Researching English Morphology - Einzelansicht

Language is creative. In their everyday life, speakers habitually make use of this fact, be it by forming utterances that they have never heard or produced before and which, actually, may be entirely unique (‘Three tone-deaf singers ambushed me in the city yesterday.’) or by giving names to new concepts or newly discovered entities. Especially these word-formations are omnipresent (though not always recognized) and may even serve as defining features for a number of language varieties. Linguistic morphology, that is, the study of words and their structure, provides an important framework for understanding both the inner structure of words and the regularities of forming new items on the basis of already existing ones, providing insight into how language users are able to determine the meaning of unfamiliar items on the basis of their constituents (be they ever so ‘befuzzling’).

We will start off this seminar by briefly revising, and expanding on, issues of English morphology covered in the introductory class, after which we will discuss areas of everyday life where this linguistic field is relevant, either because it is used for its creative value (e.g. advertising, creative writing) or because it is a (potential) source of problems (e.g. language acquisition, ‘Plain English’). After this overview of the subject matter, the class will serve as an introduction to scientific work within the field of linguistics, as students will have the opportunity to conduct their own, guided, project.

Readings will be announced in the first session.

Please note that PULS-admission will take place in Week 3, based on regular attendance and participation.

Assessment requirements will be announced in the first session.