FYI: Mandarin Chinese, New MA/Ling & Child Lang

Author:

Robin Sackmann

FYI Body:

_______________________________________________________________________ ***** News from Integrational Linguistics (#1) ***** The Homepage of Integrational Linguistics is now offering a new service to the linguistics community: online-summaries of recently published books and papers. A detailled summary of the following paper has just been added. In order to see the summary, go to the "selected papers" section of the Homepage a www.germanistik.fu-berlin.de/il. Sackmann, Robin. 2000. "Numeratives in Mandarin Chinese". In: Petra M. Vogel, and Bernard Comrie (eds.). Approaches to the Typology of Word Classes. Berlin etc.: Mouton de Gruyter. (= Empirical Approaches to Language Typology 23). 421-477. The class of numeratives in Mandarin Chinese comprises "measures" such as ping 'bottle' or jin 'pound' on the one hand, and "classifiers" such as ben, zhang, and tiao on the other. The paper investigates both the syntactic properties of Chinese numeratives and the structure of numerative expressions, i.e. of those expressions in which numeratives typically occur. Using Integrational Linguistics as a theoretical background, the essay focuses on three topics: - the syntactic structure of numerative expressions - the part-of-speech status of numeratives - the syntactic basis of Chinese noun classification A number of key concepts needed for describing any numeral classifier language are formally defined, in particular, a concept of numeral classifier language that may be expected to be useful for typological studies. *** Note: "News from Integrational Linguistics" will from now on appear in irregular intervals on this list. *** _______________________________________ Sebastian Drude, M.A. Research and Teaching Assistan FREIE UNIVERSITAET BERLIN Berlin, Germany ____________________________ sebadru@zedat.fu-berlin.de Tel. & Fax +49-30-838-52973 Secretary +49-30-838-54429 _______________________________________ http://www.germanistik.fu-berlin.de/il New MA in Linguistics and Child Language This MA program is designed to attract those who have an interest in the development of children's language from birth. It will have a special (bu not exclusive) appeal for those with a background in psychology, cognitive science, linguistics, education, modern languages and for professionals in the teaching and therapeutic professions. A distance-learning course is a pre-requisite for those without a linguistic background Part-time students take either course 1 or 2 and Research Method 1 in Semester A of Year 1; Theory and the Child in Semester B of Year 1; course 1 or 2 and Research Methods 2 in Semester A of Year 2. Prelinguistic development and early words will be offered in Semester A of 2000-2001 and the Child as a Linguist in Semester A of 2001-2002. These are followed by a dissertation in Semester B and C of Year 2. Full-time students take Prelinguistic development and early words; the Child as a Linguist and Research Methods 1 and 2 in Semester A and Theory and the Child in Semester B. These are followed by a dissertation in Semester C. Research Methods 1 & 2 These courses are designed to introduce students to the research methods used in language acquisition including naturalistic and experimental methods, transcriptions of child language data, qualitative and quantitative analyses. Prelinguistic development and early words In the last 30 years, research on infants during their first year of life has shed light on their fast developing ability to perceive and produce sounds/gestures and on various aspects of their early communicative behavior. Additionally, research has focussed on the characteristics of children's first words, including the development of sound patterns, meaning, inflectional marking and the use of words in context. This course investigates different cultural backgrounds; signed, as well as spoken languages; bilingualism and children with disordered communication. The Child as a Linguis This course explores in depth the language acquisition of children from their first year of life until they reach school age. It considers the identification of stages in child language; the development of various aspects of language knowledge and use; the relation between language acquisition and other aspects of development. The course emphasizes the relevance of cross-linguistic, cross-cultural and cross-modal studies. Theory and the child: theoretical models of Language Acquisition The scientific study of language is young and draws on a variety of disciplines: linguistics, psychology, neuropsychology, anthropology, education, speech therapy, sociology. The interdisciplinary and challenging nature of the field explains the variety of theoretical approaches which underpin each of these approaches with respect to issues such as the nature/nurture issue, the relation between language acquisition and cognitive development, the classification and accounts of speech, language and communication disorders and the sources of empirical evidence which are used to argue for specific theoretical models and interpretations. Child Language Dissertation The overall aim of the dissertation is to provide a secure framework in which students may plan, research, execute and write up a piece of independent work. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT Isabelle Barriere, MA Admission Tutor Linguistics University of Hertfordshire Waford Campus Aldenham Watford Herts WD2 8AT Tel: 01707 285 623 Fax: 01707 285 611 E-mail: I.Barriere@herts.ac.uk