Last updated by kprzemek on 2014-09-23. Originally submitted by grzegorz on 2014-06-24.
DYŻURY Komisji Rekrutacyjnej:
08.09-12.09 (poniedziałek-piątek) - 11:00-13:00 (sala 102A)
15.09-19.09 (sala 102A):
poniedzialek - 10-14
wtorek - 14-18
środa - 10-14
czwartek - 14-18
piątek - 13-17
Prowadzącymi seminaria magisterskie w r.a. 2014-2015 (1MA) i 2015-2016 (2MA) będą:
A) Literaturoznawstwo/kulturoznawstwo
Literatura brytyjska
Literatura północnoamerykańska
Literatura/kultura
B) Językoznawstwo
Specjalizacja celtycka (oraz inne specjalizacje)
Specjalizacja: Język i komunikacja w mediach i polityce (LanCom):
Specjalizacja: Kognitywne Językoznawstwo Stosowane:
Seminarium TYLKO dla studentów międzywydziałowych studiów tłumaczeniowych
(rekrutacja zakończona na Wydziale Neofilologii):
Literaturoznawstwo/kulturoznawstwo
Literatura brytyjska
The Migration of Themes in Literature in English: (Re-)writings, (Re-)visions, Remakes
In her reading of the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife, Mieke Bal talks about the ways in which cultural material is “both strange and familiar, both ancient and current” stressing that stories from the past “shape the present and have an impact on the future” (2008: ix). This seminar is primarily addressed to those students who are interested in the history of English literature and in contemporary culture. The following four semesters will be devoted to the study of past and more recent literature as well as to the study of the construction of the past in contemporary literature and film. The classes will be organized around the major topics of re-writings and re-visions of literary texts and as well as remakes of films. The works selected for in-class examination will represent different literary genres: religious writing, travelogues, autobiographies, poetry, drama as well as novels. Placing the texts in their historical and theoretical context i.e. the theory of adaptation and appropriation, will provide the basis for our debates, while the discussion on generic conventions will grant more in-depth analyses. As Julie Sanders asserts the interest in specific forms of intertextuality is always inevitably concerned with the question how art creates art, or how literature is made by literature” (2006: 1).
Requirements
1. An Outline of the MA thesis at the end of the first semester
2. Introduction and Chapter One is a requirement for the completion of the seminar at the end of the second semester (the end of I year).
Pre-requisites:
B.A. in English or American literature
Candidates must be familiar with the texts from the English literature reading list (Year One and Two) as well as with selected texts from the supplementary list.
Literatura północnoamerykańska
Canadian Literature in Transition
dr hab. Agnieszka Rzepa
The aim of the seminar is twofold. First, the seminar will familiarize students with the Canadian literary tradition and major trajectories of change in Canadian literature from the second half of the 19th to the beginning of 21st century. Special emphasis will fall on the post-WWII prose. Second, the seminar will allow students to examine changes in the critical discourse on Canadian literature. Texts selected for discussion vary in style, subject-matter and focus, allowing students to appreciate the diversity of contemporary Canadian prose and literary criticism and theory. The course is reading-intensive.
Each student will be required to prepare an oral presentation on a selected topic, act as a discussion-leader, and write a research paper. Active participation in in-class discussions, as well as regular attendance, will also contribute to the final grade. Towards the end of the academic year the students will be asked to submit a tentative M.A. thesis project. All theses have to focus on problems related to Canadian literature, although topics based on comparative North American approaches will also be considered.
Successful candidates wishing to participate in the seminar should have thorough knowledge of the US literature at the undergraduate (B.A.) level (cf. the basic reading list at
http://wa.amu.edu.pl/fa/node/2285), and an avid interest in literature that goes beyond basic undergraduate requirements. At the selection stage, familiarity with Canadian literature is desirable, but not required.
American Canons and Revisions
The seminar will focus on canonical works, preferably from the 19th century, and their later revisions, travesties, or intertextual appropriations. Examples include Edgar Allan Poe’s work and its reappearance in Nabokov’s Lolita, or James Fenimore Cooper’s adventure romances and their parody in James Dickey’s Deliverance, or the relation between 19th-century local-color writers and contemporary regionalists (Bobbie Ann Mason, Barry Hannah). We will also focus on a number of theoretical texts that can be used for interpretation and discussion in MA theses, most importantly on Erich Auerbach’s Mimesis, Mikhail Bakhtin’s Dialogic Imagination, psychoanalytical approaches to literature, and Robert Curtius’s idea of historical topology. The choice of texts discussed in MA theses is relatively free, but students will be encouraged to use fiction from the 19th-century canon, including E.A. Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mark Twain, Henry James, Stephen Crane, and local-color authors, such as Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Kate Chopin, and Sarah Horne Jewett.
