230215 Sprachliche Universalien (S) (WiSe 2006/2007)

Ziele und Inhalte - Objectives and Contents

Das Seminar wird in deutscher oder englischer Sprache durchgeführt, je nach Wunsch der TeilnehmerInnen (und zum Teil des Dozenten). In der Regel werden die Seminarunterlagen (wie der Rest dieser Internet-Seite) in englischer Sprache verfasst.

The aim of the seminar is to examine possible answers to questions such as:

1. What kinds of property characterise the languages of the world, for instance in phonology, morphology, syntax, text and dialogue organisation, semantics and pragmatics?
2. How different are languages of the world in terms of these properties?
3. Which approaches to characterising similarities and differences of language are there?

For example, in European languages, the final stressed syllable or unstressed syllables in an utterance are lengthened automatically, signalling simply that the utterance is finished. However, in the Ega language, spoken in South Central Ivory Coast, final lengthening bears a more explicit message: negation. Another example: in the Agni (Anyi) language, spoken near the eastern border of the Ivory coast, the word "anouman" spoken with a falling tone of voice (which sounds rather like a statement), means "yesterday". However, "anouman" spoken with a rising tone of voice (which sounds rather like a question) means "bird" or "grandchild. We will examine theoretical approaches to universals, such as the Chomsky's concept of Principles and Parameters, as well as practical descriptive approaches as represented in the "World Atlast of Language Structures", in traditional questionnaire type empirical investigations, and in the methods used in contemporary language documentation projects.
Organisation, Teilnahme, Qualifikationen - Organisation, Participation, Qualifications

The class will be partly in lecture form, partly based on reports by participants and group work, and partly project-oriented. The reports by participants will be, first, on a more theoretically oriented topic, and, second, on one more empirical, practical topic, such as interviewing students who speak different languages of the world in order to find illustrations of specific similarities and differences between languages.
Programm - Programme

Details of the programme will be published in the week before the teaching period starts, and finalised in the first meeting of the course.

Further information under

External comments page

http://wwwhomes.uni-bielefeld.de/~gibbon/Classes/Classes2006WS/LanguageUniversals/