Universität Wien

128141 FS FS Research Seminar I / II (2024S)

English Adjectives: meaning, use, position

10.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 12 - Anglistik
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 25 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Tuesday 19.03. 10:15 - 11:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Tuesday 09.04. 10:15 - 11:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Tuesday 16.04. 10:15 - 11:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Tuesday 23.04. 10:15 - 11:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Tuesday 30.04. 10:15 - 11:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Tuesday 07.05. 10:15 - 11:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Tuesday 14.05. 10:15 - 11:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Tuesday 21.05. 10:15 - 11:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Tuesday 28.05. 10:15 - 11:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Tuesday 04.06. 10:15 - 11:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Tuesday 11.06. 10:15 - 11:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Tuesday 18.06. 10:15 - 11:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Tuesday 25.06. 10:15 - 11:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Adjectives are generally regarded as one of the major word classes in English: where nouns are typically used to refer to an entity, and verbs to predicate actions of or relations between entities, the primary function of adjectives is to modify entities, i.e. to ascribe additional properties to a referent. As will become clear during this course, however, the class of adjectives is very heterogeneous in terms of meaning, function and syntactic behaviour – to the extent that the class as a whole is actually quite difficult to define. In this course we will focus on this variability: we will look at the different classes of adjectives distinguished in the literature, their semantic properties, their use in discourse and their formal behaviour (in terms of syntactic function, position, relative order, etc.). Special attention will be paid to problematic issues involved in the classification and analysis of adjectives, particularly in the context of language change.
At the end of this course students will be able (i) to identify, classify and analyze adjectives and adjectival phrases (as well as the noun phrases they are part of); to recognize the problems involved in doing so, and to propose a way of approaching these problems; and (ii) to conduct (in groups) a research project on the meaning, function and use of (specific types of) adjectives and/or their role in a larger construction, based on relevant corpus data.

Assessment and permitted materials

Students will be assessed on the basis of a research plan (group work), a presentation (individual assessment) and a research project (group work). Active participation is required.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Students will be assessed on the basis of group work (a research proposal and research report) and individual assessment (contribution to group presentation). Regular class attendance (max. two absences) and active participation are required.
• 15% research plan (group work)
• 25% group presentation (individual assessment)
• 60% research report (group work)

Examination topics

Readings, classroom discussions, presentation, research proposal & research project.

Reading list

Aarts, Bas (1998). English Binominal Noun Phrases. Transactions of the Philological Society 96(1): 117–158.
Aarts, Bas (2007). Syntactic Gradience. The Nature of Grammatical Indeterminacy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Adamson, Sylvia (2000). A lovely little example. Word order options and category shift in thepremodifying string. In Olga Fischer, Anette Rosenbach & Dieter Stein (eds.), Pathways of Change. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 39-66.
Alexiadou, Artemis, Haegeman, Liliane & Stavrou, Melita (2007). Noun Phrase in the Generative Perspective. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Biber, Douglas, Johansson, Stig, Leech, Geoffrey, Conrad, Susan & Finegan, Edward (1999). Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Harlow, UK: Pearson Education. pp. 504-538.
Bolinger, Dwight (1967). Adjectives in English: Attribution and predication. Lingua 18, 1-34.
Cinque, Guglielmo (2010). The Syntax of Adjectives: A Comparative Study. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
Davidse, Kristin (2009). Complete and sort of: From identifying to intensifying? Transactions of the Philological Society 107(3): 262–292.
Dixon, Robert M. W. (1982). Where Have All the Adjectives Gone?: And Other Essays in Semantics and Syntax. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Feist, Jim (2009). Premodifier order in English nominal phrases: A semantic account. Cognitive Linguistics 20(2): 301–340.
Matthews, P. H. (2014). The position of adjectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McClure, Scott (2011). Modification in non-combining idioms. Semantics and Pragmatics 4, Article 7. 1–7.
Pullum, Geoffrey & Huddleston, Rodney (2002). Adjectives and adverbs. In Rodney Huddleston & Geoffrey Pullum (eds), The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 525–595.
Quirk, Randolph, Greenbaum, Sidney, Leech, Geoffrey & Svartvik, Jan (1985). A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman. pp. 402-434.

There will be some additional reading on corpus research.
All readings will be made available on Moodle.

Association in the course directory

Studium: MA 812 (2)
Code/Modul: M04 FS. M05
Lehrinhalt: 12-8143

Last modified: Mo 05.02.2024 13:46