1461.19 - Semantics (MA)


Course number
1461.19
Title
Semantics (MA)
ECTS
10
Prerequisites
Students are required to have a BA degree in Faroese. Students may also seek to enrol on the course as an individual course; however, other prerequisites will apply (please refer to academic programme in force).
Purpose
To provide students with a foundation in semantics as an academic discipline, as well as the key concepts, phenomena and contemporary theories in semantics, in order to enable them to assess and apply this knowledge to the semantic analysis of meaning in language and meaning in language use.
Content
The course will examine how meaning is expressed in natural language and includes a theoretical component, which will examine and describe semantics in general as an academic discipline and provide insight into semantic theory. On this basis the relationship between language statements (words, expressions and sentences) and external references and how this relationship is communicated through concepts. The course will focus on Faroese and draw on articles and other scholarly works examining semantic phenomena from different angles. The course will also include comparisons with other languages. It will, for example, examine how meaning is described formally, the significance of semantics for other linguistic disciplines and how language is used to communicate different meanings in different contexts.
Learning and teaching approaches
The course will run for three hours a week over one semester. The main teaching and learning approaches used will be lectures, discussions, exercises, and student presentations.
Learning outcomes
Successful students must have acquire a foundation in semantics and can demonstrate the ability to: • Know and critically apply semantic concepts and terminology • Explain and evaluate the characteristics of semantic relations • Explain the relationship between denotation and truth value • Express deep insight into the links between semantics and other linguistic disciplines, such as pragmatics, lexical theory, morphology and syntax • Apply formal methods to analyse meaning in language, including interpreting compound expressions • Describe and analyse how human beings handle and harness different semantic and pragmatic phenomena in daily communication.
Assessment method
6-hour written examination.
Examination
External
Bibliography
• Elisabeth Engberg-Pedersen, Kasper Boye og Peter Harder. 2019. Semantik. Samfundslitteratur. • Mats Dahlhöf. 1999. Språklig betydelse: en introduktion till semantik och pragmatik. Studentlitteratur. • Barbara Dancygier & Eve Sweetser. 2014. Figurative Language. Cambridge University Press. • John Lyons. 1996. Linguistic semantics. An introduction. Cambridge University Press. • John I. Saeed. 2003. Semantics. Blackwell Publishing. • Anna Vogel. 2001. Språket, kroppen och tankarna. Introduktion till kognitiv semantik. Studentlitteratur. • As well as a broad selection of articles and other scholarly works particularly on semantics, but also on pragmatics and lexicography. These will be distributed as the course progresses.
Contact
Zakaris Svabo Hansen