy of morphosyntactic descriptions. The student is able to interact in a critical manner with literature in the field of descriptive morphosyntax.

Course Content

In this course, students learn how to describe and document the morphosyntax both of lesser documented or unknown languages, and of languages that they are acquainted with. The course serves as a follow-up on the course Linguistic Research (L_AAMATWS002), or the Core Course in Linguistics (L_AAMPALG015) of the first semester. In the first week, we will repeat the basics of descriptive grammar by reading and discussing selected chapters from Dixon's first volume on Basic Linguistic Theory (2010a). By going through these chapters, students will get an overview of the most relevant topics covered in the other two volumes. In the following weeks, we will select three to five chapters from the other two volumes to study in more detail.

Teaching Methods

During the working sessions (2 sessions of 2 hours per week), the course readings are explained, illustrated and discussed. At the beginning of the course, each student chooses one language (description) that they would like to know more about. Throughout the course, students are expected to apply the central concepts from the literature to this language, and to share their findings with the other students. In addition, students get the opportunity to give a presentation and to get feedback on the topic about which they plan to write a paper. Finally, the working sessions may be organized to apply the concepts discussed in class to new datasets.

Method of Assessment

The presentation(s) will be graded. The average of these will form 15% of your final grade. You will need to make a number of take-home "language puzzles" in which concepts discussed in class are applied to new datasets. You will need to hand in your solutions, and these will be graded. The average of these grades will form 15% of your final grade. You will write a paper on one of the topics that have been dealt with in class, and apply this to a language (or languages) of your choice. The grade of this paper will form 70% of your final grade.

Literature

Selected chapters from: Dixon, R.M.W. 2010a. Basic Linguistic Theory. Volume I: Methodology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Dixon, R.M.W. 2010b. Basic Linguistic Theory. Volume II: Grammatical topics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Dixon, R.M.W. 2014. Basic Linguistic Theory. Volume III: More grammatical topics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Timothy Shopen, ed. 2007. Language typology and syntactic description, three volumes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Entry Requirements

The course serves as a follow-up on the course Linguistic Research (L_AAMATWS002), or the Core Course in Linguistics (L_AAMPALG015) of the first semester.

Recommended background knowledge

This course serves as a follow-up on the course Linguistic Research (L_AAMATWS002, or the Core Course in Linguistics L_AAMPALG015) of the first semester.
Academic year1/09/2431/08/25
Course level6.00 EC

Language of Tuition

  • English

Study type

  • Master