Admission requirements
BA in linguistics or a language. Knowledge of basic linguistic terminology is required.
Description
Linguistic structures are generally not randomly distributed around the globe: some seem to be universally preferred, others are common in certain parts of the world, or in particular language families. The goal of modern typology is to detect distributional patterns, and to explain them in terms of factors that influence the historical development of languages.
The course focuses on the more practical issues of setting up and carrying out a typological research project. To this end, students carry out a group research project during the course. Questions that we will address include: What is a good research question? How do I determine a good sample? How can I compare between languages? How do I look up the information I want? How can I use exiting databases? We will also discuss ways of exploring and analyzing data (using programming language R) and interpreting results. We focus on one particular area of grammar, in this case the expression of negation in the languages of the world.
This course makes use of support by DataCamp (www.datacamp.com)
### Course objectives
At the end of this course you will be able to:
formulate a typological research question
design a variable and database system that allows you to capture cross-linguistic variation with respect to a linguistic phenomenon
apply different ways to compare sometimes very different languages
collect information from grammatical descriptions of languages unknown to you
apply some basic methods to explore data and test hypotheses
understand explanations for given distributions of linguistic features
Work together on a project
Timetable
The timetables are available through MyTimetable.
Mode of instruction
Seminar
Research
Assessment method
Paper (take home)
R assignment
Assessment
Paper (take home) (70%)
R assignment (30%)
Weighing
To complete the final mark, please take notice of the following:
The final mark for the course is established by (i) determination of the weighted average combined with below (ii) additional requirements.
Additional requirements:
Contributions to database (requirement, pass-non-pass)
Present in problem-sharing sessions (requirement, pass-non-pass)
Resit
There wil be a possibility to resit the written exam and the R assignment.
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
Van Gijn, Rik, Alena Witzlack-Makarevich & Steven Moran (in prep) Typology in Practice, selected chapters (will be made available on Brightspace).
Further literature will be announced later. Literature will be made available on Brightspace.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website
Registration À la carte education, Contract teaching and Exchange
Information for those interested in taking this course in context of À la carte education (without taking examinations), eg. about costs, registration and conditions.
Information for those interested in taking this course in context of Contract teaching (with taking examinations), eg. about costs, registration and conditions.
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: Reuvensplaats
Remarks
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