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Cursus: TLRMV19114
TLRMV19114
Language Contact, Variation and Change: Comparing Language Systems
Cursus informatie
CursuscodeTLRMV19114
Studiepunten (EC)5
Cursusdoelen
In this course, students will (i) acquire an understanding of theories on language variation and change (Principles and Parameters-theory/Minimalist Program/(generative-)linguistic typology), (ii) develop the tools to identify and analyze data sets displaying syntactic diversity, (iii) develop the ability to work with large digital linguistic data corpora, (iv) develop the ability to critically evaluate existing analyses, to generate own hypotheses and to provide empirical and theoretical contributions to the study of syntactic diversity.
Inhoud
Linguistic variation, just like linguistic sameness (universality), is a core property of human language. The focus of this course is on the design of (morpho)syntactic diversity. What makes an investigation of the variant part of human language challenging are the strong indications that grammatical variation is non-arbitrary, bounded and predictable. Thus, there is a system (a design) behind syntactic variation. In this course, you will learn about this design of linguistic variation and change by addressing questions such as: (i) Which (morpho)syntactic properties display variation and change? (ii) Which parts of the grammar are open to variation and change? (iii) How do variant properties within one and the same language interact and correlate with each other? (iv) To what extent can variation and change be captured in terms of the Interface levels (with  e.g. semantics, pragmatics, affect, phonology, sociolinguistics)? We will investigate the design of syntactic variation and change by comparing language systems at a micro-comparative scale (micro-differences among language systems that are extremely closely related) and at a macro-comparative scale (differences among language systems that are genetically or typologically less closely related/unrelated). We will do this by examining (morpho-)syntactic phenomena that have been studied in generative syntactic theory and in more 'conventional' historical/typological/dialectological studies, like agreement, case, movement and ellipsis.
 
Aanvullende informatie
Priority rules apply to this course. Make sure you register for this course before 16 November 12.00 (noon) 2020 to be considered for enrolment.
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