AJ52011 Topics in Linguistics: Semantics

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2012
Extent and Intensity
0/0/0. 7 credit(s) (plus 3 credits for an exam). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
doc. PhDr. Naděžda Kudrnáčová, CSc. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Tomáš Hanzálek
Supplier department: Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
each odd Friday 10:50–12:25 G25
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
Objectives of the course: Students successfully completing the course will be able to analyze the semantic structure of the sentence and the semantic structure of verbs. They will have a solid understanding of the relation between the level of cognitive content and the level of linguistic meaning. They will be able to examine the relation of individual thematic roles to the grammatical structure of the sentence. They will also be able to categorize English verbs and to interpret their internal semantic structure.
Syllabus
  • Description of the course: This seminar is designed for advanced students. It provides a detailed discussion of the semantic structure of the sentence and of the semantic structure of verbs as the main organizing elements in the sentence. In view of the interrelation between semantics and syntax, attention will also be paid to the syntactic structure of the sentence and to the semantics of verbs in relation to their syntactic behaviour. The topics covered in the course are as follows: - basic situation types
  • - the level of cognitive content versus the level of linguistic meaning
  • - semantico-syntactic interface: the relations between grammatical sentence patterns and semantic sentence patterns
  • - classifying participants
  • - grammatical relations and thematic roles
  • - verbs and thematic role grids
Literature
  • William Frawley: Linguistic Semantics (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum) 1992
  • Daneš,F. (1968) "Some Thoughts on the Semantic Structure of the Sentence." In: Lingua 21:55-69.
  • Saeed, John I.: Semantics (Blackwell 1997)
  • DUŠKOVÁ, Libuše. Mluvnice současné angličtiny : na pozadí češtiny. Vyd. 1. Praha: Academia, 1988, 673 p. info
  • QUIRK, Randolph. A comprehensive grammar of the English language. Edited by David Crystal. London: Longman, 1985, x, 1779. ISBN 9780582517349. info
  • VENDLER, Zeno. Linguistics in philosophy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1967. info
Teaching methods
One 1.5 hour seminar, held every other week of the term.
Assessment methods
Seminar attendance is compulsory. Assessment: a paper (about 2500 words in length) plus a written test, each counting for 50 per cent of the final mark.
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course is taught once in two years.
Information on the extent and intensity of the course: 5x2.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2008, Spring 2010, Spring 2014, Spring 2016, Spring 2018.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2012, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2012/AJ52011