Course: Lexical Semantics

ECTS credits: 2

Language: German

Duration: one semester

Status: elective

Course type: 2 hours of seminar

Enrolment requirements: course “Introduction to Linguistics”

Course description: This seminar is intended to introduce basic issues and concepts in the linguistic study of word meaning. The course covers following topics: role of lexical semantics within semantics as a linguistic theory, approaches to word meaning (lexical field theory, feature semantics, componential analysis, prototype semantics), lexical relations within and among words (connotative and denotative meaning, monosemy, polysemy, metonymy, metaphor, synonymy, homonymy, antonymy, hyponymy), semantic change, semantic networks.

Learning outcomes: Upon completion of the course students are expected to be able to: define the role of lexical semantics within semantics as a linguistic theory, define main characteristics and conclusions of various traditional approaches to word, identify and describe lexical relations within and among particular words, reconstruct the semasiological and onomasiological structure of lexemes, describe how the lexis of a language is organised.

Teaching methods: group work, individual work, joint text analysis, classroom discussion

Literature: A: Schwarz, Monika/ Chur, Jeannette: Semantik: ein Arbeitsbuch. Tübingen: Günter Narr, 2007; Lyons, John: Semantik. München: C. H. Beck, 1980; Ullmann, Stephen: Grundzüge der Semantik: die Bedeutung in sprachwissenschaftlicher Sicht. Berlin: W. de Gruyter & Co., 1967; Palmer, Frank: Semantik: eine Einführung. München: Beck, 1977; Busse, Dietrich: Semantik. Paderborn, München: Fink, 2009; Löbner, Sebastian: Sematik: eine Einführung. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2003; B: Bechmann, Sascha: Sprachwandel – Bedeutungswandel: eine Einführung. Tübingen: A. Francke Verlag, 2016; Eckard, Rolf: Metaphertheorien: Typologie – Darstellung – Bibliographie. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2005; Lakoff, George; Johnson, Mark: Leben in Metaphern : Konstruktionen und Gebrauch von Sprachbildern. Heidelberg: Carl-Auer-Systeme, 2004; Trier, Jost: Der deutsche Wortschatz im Sinnbezirk des Verstandes. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, 1973; Wandruszka, Mario: Falsche Freunde: ein linguistisches Problem und seine Lösung. In: Lebende Sprachen. Band 24, Heft 1, S. 4-9, 1979.

Evaluation Methods and Grading: class attendance, seminar paper