Literatura/kultura
Adaptation as a cultural process
The aim of the seminar is first to consider the issue of adaptation from one text of culture in English into another/others (e.g. from page to screen/stage/other media, etc.) from a theoretical perspective and then apply tools developed as a result of the theoretical reflection to the texts chosen by students for scrutiny. Adaptation studies although covering different media employed in the process of adaptation (literature to literature, literature to film, film to literature, film/literature to computer games, comic book to film, etc. – see Hutcheon 2006: 9-15) does mainly focus on what occurs when a literary work of art is transferred on screen, when another fully fledged and autonomous work of art is created. The relationship between the source text and the target text, with their medial and artistic autonomy, will be then the subject of studies in the seminar. Naturally, the theoretical considerations will be supplemented with widely commented examples of adaptations of both canonical (and less canonical) texts of culture, especially the ones which – due to their dependence on the inherent traits of the medium and / or its experimental nature – pose a particular challenge for the adaptor.
Pre-requisites: candidates are expected to express interest in both high and popular culture of the English speaking world. Knowledge of the canon of English/American literature is also necessary as most of the theses will be devoted to transfers from page to other media/art forms.
Select reading:
Cartmell, Deborah and Imelda Whelehan (eds.) 2006 [1999]. Adaptations. From Text to Screen, Screen to Text. London – New York: Routledge.
During, Simon (ed.) 2008 [2007] The Cultural Studies Reader. 3rd edition. London – New York: Routledge.
Hunter, Jefferson. 2010. English Filming, English Writing. Bloomington – Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Hutcheon, Linda. 2006. A Theory of Adaptation. New York – London: Routledge.
McFarlane, Brian. 1996. Novel to Film. An Introduction to the Theory of Adaptation. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Sanders, Julie. 2007 [2008]. Adaptation and Appropriation. London – New York: Routledge.
Media, Culture and Society
As the seminar’s title suggests, it will focus on the representations carried and the role played by the media in modern society, and in so doing it will introduce the students to media theory and research. The conceptual and methodological apparatus thus built will enable the students to complete their MA thesis projects that will involve studying the representations carried or the role played by the media in British or American culture, or investigating links between British, American and Polish culture as observed in the media. Accordingly, in addition to the theoretical input, the seminar will offer guidance in developing and applying research skills, including making library searches, assessing literature, as well as planning and writing MA theses.
Candidates for the seminar should have a keen interest in the modern media and in media and cultural theory, as well as a good background knowledge of the British and American cultures. For the interview, they are also encouraged to acquaint themselves at least with parts of the books listed in the “Suggested reading” section.
Suggested reading:
Fiske, John. 1990. Introduction to communication studies. London: Routledge.
Thwaites, Tony, Lloyd Davis and Warwick Mules. 1994. Tools for cultural studies: An introduction. Melbourne: Macmillan.
Językoznawstwo
Lexicology and lexicography
In this seminar we shall look at the lexicon from the point of view of lexicology (the linguistic study of words) and lexicography (the study of dictionaries). Our focus of attention will be word meaning as studied by lexical semantics and as represented in dictionaries.
Possible MA projects include investigating various aspects of the English lexicon, such as the meanings of individual words and expressions (e.g. collocations, idioms); the relation between meaning and form (synonymy, homonymy etc); the rise of new words and meanings (and the disappearance of old words and meanings) in contemporary as well as earlier English; figurative language in its diverse manifestations. Contrasting different aspects of the lexicons of English and Polish (or the student's native language if other than Polish) is another possibility. The studies will incorporate a lexicographic component through examining the treatment of the relevant lexical phenomenon in different dictionaries or/and dictionary types. The use of electronic language corpora will often prove beneficial, thereby enriching the study through the use of corpus linguistic methods.
Candidates are expected to have sound background knowledge in general linguistics. Previous exposure to semantics, though not obligatory, will be a bonus. Interest in words and dictionaries is taken for granted.
Basic readings
Adamska-Sałaciak, A. 2006. Meaning and the bilingual dictionary: The case of English and Polish. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Atkins, B. T. S. and M. Rundell. 2008. The Oxford guide to practical lexicography. Oxford: OUP.
Chandler, D. 2002. Semiotics: The basics. London: Routledge.
Durkin, Philip. (ed.) Forthcoming. The Oxford handbook of lexicography. Oxford: OUP.
Fontenelle, T. (ed.). 2008. Practical lexicography: A reader. Oxford: OUP.
Hanks, P. 2013. Lexical analysis: Norms and exploitations. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Jackson, Howard. (ed.) 2013. The Bloomsbury companion to lexicography. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Landau, S. I. 1984. Dictionaries: The art and craft of lexicography. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. (2nd edition 2001; CUP).
Lyons, J. 1995. Linguistic semantics: An introduction. Cambridge: CUP.
