Course finder
Semester 2
Morphology (LASC10086)
Subject
Language Sciences and Linguistics
College
CAHSS
Credits
20
Normal Year Taken
3
Delivery Session Year
2023/2024
Pre-requisites
Visiting students should have completed at least 3 Linguistics/Language Sciences courses at grade B or above. We will only consider University/College level courses.
Course Summary
The course provides a cross-linguistic overview of the properties of word structure (inflection, derivation, allomorphy, argument structure, lexical semantics) and discusses their implications for linguistic theory.
Course Description
The course will provide a detailed overview of the issues involved in the study of complex words, both where it concerns word formation (compounding and derivation) and where it concerns inflectional processes. Topics to be addressed with regard to word formation include the debate on whether complex words always have an internal hierarchical morphemic structure or not, the concept of headedness in morphological structures, the various types of compounds that have been distinguished (root compounds, synthetic compounds, co-compounds etc.), and the workings of forms of word formation such as reduplication and truncation. With respect to inflection, the various classes of inflection that we see cross-linguistically will be discussed, and phenomena such as syncretism, multiple exponence, and agreement will be analysed. The relation of morphology to other components of grammar (syntax, phonology and semantics) will also be discussed. The general outlook will be a formal theoretical one, but no particular conception of morphology will be singled out to the exclusion of discussion of others. A main aim of the course is in fact to show how one can arrive from a particular data set at different possible analyses of these data, which may each have their own advantages and disadvantages.
Assessment Information
Written Exam 0%, Coursework 100%, Practical Exam 0%
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Disclaimer
All course information obtained from this visiting student course finder should be regarded as provisional. We cannot guarantee that places will be available for any particular course. For more information, please see the visiting student disclaimer: