Duration
30h Th
Number of credits
Lecturer
Language(s) of instruction
English language
Organisation and examination
Teaching in the second semester
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
This class introduces students to Construction Grammar and its application to English specifically. After a general introduction to how and why the framework emerged, we will see how it has extended beyond its original domain and methods.
Using examples from English, we will build up an argumentation for why we could think of our knowledge of a language in terms of a network of constructions on different levels of schematicity and complexity. We will see how it applies to verb argument structure, but also morphology, information structure, language acquisition, variation and change.
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
Students should see how a constructional approach to language differs from other frameworks while it also shares some basic tenets with other frameworks. They should see the advantages as well as drawbacks of this approach, which, moreover, is itself a collection of approaches rather than one homogeneous theory.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
Good knowledge of English and linguistics
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
This class will be organised as a seminar in which students sometimes have to prepare texts in advance.
Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning)
face-to-face
Recommended or required readings
Martin Hilpert, Construction Grammar and its Application to English (Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language). 2014. Edinburg: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-748-67584-5 (hardback)/978-0-748-67585-2 (paperback). 220 pp.
Assessment methods and criteria
written exam/paper
Work placement(s)
Organizational remarks
'ex cathedra' sessions + seminars with interaction
Contacts
lbrems@uliege.be