Murphy, L. 2010. Lexical meaning. Cambridge: CUP.
Svensén, B. 2009. A handbook of lexicography. Cambridge: CUP.
Ullmann, S. 1962. Semantics. Oxford: Blackwell.
Ungerer, F. and H.-J. Schmid. 1996. An introduction to cognitive linguistics. London: Longman. (2nd edition 2006; CUP)
Zgusta, L. 1971. Manual of lexicography. Prague: Academia.
Communicative Interaction in American and British Films
This M. A. seminar offers an interdisciplinary approach to studying interpersonal communication in a variety of formal and informal social situations in a broad interactional, mental, social, cultural, physical, and historical context presented in American and British films. The primary disciplines involved in studying social interaction include linguistic pragmatics, discourse analysis, and communication theory. In addition, some time will be devoted to analyzing screenplays and writing film scripts.
Special emphasis will be put on (1) the analysis of factors that influence communicative success versus those that lead to communicative failure; (2) the practical aspects of linguistic communication such as techniques of linguistic persuasion and manipulation, handling a variety social situations and controlling the course of verbal interactions; (3) the examination of ‘emergent phenomena’ in discourse, (such as humor, faux pas, embarrassment, face threatening acts, etc. (4) the handling of interpersonal relations in social interaction and (5) the analysis of humor and interpersonal conflict in selected films.
In their M. A. theses students are expected to study selected screenplays in a broad context by applying the most appropriate methods to analyze them. The range of films is unlimited. It may include a variety of film genres developed in different historical periods.
Students can come up with their own ideas and topics of interest associated with the question of human communication on the screen and develop them in their M.A. theses.
Recommended readings:
Brown, Gillian and George Yule, 1983. Discourse Analysis. Cambridge: CUP.
Hylan, Ken and Brian Paltridge (eds). 2011. Continuum Companion to Discourse Analysis. London: Continuum.
Kopytko, Roman, 2002. The Mental Aspects of Pragmatic Theory. Poznań: Motivex.
Leech, Geoffrey, 1983. Principles of Pragmatics. New York: Longman.
Levinson, Stephen, 1983. Pragmatics. Cambridge: CUP.
Mey, Jacob (ed.) 1998. Concise Encyclopedia of Pragmatics. Oxford: Blackwell
Mey, Jacob, 2001. Introduction to Pragmatics. Oxford: Blackwell.
Paltridge, Brian, 2006. Discourse Analysis: An Introduction. London. Continuum.
Schiffrin, Deborah, 1993. Approaches to Discourse. Oxford: Blackwell.
Thomas, Jenny, 1995. Meaning in Interaction: An Introduction to Pragmatics. London: Longman.
Trottier, David, 2005. The Screenwriter’s Bible. Los Angeles: Silman-James Press.
Verschueren, Jef. 1999. Understanding Pragmatics. London: Arnold.
The world of everyday life in literary narratives and press announcements
The point of departure in this seminar will be the understanding of the life world of humans, as imagined and fictitious, simulated and/or forged reality, against the background of the natural environments of animals and plants along with artificial civilization of knowledge and technology, created narratively in literary works and press-announcements and transmitted across generations through cultural tradition and education in public and mass communication. For the purpose of describing the reality everyday life of humans communicated through verbal and nonverbal meaning bearers, the subject matter of particular investigations for the purposes of master theses should constitute those manifestation forms of language and culture which contribute to the creation of interactive communities grouped around common interest spheres of people referring to their needs or values in the realizations of common tasks. In keeping with theoretical distinctions,, linguists and theoreticians of literature speak here about the discursive character of human communication. By discourse, they usually mean those types of texts and text-processing activities which are co-determined by social and cultural roles of communication participants in the specific domains of human life-world. Since discourses are constituents of cognized and communicated “human life-world”, researchers may expose their properties in the light of disciplines, which study environmental conditionings exerting the influence upon the formation of particular individuals and the groups in which they function as makers and users of textual meaning-bearers. Taking into account that the material domain of philological studies constitute text-creation practices of their authors and text-interpretation patterns of their addressees, participants of this seminar are expected to engage in the discursive analysis of verbal means of communication in dependence of the contexts in which they are formed and occur. According to their preferences they can chose texts, which are created in such domains of human life-world, as, e.g., school, university, church, court, military camp, government, parliament, Internet, social services, entertainment, recreation, tourism, advertising, journalism, literature, etc. Moreover, students may be given the opportunity to originate their own themes in cooperation with the seminar leader. In such a case, when the selected themes stand in conformity with the general topic of the seminar, the students will be fully supported with respect to the relevant content of the material domain and bibliography.
