Course description
This course will be concerned with questions like the following. (See also course flyer.)
- What is a word? How do we identify words cross-linguistically?
- What is a morpheme? What types of morphemes are there?
- What is the cross-linguistic typology of morphological structures and processes?
- What is the relationship between morphology and phonology?
- What is the relationship between morphology and syntax?
- What is the nature of the mental lexicon?
- Are morphologically complex words stored there?
- Do morphological operations take place there?
We will address these questions by reading and discussing primary linguistic research papers in morphology and related areas, and by applying proposals in the research literature to additional language data.
The course meets MWF. Most weeks, MW will be for discussion of assigned readings and F will be for student-led presentations of morphological data from a range of languages and language families.
Course requirements
- Class attendance and active participation in discussion
- Timely completion of all readings
- Written assignments
- Friday data presentations
- Take-home midterm
- Final paper and presentation
Prerequisites
The only official prerequisite for this course is LING 101, Intro to Language. An additional course in syntax or phonology is recommended (but not mandatory).