LFU:online

Institut für Anglistik Institut für Anglistik

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

609545

Systemic and/or Applied English Linguistics: Language and the Mind

PS 2

5

wöch.

semestral

Englisch

The seminar aims to provide an overview of how psychological and neurobiological factors influence the acquisition, use and interpretation of language.

Questions to be dealt with include: Does human language differ from animal communication? Where and how is linguistic knowledge stored in our minds/brains? How do children learn their mother tongue(s)? And why is it much more difficult to learn a second language when we are older? How do we plan and produce our utterances, i.e. how do we manage to 'translate' our ideas into words and sentences? How do we comprehend linguistic input, i.e. how do we make sense of syntactic structure and how do we recognize single words and understand their (literal, nonliteral, ambiguous, etc.) meanings? And what happens if language disorders (e.g. dysphasia, aphasia) occur, i.e. when humans loose their – or part of their – linguistic capacities?

Discussion and critical evaluation of psycholinguistic theories and methods

Regular attendance, active participation, oral presentation, written paper

Preparatory reading: Fernández, Eva M. and Helen Smith Cairns (2011), Fundamentals of psycholinguistics, Malden/MA etc.: Wiley-Blackwell, chs. 1, 2.

Anmeldevoraussetzung/en: Bachelorstudium: keine Entspricht im Diplomstudium (343): PS 2: Linguistics and Culture Entspricht im Lehramtsstudium (344): PS 2 Linguistics and Culture
Beginn: 06. März 2012