LSA 106: Constructions and cognitive linguistics

Adele Goldberg | session 1 | MW 3:30 – 5:15, 105 Stanley Hall

This course explores the commonalities among words, idioms and more abstract syntactic patterns in that all are pairings of form and function. This emphasis allows us to draw many parallels between language and other cognitive processes such as categorization, parallels that in turn raise the issue of whether language may emerge from a combination of general cognitive abilities, without requiring a unique language faculty. The course will cover topics that range from word meaning to island constraints.

Reading: Adele Goldberg, Constructions at work: the nature of generalizations about language and selected materials available online.

Areas of linguistics: Language and thought; Syntax, semantics, and morphology