WiSe 2024/25

Kinyarwanda is a Central/Eastern Bantu language that has a variety of interesting linguistic properties. In this block seminar, we will learn about both the phonology and morphosyntax of Kinyarwanda by using authentic Kinyarwanda spoken data. Instead of just reading about the linguistic properties, students will discover these themselves, by applying their theoretical linguistic knowledge to real data. We will first review the most important concepts necessary for the practical work. Students will then 1) transcribe Kinyarwanda speech and find out about the phonology, 2) segment and gloss the data to find out about the morphosyntax 3) compare their findings to the actual linguistic structure of Kinyarwanda. On the practical side, students will 1) use Praat and ELAN, as well as LaTeX to transcribe, segment and gloss the speech data, and 2) present their findings in small groups using a shared Overleaf document. We will also talk about linguistic field methods, i.e. how the speech data was
elicited, how such data can be stored, as well as ethical aspects important for working with a community. This seminar serves to expand both students theoretical and practical linguistic knowledge: On the theoretical side, they will gain insights about linguistic diversity, the phonological and morphosyntactic differences between languages, as well as more extensive knowledge on a Bantu language. On the practical side, they will learn how to use Praat, ELAN and LaTeX for collaborative linguistic work. Presentation skills and analytical thinking will be practiced throughout the week.
BN: Active participation (work in groups, presentations, written summary of the work done)
AP: Term paper

  Advertising is an inescapable part of our daily experience, it influences our habits, values and language.  Due to its omnipresence, advertising directly influences everyday speech and it also serves as a window into current language use.  Advertising works below the level of conscious awareness, and it is one of the primary means through which we absorb what we are (supposed to be) as individuals, and also as members of certain socio-economic classes and nations. Hence, advertising is an excellent empirical domain for the study of language, and also its relation to thought and background culture.

 This course uses mainly print advertisements, and to lesser extent also videos. It introduces basic concepts and tools from linguistics, semiotics and philosophy to analyze their language component: e.g., sign, signifier, signified; denotation and connotation, presupposition; the given vs. new distinction; linguistic relevance, cohesion, coherence.  Topics will also include the use of sound symbolism, novel words and phrases, the distinction between social vs. individual advertisements, and the contrast between information, on the one hand, and persuasion and deception, on the other hand, explored from the point of view of psychology and ethics.  

Linguistics is the scientific study of the human capacity for language. In this course, we’ll explore a broad range of topics, reflecting the rich interdisciplinary nature of linguistics. Core topics include the study of sound patterns and articulation (phonology and phonetics), the fine structure of words and sentences (morphology and syntax), as well as word/sentence meaning and how we use language to communicate with one another (semantics and pragmatics). Additional topics covered will include how children acquire language, how language changes over time, and, towards the end of the semester, recent advances in the domains of animal communication, as well as language in the context of artificial intelligence.

In diesem Kurs befassen wir uns mit den strukturellen Eigenschaften der chinesischen Sprache (Mandarin) und ihrer Schrift. Wir gehen dabei systematisch der Frage nach, wie das Chinesische die Theoriebilidung in der westlichen Linguistik herausgefordert hat. 

Der Kurs besteht aus zwei Sitzungen zu jeweils 2SWS. In den theoretischen Sitzungen diskutieren wir Texte aus der Forschung und besprechen die darin auftauchenden Konzepte. In den praktischen Sitzungen im PC-Pool lernen wir Datenbanken kennen, probieren uns im Schreiben von chinesischen Schriftzeichen, finden den Einstieg zur Korpusarbeit, und suchen die besprochenen Strukturen in glossierten Texten. Wir lernen und üben auch Schriftsatz mit LaTeX.

In this class, we will learn about Role and Reference Grammar in application to several corpora from endangered languages.

Each student will pick one corpus/language and as we discuss different types of structures (simple clauses, arguments, adverbials, tense/mood/aspect operators, embedded clauses etc.), we will identify relevant examples from each corpus and sketch a syntactic analysis. We will discuss difficult cases and language-specific particularities as we go along.

We learn to plot RRG structures and write in LaTeX.

The wider context for this class is a planned research project which will aim to provide syntactic annotations for corpora from endangered languages.

Die Morphologie ist der Teilbereich der Linguistik, der sich mit der Struktur von Wörtern beschäftigt. In der Vorlesung befassen wir uns mit der alten Idee vom morphologischen Zyklus, und damit mit der Frage, ob Wortstrukturen mit der Zeit immer komplexer, anschließend wieder einfacher werden. 

Wir lernen im Kurs außerdem

• wesentliche Arten der Wortbildung kennen,
• die wichtigsten Arten von Morphemen zu unterscheiden,
• wie Grammatikalisierung funktioniert,
• und wie man interlinear glossierte Beispiele liest.

Wir sehen eine Vielzahl von Sprachdaten aus einer großen Bandbreite typologisch verschiedener Sprachen und denken über den Einfluss von Kontakt zwischen Sprachen nach.

Course Description

The seminar will focus on understanding how language and other systems of communication work in the brain, and how the two hemispheres are involved. Is language lateralized? Is handedness important for language? Are all right-handed people left-lateralized for language? Are all left-handed people right-lateralized for language?

We will dive into the example of whistled languages, but what is a whistled language? In what way are they different from other languages, and how have they been studied until now? Furthermore, the process of how some of the studies were created and why, and the importance of addressing these projects not just from a psycho-neurolinguistics perspective, but from a historical and sociological perspective will be presented as well. Who decided to do a neuroimaging study about such a minority language? Why are the following studies using behavioral methods? Insights about the process of preparing some of the studies and the process of publication will be provided.

Course Goals

- (Re)Learn the different parts of the brain involved in language and communication, and the role(s) of each hemisphere in language

- Understand the methods and techniques used in scientific papers (qualitative vs quantitative, behavioral vs. neuroimaging, stats, software programs…)

- Learn the process of preparing a study (from zero to hero, or from “I would like to make my Master Thesis about …” to publish it).

- It is expected that students will improve several soft skills as well, such as:

• scientific reading (how to read, and understand a scientific paper and/or chapter of a book)
• summarizing (from reading a text, listening to a talk, …)
• presentation

Course Description

This seminar will focus on understanding what language attrition is and how to research it.

Attrition cannot be understood without making clear concepts like L1, Mother tongue, L2, FL, and Heritage languages ​​among others. Are all kind of attrition the same? Are attrition and bilingualism always related?

Linguistic and extralinguistic factors, how to 'measure' and study them will be addressed together with the last insights into the field. This will be achieved through the basic bibliography, recent papers, and cases from famous people, and (hopefully) real data.

Course Goals

- (Re)Learn theory about bilingualism (/multilingualism)

- Learn the key aspects of attrition

- Understand the methods used in scientific papers about attrition

- Learn the process of preparing a study (from zero to hero!)

- It is expected the student will improve several soft skills as well, among them:

•  scientific reading (how to read, and understand a scientific paper and/or chapter of a book)
• summarizing (from reading a text, listening to a talk, …)
• presentation