Admission requirements
Students have taken and passed the BA-course Linguistics 3B “The Phonology of English”. It is strongly recommended to have passed Linguistics 4.
Description
Linguistics 5A “English Sounds and Words in the Mental Lexicon” will investigate how word structure is represented in the minds of language users and how English word structure may interact with sound structure. We will consider how the speech sounds and words of a language are acquired during infancy and early childhood, how they are represented in the mind of adult language users and how their mental representations and physical productions may change or attrite across the life-span.
Course objectives
- The first objective of the course is to learn the appropriate terminology to describe morphological systems in a range of language types, with special emphasis on English and related languages. The reading material and exercises in course book will introduce students to the most important morphological terminology. Additional readings (journal articles) will familiarize students with other theoretical models and experimental methods in the field.
- The second course objective is to develop an in-depth understanding of the morphological structures of human languages and of how these structures interact with phonological structures.
- Upon successful completion of the course, students will be familiar with some of the theories, terminology and techniques of phonological and morphological analysis and be able to apply this knowledge to the description of English and other languages.
- They will furthermore have the skills to evaluate the suitability of some theories on the morphology-phonology interface.
- They will be able to formulate their own research questions and to formulate sound morphological and phonological arguments.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
- Seminar
Assessment method
Assessment
Active class participation and participation in groups
Written mid-term paper (essay)
Final written examination with open questions
Weighing
Active participation: 15%
Mid-term written paper: 25%
End-of-term examination: 60%
The final mark for the course is established by determination of the weighted average combined with the following additional requirements: A minimum mark of 5.5 for active participation, a minimum mark of 5.5 for the mid-term paper, and minimum mark of 5.5 for the end-of-term exam.
Resit
The mid-term paper and the end-of-term exam can be retaken if one or both marks are below 5.5.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
Plag, Ingo (2018). Word Formation in English (2nd edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Note: the first (2003) edition of the coursebook is outdated, and is no longer suitable for this course.)
Additional reading material (to be announced)
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Registration Exchange
For the registration of exchange students contact Humanities International Office.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Arsenaal
Remarks
Not applicable.