17336
Undergraduate Course
WiSe 15/16: PS-Levels of Linguistic Analysis II: Lexical Semantics
Kirsten Middeke
Comments
Semantics is the study of meaning communicated through language. Lexical semantics deals with the meaning of words. Some central issues in semantics are: what are the different components of meaning that a linguistic expression evokes, how do the meanings of different expressions relate to each other, and how is meaning created and changed?
The first part of the course will be an introduction to basic concepts in the study of semantics, with modern English as the primary object of examination. The most important theoretical approaches to word-meaning will be discussed and students will be equipped with the terminology and knowledge necessary to understand specialist literature in the field, to formulate research questions and to design empirical studies to answer them. To this end, we will also make ourselves familiar with electronic corpora and practice searching them for information relevant to the semantics of words. Afterwards we will take a look at some more specialized studies to gain a better understanding of current research in semantics on the one hand and academic techniques of working and writing on the other, so that students will be well-prepared to carry out some empirical research of their own and present and evaluate their results in a seminar paper.
The requirements for credit are:
The first part of the course will be an introduction to basic concepts in the study of semantics, with modern English as the primary object of examination. The most important theoretical approaches to word-meaning will be discussed and students will be equipped with the terminology and knowledge necessary to understand specialist literature in the field, to formulate research questions and to design empirical studies to answer them. To this end, we will also make ourselves familiar with electronic corpora and practice searching them for information relevant to the semantics of words. Afterwards we will take a look at some more specialized studies to gain a better understanding of current research in semantics on the one hand and academic techniques of working and writing on the other, so that students will be well-prepared to carry out some empirical research of their own and present and evaluate their results in a seminar paper.
The requirements for credit are:
- regular and active participation in weekly discussions, based on
- preparation of a short (one page) handout summarizing the most important terms and concepts discussed in class, to be made available to the course the following week as a recap
- a short academic paper of c 2000 (+/- 10%) words, based on original empirical research close
o weekly reading assignments (including some exercises)
o weekly reading response questions (very simple, just to make you read :), to be answered online by noon the day before the course
16 Class schedule
Regular appointments
Wed, 2015-10-14 12:00 - 14:00
Wed, 2015-10-21 12:00 - 14:00
Wed, 2015-10-28 12:00 - 14:00
Wed, 2015-11-04 12:00 - 14:00
Wed, 2015-11-11 12:00 - 14:00
Wed, 2015-11-18 12:00 - 14:00
Wed, 2015-11-25 12:00 - 14:00
Wed, 2015-12-02 12:00 - 14:00
Wed, 2015-12-09 12:00 - 14:00
Wed, 2015-12-16 12:00 - 14:00
Wed, 2016-01-06 12:00 - 14:00
Wed, 2016-01-13 12:00 - 14:00
Wed, 2016-01-20 12:00 - 14:00
Wed, 2016-01-27 12:00 - 14:00
Wed, 2016-02-03 12:00 - 14:00
Wed, 2016-02-10 12:00 - 14:00