LFU:online

Institut für Anglistik Institut für Anglistik

Mag. Dr. Sandra Handl Mag. Dr. Sandra Handl

609448

Synchronic and/or Diachronic English Linguistics: Approaches to meaning

PS 2

5

wöch.

semestral

Englisch

This course will provide an overview of the most central issues pertaining to the description of (linguistic) meaning.

The study of meaning forms an integral part of linguistics. But what exactly do we mean when we talk about meaning? Which types of meaning can be differentiated? And where is meaning located – in language, in language users’ minds or in extralinguistic reality? In the course of the seminar we will discuss and compare various theoretical frameworks which can be used to analyze the meaning of words and sentences (e.g. componential analysis, prototype theory, frame semantics, etc.), look into the relations which structure the English vocabulary on the paradigmatic and syntagmatic axes (e.g. semantic oppositions, collocations, etc.), study why and how meanings change over time, and investigate how different types of semantic structures are stored in and retrieved from speakers’ minds.

Discussion, application and critical evaluation of different approaches to the description of meaning.

Regular attendance, active participation, oral presentation, written paper.

Recommended preparatory reading: Leech, Geoffrey (1981), Semantics. The study of meaning, 2nd ed., Harmondsworth: Penguin, chs. 1, 2. Lipka, Leonhard (2002), English lexicology. Lexical structure, word semantics and word-formation, Tübingen: Narr, ch. 2. Taylor, John R. (2003), Linguistic categorization, 3rd ed., Oxford: OUP, chs. 5, 6, 7.

Anmeldevoraussetzung/en BA-Studium: keine Entspricht im Diplomstudium (343): PS 2: Linguistics and Culture Entspricht im Lehramtsstudium (344): PS 2: Linguistics and Culture
Beginn: Oktober 2011