COGS 313

As a 5-weeks, 3-credits, Summer Course 2008.

MWF 3:30 – 6:00 p.m.

Stemmatics. Introduction to General and Comparative Grammar in a Cognitive perspective

Class Notes

Course description:

This course introduces the principles of stemmatic analysis of syntactic structure in an interlingual and comparative mode. Parsing of sentence structure is a prerequisite for understanding constructions; the stemmatic model of basic syntactic structure developed in the semio-linguistic tradition inspired by original masters such as Otto Jespersen, Lucien Tesnière, and A.-J. Greimas, and elaborated as a method of analysis, a computational formalization, and a theory of language by P. Aa. Brandt, is also a tool for achieving a general notion of grammatical structure and meaning, a support for foreign language learning, and a format for comparative studies of languages.

Syllabus:

Week 1: Stemmatic theory. Linear and non-linear principles of grammatical organization

Week 2: Parsing of English standard verbal and nominal syntactic structures

Week 3: Stemmatic exercises using current text from news media and fiction

    + Mid-term test

Week 4: stemmatization of sentences in other languages known by the participants

Week 5: Special studies of selected grammatical phenomena

    + Final test

Literature:

Brandt, Per Aage, 2004, ”Semio-linguistics and Stemmatic Syntax”, in Spaces, Domains,     and Meaning. Essays in Cognitive Semiotics, Bern: Peter Lang, Series European     Semiotics, No 4

Jespersen, Otto, (1924) 1992, The Philosophy of Grammar, with a new Introduction and     Index by James D. McCawley, Chicago: University of Chicago Press

+ Course papers distributed in class

Justification:

This course will provide a grammatical supplement to all language-related studies.