LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies

Teaching field linguistics: language variation and non-standard varieties in fieldwork
Event date: 20 May, 2010
Location: Building 65 Mansfield Cooper (Room 2.02), The University of Manchester

Learning and teaching discourse analysis
Learning and teaching discourse analysis engages students and tutors in the exploration of texts and talk. Analysis of discourse data encourages students to reflect upon and critically evaluate knowledge acquired in the study of, for example, syntax and semantics as well as naturally drawing students to the investigation of socially-situated language use. Such study provides students with the opportunity to examine how meaning is constructed and negotiated in discourse and to reflect on the role that language plays in social life. Teaching discourse analysis involves introducing students to relevant theories and guiding them in the application of these theories to real life language use. Learning is grounded in students' own experience and in the questions they ask about problems in the humanities and social sciences.

Lexical semantics
The nature of lexical semantics has changed markedly in the twenty-to-thirty years since classic texts like Lyons (1977) and Cruse (1986) were published. Such texts were written at a time when Structuralist lexical semantics essentially carried on separately from major [Generative] theories of grammar. During and since the 1980s, however, theories of grammar have become much more lexically-driven, necessitating much deeper attention to issues of lexical meaning. Unfortunately, there is a tendency in lexical semantics courses and in semantics textbooks to present lexical semantics essentially as it was 30 years ago, with the focus limited to polysemy/homonymy and the ‘nym’ relations (synonym, antonym, etc.). This guide examines ways to construct a modern classroom approach to lexical semantics, with a broader definition of the field.

The teaching of pidgin and Creole studies
This article suggests ways in which different areas of linguistics can be illuminated by including a discussion of pidgins/creoles, as well as giving a suggested outline for a stand-alone course.

Semantics and pragmatics
This contribution sets out how the study of linguistic meaning and interpretation (Semantics) and the study of language use and communication (Pragmatics) are inter-dependent. Three areas are covered: (i) Methodology (ii) Context and Content and (iii) Content and Inference. As well as sketching key ideas, the contribution also points to ongoing debates. Classic texts and recent contributions are mentioned in relation to both.

Teaching formal semantics
Short description of matters to be considered when teaching Formal Semantics to undergraduates and postgraduates, containing an indication of current topics and necessary formal techniques, plus a select annotated bibliography.

Sentence meaning
Thoughts on the teaching of sentence meaning within a linguistics programme.

Grammatical categories, or grammar and semantics
The set of grammatical categories includes, among others, tense, aspect, mood, case. These are neglected in current Linguistics courses in the UK but are central in the grammars of natural languages. They connect grammar and semantics and play an essential role in the syntactic analysis of clauses and the semantic analysis of clauses and propositions. Their study leads to general issues such as the source of grammatical categories, the evolution of language, language and cognition, metaphor and first language acquisition.

Linguistics: Quizzes
These quizzes are designed for students at the early stages of their Linguistics progamme or for non-specialist Linguistics students. They have been designed using Hot Potatoes authorware (http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/) which can be used to create cloze, mix, match, multiple-choice exercises as well as crosswords and quizzes. The materials were authored by (and are copyright to) the School of Languages and Linguistics at the University of the West of England, Bristol.

Linguistics: Linguistic description: Above the sentence - weekly task sheets
At the University of Portsmouth, first year modern languages students have a course in Linguistic Description. The materials here are a complementary set to those we use in phonetics/phonology/prosody, morphology, semantics and syntax, and cover above the sentence phenomena, such as text, discourse and conversation analysis, as well as stylistics and pragmatics. The lectures are built on the analysis of English and in the tutorials students carry out comparative analyses of other languages. The assessment for the unit consists of a portfolio of weekly tasks. Students are required to find out about a language of their choice from a native speaker informant. Students have traditionally investigated their chosen language of study (French, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian), but some students have done their projects on more exotic languages such as Thai, Arabic, Cantonese, Japanese, Finnish, Swedish, Malay, Korean or Greek. We have found that the project encourages initiative, a strong sense of involvement, an attitude of enquiry, and a scholarly approach to linguistic analysis in the students. It prepares them for independent and systematic study of languages in the knowledge of the principles of organisation and use underlying them.