Postgraduate Course: Lexical Semantics (LASC11055)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Students will be introduced to a way of studying word meaning within a more general theory of the mental lexicon. We will look at what word meaning is; what the lexicon is; how to probe word meaning; evidence for structure in word meaning; polysemy; the lexical semantics of causation; and a typology of events. We shall also explore more focused problems. Is there a relationship between different classes of events or event types and aktionsarten? How are transitivity alternations a way of probing the verbal lexicon? How should argument linking be understood? What is the different between a "construction" and an articulated account of lexical meaning? |
| Course description |
Topics:
Event semantics; a network model of language structure.
Parts, wholes, and networks; idioms; semantics; syntax; morphology
Conceptualization, types, 'tokens', and events; spreading activation
Polysemy and semantic structure
Events and thematic roles
Resultatives and causation
Building structure: ditransitives and verbs of buying and selling
Events and Aktionsart; modelling the structure
Transitivity alternations and argument linking
Situating meaning in the utterance: modality
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- analyse complex data in linguistic meaning
- evaluate competing theoretical proposals
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
To give students the knowledge and analytical skills in semantic theory which will enable them to analyse the structures of English that present challenges to the analysis of meaning. The course is intended to provide students with the knowledge and skills in semantics appropriate to an Honours graduate in English language. Students should be able to progress to more specialised study in semantics from this course.
In addition, they should be equipped to explore semantic interfaces with syntax and morphology in independent work. The course is therefore also designed to motivate and equip students to undertake more advanced work in lexical semantics with respect to the structures of English. |
| Additional Class Delivery Information |
Attend all lectures as scheduled |
| Keywords | lexical semantics,event structure,word meaning |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Nikolas Gisborne
Tel: (0131 6)50 3600
Email: n.gisborne@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Toni Noble
Tel: (0131 6)51 3188
Email: Toni.noble@ed.ac.uk |
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