`What?` - Prosody and syntax in interaction - Einzelansicht

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What. What? !WHAT?! - These are just three of the different ways of pronouncing this word and each of these forms has a different meaning, or function. Yet other variants even make it clear that ‘what’ is actually only the beginning of a phrase or clause or sentence.

This advanced course focusses on the relationship between prosody and syntax. We will see that prosody - while somewhat neglected in linguistic study - is perhaps even the more important area of the two, as it often determines the size of the syntactic unit at hand and its meaning. This helps participants in talk-in-interaction to know when to say something, but it is of course also relevant for people who study and describe language structure and use professionally. Needless to say that how something is said also influences what is to say next.

In the course, students will not only deepen their knowledge on (spoken-language) syntax but also gain an understanding of basic prosodic-phonetic parameters (pitch, tempo, loudness etc.) and their role in talk-in-interaction. We will examine how participants employ syntax and prosody to accomplish action(s). This includes both a review of ed relevant literature as well as pilot hands-on analyses.

This course will enable students to start their own, independent research on spoken language, e.g. in the second linguistics course in the Ang_MA_026 module and in connection with a writing course which helps students with their module paper. Parallel participation in all three courses is thus highly recommended.

I am planning to teach this course on-site, with remote access options for those who don't fall under one of the "3G"s or don't fit the room. Further details will be announced by October 25.

Please also enrol in the Moodle course (course ID 29921).

basic textbook: Szczepek Reed, B. (2011): Analysing conversation. An introduction to prosody. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. (recommended for purchase)

Further relevant literature will be announced at the beginning of term.

-        Knowledge on basic properties of written vs. spoken language (see TMA(S)1 (communication), Fiehler et al. 2004)

-        Knowledge on GAT2 transcription (see TMA(S)3 (communication))

(see also Stud-O LinK\Modulbeschreibung ANG_MA_026)

With this advanced linguistics course, we will work towards the following learning outcome: Developing further your BA and TMA(S) knowledge on grammar, basic properties of spoken (vs. written) language and transcription and in collaboration with the other 2 courses of the module, you are able to independently generate and assess academic linguistic descriptions of syntactic and prosodic phenomena of present-day English by, among other things,

-        adequately using descriptive syntactic and prosodic categories,

-        identifying and adequately analyzing linguistic patterns in hands-on pilot studies of relevant phenomena in natural language data and examining their similarity with known patterns (and thus potentially identifying needs for further research), and

-        critically discussing relevant existing studies,

in order to be able to use these skills for studies of language patterns with interactional-linguistic methodology in your master thesis and/or your future professional career.

MA students LinK

MA students KVM