https://studiegids.vu.nl/en/courses/2024-2025/L_AAMATWS002To 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 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 the seminar, we will explore whether language comprises a mental dictionary of memorized words and a mental grammar of creative rules. We will go into regular and irregular verbs, how they are learned and how they reside in the brain. In week three, we will focus on grouping words into phrases: nominal categories and syntax. In the seminar, we will study the internal (layered) structure of the noun phrase and we will tackle a number of different questions such as: how do languages differ in the expression of possession? And: how are gender and number features of the noun carried over to nominal modifiers such as adjectives? 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 seminar, we will try to find out how knowledge of these phenomena helps us to better understand the learnability of languages (relative clauses across languages, languages with and without clitic doubling, the acquisition of these phenomena by typical and atypical L1 and L2 learners). 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 the seminar, we will go into the syntax, semantics and pragmatics of vocatives, and into grammatical elements expressing status or hierarchy from a cross-linguistic perspective. In the seventh week we will prepare for the written examination.Lectures and seminars involving student participation, in total 4 hours a week.You will get weekly assignments, which will be prepared in class, and discussed in class the week after. You need to score a pass grade (5,5 or higher) for at least three of these assignments, as a prerequisite for admission to the final exam. The average grade of these assignments will form 15% of your final grade. 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. 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 15% of your final grade. The course will be closed off with a written exam, which will consist mainly of ‘language puzzles’, and one or two questions relating to Christian and Chater (2016). The grade obtained for this written exam will form 70% of your final grade for this course.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 Linguistics/Taalwetenschappen, Students of the Research Master's programme in Humanities (specialisation Linguistics).Students of the Research Master's programme Humanities (specialisation: Linguistics) join this class (as fulfilment of the Core Course General Linguistics). They do extra assignments, have added required reading materials and a different exam.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).