WiSe 2025/26

One of the primary functions of language is to construct arguments and persuade others to accept our viewpoints. But how can we become better at arguing? How can we distinguish a good argument from a bad one? How can we evaluate others' arguments more effectively? What can we learn from contemporary behavior science about our reasoning faculty? This class aims to introduce students to critical thinking and argumentative writing. Critical thinking is not only a crucial skill in academic settings but also an essential part of everyday life. In this course, we will explore various types of reasoning used in both scientific and everyday contexts. We will examine how to evaluate scientific theories and identify common pitfalls in reasoning. Alongside these concepts, you will learn how to produce good academic writing through weekly writing exercises and a term paper project. Through this project, you will gain experience in conducting your own research-selecting a research topic, finding academic sources, engaging with existing literature, and developing your own thesis.

One of the crowning jewels of formal semantics is a precise treatment of quantificational expressions such as "every linguist", "most philosophers", "exactly three physicists", etc. In this seminar, we'll learn about the prevailing approach to quantification in formal semantics: Generalized Quantifier (GQ) theory. GQ theory provides a powerful tool for studying the logical properties of quantificational expressions, and stating universal properties that all natural language quantifiers share. We'll start by studying GQ theory in the context of formal semantics, drawing readings from classical introductory texts such as Heim & Kratzer's "Semantics in generative grammar" (1998) and Partee et al's "Mathematical methods in linguistics" (1990). We'll move on to focus on how quantification is expressed cross-linguistically, drawing readings from Szabolcsi's 2010 monograph "Quantification".

Unter Phonetic Drift werden Veränderungen im phonetischen System der Erstsprache bezeichnet. Oft erfolgen diese Veränderungen durch das Lernen einer weiteren Sprache, wobei allerdings auch weitere gebrauchsbasierte Faktoren eine Rolle spielen. In diesem Kurs wollen wir uns dem Phänomen aus theoretischer und praktischer Sicht nähern. Hierzu werden wir eine Auswahl an Fallstudien lesen, die sich mit verschiedenen Aspekten von Phonetic Drift beschäftigt haben: Welche kognitiven Mechanismen bewirken eine Veränderung des phonetischen Systems? Welche phonetischen Eigenschaften sind betroffen? Und welche Faktoren begünstigen einen solchen Drift? Der Kurs soll ein fundiertes Verständnis über die verschiedenen Aspekte von Phonetic Drift geben. Teilnehmenden erhalten ebenfalls Ideen für die Entwicklung eigener Fragestellungen zu dem Thema.

Studienleistung: Hausaufgaben und Präsentation.
Abschlussprüfung: Hausarbeit.

Language attrition (LA) is the loss of a language or part of it without any pathology involved. This master’s seminar will focus on understanding what is LA and how to research it with psycho- neurolinguistics methods. It is the continuation of the previous Byelingual courses, but it also can be attended without previous knowledge.

The seminar will offer a theoretical (quick) summary of Language Attrition and after it, go deeply into how to research it with Psycho- Neurolinguistic methodology. Are all types of Language Attrition the same? What can LA tell us about the bilingual/multilingual brain? Are Psycho- Neurolinguistic methods really needed?

In order to understand the content of the course and develop a critical understanding of the theory and the methods used to research LA until now, students will work and present different chapters from the basic bibliography and more recent papers.

All the info in LSF: https://lsf.hhu.de/qisserver/rds?state=verpublish&status=init&vmfile=no&publishid=268972&moduleCall=webInfo&publishConfFile=webInfo&publishSubDir=veranstaltung