Week
|
Content and readings
|
Activities
|
Estimated work load
(incl. hours in class)
|
1
|
Preliminaries
|
Lecture
|
3
|
2
|
Word classes
|
Lecture, required reading, homework
|
7
|
3
|
Phrase structure and clause structure
|
Lecture, discussion, required reading, homework
|
7
|
4
|
Noun phrases
|
Lecture, discussion, required reading, homework
|
7
|
5
|
Simple verb phrases
|
Lecture, discussion, required reading, homework
|
7
|
6
|
Predicate-argument structure (part 1)
|
Lecture, discussion, required reading, homework
|
7
|
7
|
Predicate-argument structure (part 2)
|
Lecture, discussion, required reading, homework
|
7
|
8
|
Valency-changing derivations
|
Lecture, discussion, required reading, homework
|
7
|
9
|
Midterm exams
|
Lecture, midterm exam
|
5
|
10
|
Complex verb phrases
|
Lecture, discussion, required reading, homework
|
7
|
11
|
Relative clauses
|
Lecture, discussion, required reading, homework
|
7
|
12
|
Complex clauses
|
Lecture, discussion, required reading, homework
|
7
|
13
|
Clause types
|
Lecture, discussion, required reading
|
7
|
14
|
(To be determined)
|
Lecture, discussion, required reading
|
7
|
15
|
Linguistic typology
|
Lecture, discussion, required reading
|
7
|
16
|
Problem solving
|
Lecture, discussion, final exam
|
7
|
17
|
Final exams
|
Lecture, discussion, final exam
|
7
|
18
|
Evaluation
|
Lecture
|
3
|
The subject of Week 14 will be determined in consultation with the students.
|
Preparation and participation in class: 40%
Weekly exercises: 40%
Take-home exam (analysis of a linguistic problem): 20%
Students are expected to actively participate in class. You will partly be assessed on your ability to discuss linguistic problems in a constructive and creative manner.
Students are expected to make and hand in weekly exercises relevant to the materials discussed in class.
The final exam is a more comprehensive analysis of a linguistic problem, or a paper on a topic of your own choice.
In the evaluation of exercises and the exam, theoretical argumentation is much more important than whether you get an exercise ‘right’ or not. In fact, some exercises might not even have a correct solution, like real-world linguistic problems, which might not have a single correct answer. It is therefore important that you use the theoretical knowledge you acquired during class to argue your analysis, rather than just simply giving an answer to a question.
Grading scale
100-90
|
90-80
|
80-70
|
70-60
|
59-50
|
below 50
|
A+
|
A
|
B
|
C
|
D
|
E
|
excellent
|
very good
|
good
|
adequate
|
adequate
|
fail
|
|
Below is a set of general reference works. A more complete list will be made available at the beginning of the semester through the online learning system.
Comrie, Bernard. 1989. Language Universals and Linguistic Typology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Dixon, Robert M. W. 2010. Basic Linguistic Theory, Volume 2: Grammatical Topics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dryer, Matthew S. & Martin Haspelmath (eds.). 2011. The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Munich: Max Planck Digital Library. http://wals.info
Payne, Thomas E. 1997. Describing Morphosyntax. A Guide for Field Linguists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Shopen, Timothy. 2007. Language Typology and Syntactic Description, 2nd Edition (3 vol.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Velupillai, Viveka. 2012. An Introduction to Linguistic Typology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
|