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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2019/2020

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences : Language Sciences

Postgraduate Course: Introduction to Morphology (S2) (LASC11132)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits10 ECTS Credits5
SummaryThe course will introduce postgraduate students with little or no knowledge of linguistic morphology to the study of this subdiscipline of formal linguistics. It will be similar to the way the topic is presented elsewhere in LEL's curricula; but (appropriate to postgraduate study) it will progress rapidly and reach a fairly high level of attainment within comparatively few contact hours. In line with the mainstream of successful research in past decades, the course will have a focus on linguistic form (rather than meaning), but will otherwise seek to be fairly theory-neutral. It will draw on English where possible but will, for example in addressing typological issues, also use other languages for exemplification (eg Turkish, Latin, German).
Course description Example of topics covered:
- Trying to define the word. Listedness. Morphological complexity.
- The morpheme and the problems of constraining allomorphy. Lexemes and word forms.
- Inflection, paradigm and inflectional typology.
- Derivation and the problems of the inflection/derivation distinction.
- Survey of the derivational morphology of English. Headedness. Unitary Base Hypothesis.
- The mental lexicon: lexical accessing, morphological productivity.
- 'Rival' processes: why do they exist, how do they interact? Listedness. Synonymy blocking.
- Compounds, phrases and the 'lexical integrity principle'.
- Modularizing the lexicon. The nature of grammatical modules.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Students MUST NOT also be taking Introduction to Morphology (LASC11120) OR English Word-Formation (LASC11092) OR English Word-Formation (S2) (LASC11131)
Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. understand the basics of the morphology of English, of morphological theorising, and of the modularization of the grammar
  2. take a more advanced option course(s) on the subject; high-performing students may be able to engage in relevant dissertation work
Reading List
Bauer, L. A glossary of morphology. Edinburgh 2004.

Bauer, L. Introduction to linguistic morphology. 2nd edn. Edinburgh 2003.

Booij, G. The grammar of words. 2nd edn.Oxford 2007.

Carstairs-McCarthy, A. An introduction to English morphology. Edinburgh 2002.

Don, J. English morphology. Edinburgh (to appear).

Fabregas, A. & S. Scalise, Morphology. Edinburgh 2012.

Lieber, R. & P. tekauer, Handbook of word-formation. Dordrecht 2006.
Marchand, H. The categories and types of Present-day English word-formation. Munich 1969.

Plag, I. Word-formation in English. Cambridge 2002.

Spencer, A. & A. Zwicky (eds.), The handbook of morphology. Oxford 1998.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
Keywordsmorphology,linguistics,english
Contacts
Course organiserProf Heinz Giegerich
Tel:
Email: heinz.giegerich@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Toni Noble
Tel: (0131 6)51 3188
Email: Toni.noble@ed.ac.uk
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