120171 VO Special Linguistics Course: Morphology I (2008S)

In connection with my retirement in autumn 2009 I would like to revive a long-forgotten tradition which figured prominently (and profitably) in my own university education: the lecture cycle, a more or less coherent series of lectures spread out over several terms with a common topic. Its aim was to provide a survey of some major area in linguistics or literature, which it would not be possible to fit into a one-term course, but which was topically connected. Looking back after many years of a progressively more fragmentized curriculum, which leaves the student at a loss to integrate piecemeal information into a coherent whole, I have decided that it was time to reconsider this traditional more comprehensive approach.
The topic to be dealt with in this three-term series (SS 2008 - SS 2009) will be "Word-structure: synchronically and diachronically", an area which has been the subject of my research over the past decades.
The first series will in its first part be concerned with an introduction into basic concepts of morphology, the role of morphophonolgy and a description of Modern English inflectional morphology. The second part will deal with the history of English inflection and the major typological changes that have played a role in its development.
The second series (WS 2008/2009) will deal with derivational morphology (word-formation) from a synchronic point of view and the relationship between word-formation, semantics and the lexicon.
The third series (SS 2009) will discuss English word-formation from a diachronic point of view and the general historical development of the English lexicon.
Each part will to a certain extent be self-contained by having an introduction of its own, but in order for this series to achieve its purpose, it might be useful to attend more than just one part three parts (as we used to do fifty years ago).

Assessment: final exam at the end of term

Basis: lecture and additional reading suggestions