SoSe 2025

This course examines the grammatical expression of aspectual distinctions in typologically distinct languages (Germanic like English and German), Slavic, and Finnish, among others). The topics will include, but not be limited to: (i) typological and formal questions about what makes an aspectual marker (im)perfective; (ii) the interaction between (im)perfectivity and aspectual classes/telicity, (iii) the semantics of perfectivity and imperfectivity, and its delimitation from genericity (aka habituality); (iii) the interaction of grammatical aspect and aspectual classes with quantification (especially in aspectual composition) and adverbial modification. Specifically regarding the expression of aspectual distinctions in German, we will explore the so-called Rheinische Verlaufsform.

This course examines the grammatical expression of aspectual distinctions in typologically distinct languages (Germanic like English and German), Slavic, and Finnish, among others). The topics will include, but not be limited to: (i) typological and formal questions about what makes an aspectual marker (im)perfective; (ii) the interaction between (im)perfectivity and aspectual classes/telicity, (iii) the semantics of perfectivity and imperfectivity, and its delimitation from genericity (aka habituality); (iii) the interaction of grammatical aspect and aspectual classes with quantification (in aspectual composition) and adverbial modification. Regarding the expression of aspectual distinctions in German, we will look at the so-called Rheinische Verlaufsform, as in:

(1) Ich bin die Koffer am Packen.

(2) Ich bin im Moment Drehbücher am lesen.

(3) Das sind wa jetzt grad am ausbügeln.

(4) Ja, da bin ich auch grade drin am lesen.

(5)  ... da haben wir es ja schon, nur auf party am spekulieren.

In this connection, we will addres the differences between the varied expressions of Rheinische Verlaufsform and the standard Verlaufsform in German, as in an einem Pullover stricken; am/beim/im V sein, dabei sein zu V, and the so-called ”absentive” construction, as in schwimmen sein; moreover, both the standard Verlaufsform and the Rheinische Verlaufsform will be contrasted and compared with the grammatical progressive form in other languages, most prominently in English (e.g., We were packing our suitcases).

This is an introductory course on modal and non-classical logics. Modal logic goes beyond classical propositional logic by adding new operators that allow us to express various modes of necessity and possibility. For example, epistemic logic allows us to express what one knows, deontic logic allows us to express what ought to be the case, and tense logic allows us express what happened in the past and what will happen in the future. You will be also acquainted with various non-classical logics. A non-classical logic, as its name suggests, violates certain principles of classical propositional logic. For example, in intuitionistic/inquisitive logic the law of excluded middle is violated, in paraconsistent logic the principle of explosion is violated, in dynamic semantics the structural rule of commutativity is violated. We will see how various non-classical logics can be employed to address puzzles in language and reasoning and see how non-classical logic is connected to modal logic. 

This course is an introduction to the study of meaning in the context of generative linguistics. The perspective we’ll adopt is that of truth-conditional, compositional semantics, building on the foundational work of philosopher-logicians such as Gottlob Frege, Alfred Tarski, and Richard Montague. The notion of “meaning” we’ll explore is somewhat rarefied - concretely, we’ll develop the idea that to know the meaning of a sentence, is to know the conditions under which it is true. This perspective has been both influential and incredibly fruitful, laying the foundations for research in formal semantics right up to the present day. Although some knowledge of elementary logic and set theory will be useful, we’ll spend the beginning of the course brushing up on the necessary mathematical background, before diving into semantic analyses of particular linguistic phenomena, such as logical connectives, quantificational expressions, pronouns, etc.

This course offers a basic introduction to linguistic pragmatics. We will be concerned with aspects of meaning that go beyond truth-conditional content, with a focus on how language is used in context: how it reflects and changes that context. These include phenomena like presuppositions (notions that a speaker or an utterance present as taken for granted), and conversational implicatures (inferences that arise through reasoning about the speaker’s adherence to conversational maxims like ‘Be as informative as you can’). Phenomena like these will lead us to consider the view that meaning in conversation is a product of the lexical meaning of words, the syntax/semantics of the linguistic constructions employed, and how these interact with the context of use and language users’ assumptions.

The course is geared towards students who want to acquire core concepts in pragmatics needed to begin or advance their studies in linguistics and related disciplines such as psychology, information science, natural language programming, philosophy, literature, etc.

Language and emotion have tight links - we used language to transport our own emotions, but language can also evoke emotions (think about someone crying when reading a particularly moving passage in a book). In this seminar we will read and discuss psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic studies investigating the links between language and emotion. We will learn that even single words have evoke certain emotions, we will look at the neurocognitive processing of literary texts and we will have a look at studies investigating whether emotional involvement is equally strong in a foreign language as in the native language. These are but a few possible topics, the contents can be adapted to the specific interests of the students, as long as they pertain to the overall topic language and emotion.

In diesem Kurs lernen wir die Grundlagen der Syntax kennen. Anhand der Grundsatzdebatte über Worststellungsmuster in den Sprachen der Welt entwickeln wir die Grundbegriffe und Fähigkeiten, die für die sprachwissenschaftliche Forschung zentral sind. Dazu gehören die Diagnose von Wortarten und Argumentstrukturen, die Analyse von Phrasen und Sätzen in verschiedenen Theorien, und die Bestimmung der Länge syntaktischer Dependenzen. Der Kurs schließt mit einer Klausur ab.