Cognitive Linguistics is a broad approach to language that places psychological reality at the top of the list of theoretical desiderata. In this course we will investigate the nature of linguistic semantic categories and the implications for theories of grammar. In the domain of semantic categories, we will study the issues and controversies surrounding frame semantics, decompositional semantics, conceptual metaphor, and exemplar/prototype/connectionist models. Turning our attention to grammar, we will focus on both regularities and irregularities, within and across languages, attempting to explain why languages are the way they are.
Tuesdays 1:30-4:20pm
