Admission requirements
Introductory (BA-level) courses in generative linguistics as well as an introductory course in morphology.
Description
This course looks at a wide range of issues central to the understanding of how human beings acquire and process morphologically complex words. How do monolingual and bilingual children and adults acquire, process and represent the words in their language or languages? A selection of key classic articles on the study of morphology will be discussed with a focus on (i) definitions of words and lexemes, (ii) early acquisition of inflection and derivation, (iii) morphosyntactic processing, and (iv) lexical access.
Studying word formation processes in different languages and looking at experimental results on word processing will shed more light on the issue of how a lexicon and a grammar may be acquired, maintained and/or how linguistic access can decline under conditions of reduced input and usage.
The course consists of six seminars, including student presentations.
All classes will be taught in English. You will be awarded 5 ECTS credits for this course. Only attend this course if you are willing and able to attend all the sessions (2 hours a week) and spend an extra 6 hours a week on this course during the second block of the second semester.
Course objectives
The first course objective is to provide insight into the structural aspects of word-formation processes by studying a number of recent developments in theoretical and experimental linguistics.
A related objective is to gain insight into the importance of data and experimental evidence in morphological theorising.
The third objective of this course is to learn to collect and process empirical data on word formation processes (either historically, or in the brain of speakers). As part of a student presentation you may want to collect your own data or use empirical data that you found in the readings for this course. You will learn how the authors of articles interpret the data, you will learn to critically assess their findings and to be able to come up with ideas about collecting other data that may support or falsify the authors’ or your own hypotheses. This will also be excellent preparation for a possible topic for an MA-thesis.
Timetable
The timetable is available on the MA Linguistics website
Mode of instruction
Weekly two-hour seminar.
Course Load
Total course load: 130 hours
Time spent on attending seminars: 6 x 2 = 12 hours
Time spent on studying the compulsory literature: 68 hours
Time spent on preparing the presentation and final essay: 50 hours
Assessment method
Assessment
oral group presentations,
in-class assignments (sometimes group work),
written final test (= take-home exam).
You must fulfil all requirements to get a mark for this course. Fulfilling just part of the requirements does not entitle you to a final mark and full credits.
Presentation, in-term assignments, classroom participation (20%)
Final test (80%)
The final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average. In order to pass the course, a minimum of a 5.5 is required for the final essay.
Resit
If the mark for the written take-home exam is a 5.49 or lower, there will be a resit exam during the resit exam period. There is no resit for presentations and in-term assignments.
Inspection and feedback
Students are entitled to view their marked exam within a period of 30 days, following publication of the results.
Blackboard
Blackboard will be used for general information pertaining to the course, e.g. the course programme, the presentation schedule, in-term assignments, etc.
Reading list
Weekly readings will be made announced before the course starts. Most articles are downloadable via the university library. Make sure you have access to the readings. Also note that group work is part of this course.
Reading material (book chapters and journal articles): to be made available
Registration
Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available on the website
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
Not applicable
Contact
Please contact Student administration van Eyckhof for questions.
The coordinator of studies is Else van Dijk
Remarks
All other information.