Language structures and conceptualization

  • Course teacher Mateusz-Milan Stanojević
  • Associate teachers -
  • ECTS credits 5
  • Number of hours: Lectures + Seminars + Exercises 15 30 0

Course objectives

The aim of the course is to introduce students to the way in which linguistic structures function on the textual (grammatical), interpersonal and conceptual level. Specifically, students will examine the relationship between selected linguistic structure (of Croatian and other languages) with conceptualization and interpersonal meaning. In addition to theoretical considerations, students will have the opportunity to work on real corpus data in groups and individually to examine the role of language for conceptualization.

Enrolment requirements and/or entry competences required for the course

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Learning outcomes at the level of the programme to which the course contributes

  • Apply specific knowledge and skills from selected disciplines constituting cognitive science.
  • Integrate insights, methods, and levels of analysis across different disciplines into a unified framework for understanding the human mind and cognition in general.
  • Critically evaluate cognitive science findings and synthesize information to be employed in a collaborative professional environment.

Course content (syllabus)

  1. Orientation, syllabus. Overview of topics. Basic theoretical issues: language as a separate module or connected with other cognitive abilities; the role of language in human understanding and thinking. The textual, interpersonal, and conceptual level in linguistic analysis – overview.
  2. The textual, interpersonal, and conceptual level in linguistic analysis – examples, analyses, group discussion. Levels of linguistic analysis – overview: phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics. Constructional nature of language.
  3. Levels of linguistic analysis – examples and group discussions: phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics. Grammar and the lexicon. Constructions. Word classes and their conceptual basis – overview.
  4. Word classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions) and their conceptual basis – analysis of corpus examples.
  5. Symbolicity of grammatical categories – overview. Tense and aspect and their symbolic nature. Tense and aspect across Slavic and Germanic. Relation of tense/aspect to time.
  6. Relation of tense/aspect to time and cultural issues with examples of tense/aspect from various languages. Mood and modality – symbolic nature. Mood and modality – examples from different languages.
  7. Case – symbolic nature. Case – examples from different languages.
  8. Revision. Relating symbolicity of grammar, conceptualization, and cultural issues. Student projects – preparation. Grammar, symbolicity, universality and cultural variation of grammatical categories. The relation of grammatical categories to the mind.
  9. Grammar, symbolicity, universality and cultural variation of grammatical categories. The relation of grammatical categories to the mind. Student projects – presentations. Form and function in language. Syntactic functions and semantic relations.
  10. The relationship between syntax and semantics – overview and examples from different languages. Finding examples of linguistic usage in corpora – overview. Corpus queries and the issue of form and function.
  11. Finding examples of linguistic usage in corpora – examples. Corpus tagging and annotation. Theoretical and practical consequences of using particular tags and annotations.
  12. Corpus tagging and annotation. Theoretical and practical consequences of using particular tags and annotations (continued).Revision.
  13. Lexical and grammatical resources in construing interpersonal meaning. Interpersonal meaning and universality/variation. The affective turn and evaluation in language. Grammatical resources in construing interpersonal meaning in detail. Affect and evaluation and their textual analysis.
  14. Textual analysis of examples of interpersonal meaning on the structural and semantic level. Individual assignments (preparation).The significance of affect and evaluation in cognition. Sociocultural situatedness. The mind as shared, intersubjective, and affective and the role of language.
  15. Bringing it all together: textual, interpersonal and conceptual level in linguistic analysis, and the role of universality and variation. Individual assignments due. Revision and feedback.

Student responsibilities

In this course, students are required to complete a group project, an individual assignment and a theoretical written test. Their grade is based on continuous assessment of these three elements. Class attendance is mandatory.

Required literature

  • Radden, Günter and Dirven, René. 2007. Cognitive English Grammar. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins
  • Frank, Roslyn M. 2008. “Introduction: Sociocultural Situatedness.” In Body, Language, and Mind: Sociocultural Situatedness, edited by Roslyn M. Frank, René Dirven, Tom Ziemke, and Enrique Bernárdez, 1–20. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
  • Webster, Jonathan J. 2019. “Key Terms in the SFL Model.” In The Cambridge Handbook of Systemic Functional Linguistics, edited by Geoff Thompson, Wendy L. Bowcher, Lise Fontaine, and David Schönthal, 35–54. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
  • O’Keeffe, Anne, and Michael McCarthy, eds. 2012. The Routledge Handbook of Corpus Linguistics. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, New York: Routledge.

Optional literature

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