Building blocks of language

The lecture 'Introduction to linguistics' gave an overview of the different levels of human language. This seminar extends the Introduction within two core fields: Morphology and Syntax. We will discuss and analyse the patterns of English word formation and inflection as well as the structure of more complex syntactic units from phrases to clauses and sentences. We will take a descriptive approach to English morphosyntax, not arguing which grammatical structures are correct, but which grammatical structures exist, and why.

Accompanying course book: Bernd Kortmann (2020)2 English Linguistics: Essentials. Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler. (free online access via our University Library)