Linguistics

This course explores this question in the context of the languages and peoples of the Danube region, focusing on German, Hungarian, Romanian, Serbian and Croatian, and Yiddish. These languages belong to two genealogically different groups (Indo-European and Uralic) and one (Yiddish) bears traces of a third group (Semitic); within Indo-European, three different sub-groups are represented (Germanic, Romance, Slavonic). The course uses data from these languages (texts in the original, idioms, proverbs, jokes, etc.) to explore language and cultural contact from both a purely linguistic perspective (language relatedness v. typological features of languages, script v. sounds, areal connections, borrowing of words, idioms, and figures of speech) and a sociolinguistic point of view (intercultural exchange, multilingualism, standardization, purism, and the relation between language and identity). It explores how Danubian languages both converge and differ, how Danubian culture is both intercultural friction and intercultural flow.

This course develops awareness of the complex relationship between spoken language and society through discussion of existing literature and through experience of experimental paradigms used to study spoken language variation. It focuses on the study of phonetic aspects of accent variation and change and so it is assumed that students are familiar with basic concepts in phonetics and phonology.  

This course examines three areas: the interaction between language structure and use on the one hand, and social structure and social norms on the other (sociolinguistics); the relationship between linguistic and cultural knowledge (anthropological linguistics); and the inter-relationship of language and other cognitive structures, especially as it is revealed through language acquisition (psycholinguistics).

The course provides a historical overview of language and gender theory and research. It examines how language is used by men and women, and the linguistic means by which they are portrayed, to understand the process of gender (re)construction in society. Topics include essentialist and constructionist views on sex and gender, essentialist and constructionist approaches to language and gender, construction of gender identities, notions of femininity and masculinity, and representation of gender and language use in specific domains. It also involves critical analyses of gendered texts from various domains.

Food Theory is a versatile, content-based language course tailored for students of diverse proficiency levels, including native English speakers, offering a rich exploration of food's culture, history, and science, where communication mistakes are seen as learning opportunities. Emphasizing interactive conversations and collaborative food-related projects, the course delves into various aspects of food, from its historical roots to its cultural significance, steering clear of mere recipe sharing. It blends the enhancement of English skills, such as vocabulary and grammar, with the cultivation of general communication abilities like active listening, body language interpretation, and strategic questioning. This comprehensive approach makes Food Theory an ideal choice for those seeking to boost their confidence and competence in both English and general communication, all within the engaging context of food studies.

This course aims to explore the current state of artificial intelligence (AI)/machine translation, and related issues and debates. The first few weeks are devoted to examining major theories and concepts in translation studies. In this process, students are expected to think about what it means to translate and how we translate. Students engage in readings and discussions, focusing on what frameworks and methods have been adopted for translation analysis. The second half of the term involves undertaking a large quantity of translations of various texts, including literary and non-literary texts. Most importantly, students run AI/machine translation themselves and explain in what aspects they are similar and different. Students also, if possible, compare their AI/machine translations with human translations, talking about what AI/machine translation can and cannot do. Finally, we discuss the impact of AI/machine translation on translators, writers, and users in the age of AI.

Topics include Traditional Theories, The basic concepts of early translation theory, Equivalence and equivalent effect, Skopos theory, and AI-based translation.

This course situates an early Chinese understanding of the body within a cross-cultural and inter-disciplinary perspective. It trains analytical thinking and academic writing through bodily discussions. It introduces classical texts with contemporary theories from the fields of social epistemology, communication studies, social anthropology, disabled studies, and phenomenology. It shows students different ways of asking questions, finding evidence, forms of reasoning, and perspectives of discussions. Active and ethical engagement with AI reading and writing is also essential to this course.

The course explores how frameworks, theories, and models from a number of different areas, including cognitive neuropsychology and psycholinguistics, inform clinical assessment and remediation of aphasia. Findings from basic science, neurophysiology, imaging, and speech and language therapy are linked to increase our knowledge of the effects of the rehabilitative interventions at the level of the brain as well as their functional impact. Both emerging and established rehabilitative approaches are highlighted.

Psycholinguistics tests different theories of the production, perception, and acquisition of language by using various methods, such as reaction time experiments, brain activity measurements, misarticulation analysis, and corpus analysis. This course provides an introduction to these theories and methods. Furthermore, the factors that affect our perception, production, and acquisition of a first or second language are studied. The course introduces the principles for conducting and assessing a psycholinguistic experiment and includes an exercise in conducting such an experiment.

The analysis of communication on social media is rapidly becoming a key-area in (socio)linguistics and discourse studies. This course introduces students to the main methods of data collection and analysis of language and discourse for a variety of social media contexts. The course combines familiarization with frameworks of analysis with practical steps on how to approach data. A variety of case-studies of social media afforded practices (e.g. sharing, tagging, Like & Follow) ranging from YouTube to Facebook and Twitter illustrate the role of a range of language and multimodal resources in presenting ourselves and relating with others online.