Suggested reading
Berger, Peter Ludwig and Thomas Luckmann 2010 /1983/ [1966]: Społeczne tworzenie rzeczywistości: Traktat z socjologii wiedzy. Tłum. Józef Niżnik. Wydanie drugie. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN /Warszawa:: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy (Biblioteka Myśli Współczesnej. Plus Minus Nieskończoność)/ [The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. Garden City, NY: Doubleday].
DeVito, Joseph 1976: The Interpersonal Communication Book. New York: Harper and Row.
Fowler, Roger 1991: Language in the News: Discourse and Ideology in the Press. London: Routledge.
Ingarden, Roman 1973 [1931]: The Literary Work of Art. Trans. George G. Grabowicz. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press [Das literarische Kunstwerk. Eine Untersuchung aus dem Grenzgebiet der Ontologie, Logik und Literaturwissenschaft. Halle an der Saale, ST: Max Niemeyer].
McQuail, Denis 2007 [2005 /1983/]: Teoria komunikowania masowego. Przekład Marta Bucholz, Alina Sulżycka. Redakcja naukowa Tomasz Goban-Klas. Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN [Mass Communication Theory. An Introduction. 5th edition. London, Beverly Hills: Sage Publications/ London: Sage/].
Sell, Roger D. 2000: Literature as Communication. The Foundations of Mediating Criticism. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Topics in English and Comparative English-Polish Syntax
The aim of this four-term course is to assist the participants in writing an M.A. thesis dealing with topics in English and comparative Polish-English syntax. A wide range of topics will be provided and the participants will have the opportunity to select the topic they feel most comfortable with. The participants are encouraged, though not obliged, to work within the framework of generative grammar and its recent stage: the Minimalist Program.
The course is divided into two equal parts: the formative one and the productive one. The first two terms constitute the formative stage; the participants undergo a thorough education in the field of generative linguistics. The mode of studies involves primarily mini-lectures presented by the Instructor and discussions of reading assignments, as well preparing presentations on primary literature.
The last two terms are devoted to the preparation of the M.A. thesis itself. Class instruction will be centered both round the issues pertinent to individual topics and general areas of interest including latest developments in the field.
Pre-requisites for the course: the successful candidate will be a B.A.diploma holder in English and will show keen interest in linguistics.
Previous expertise in the field of theoretical syntax is welcome, though not necessarily required, as explicit teaching of English syntax and syntactic theory will start at a most accessible level.
Basic references:
Chomsky, N. 1995. The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Greenbaum, G, and R. Quirk. 1970. A Student’s Grammar of English. Cambridge: CUP.
Ouhalla, J. 1995. Principles and Parameters. Oxford: Blackwell.
Wardhaugh, R. 1996. Understanding English Grammar. Oxford: Blackwell.
History of the English language - change and diversity
The aim of this seminar is to lead students towards a M.A. thesis devoted to the discussion of a selected aspect of the history of the English language. The main focus will be on periods of radical change, their causes, nature, and course. Alternatively, projects studying the historical development of non-standard varieties of English will also be welcome. Thus a wide range of possible research projects is possible, provided they focus on language no later that the nineteenth century. Some suggested research areas are the influence of language contact on various subsystems of English, developmental tendencies in English phonology, morphology, and lexicon in a wider perspective, or studies of selected linguistic variables in a text of the student's choice. Any of the contemporary methodological approaches (sociolinguistic, dialectal, structural, cognitive and others) may be employed. Original research based on authentic data analysis will be required, and substantial overlap with the subject matter of the student's B.A. thesis will not be allowed. In the course of the seminar students will be expected to read and critically comment on scholarly publications in the field of historical linguistics, English as well as general. A draft version of the first chapter will be expected to be handed in by the end of the spring semester as the main signature requirement.
Requirements: A potential candidate is expected to display general familiarity with linguistic theory and in particular with key issues pertaining to the history of the English language.
Selected bibliography:
Mugglestone, Lynda (ed.). 2006. The Oxford history of English. Oxford: OUP.
van Gelderen, Elly. 2006. A history of the English language. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
van Kemenade, Ans — Bettelou Los (eds.). 2006. The handbook of the history of English. London: Wiley-Blackwell.
Discourses of health – discussing medical topics in society
This seminar will consider a variety of discourses in broadly understood health communication. The discourses may be produced by actors in different configurations, may relate to different areas of health/medicine, and may be studied on the basis of different data: (1) doctor-and-patient (medical practice), e.g. medical interviews; (2) doctor-and-doctor (medical profession), e.g. specialist medical publications; (3) patient-patient (lay perspective), e.g. data from health-related online forums, online support groups, patients‘ associations, etc. Additionally, various media products may be explored, such as popular scientific articles, social campaigns, medical TV dramas, etc. The study of these various data allows one to shed light on how the personas of doctors and patients are portrayed as well as how different phenomena such as disease are constructed.
In the seminar, students will first be introduced to the basic terminology used and methods applied in discourse analysis. Next, selected medical genres, both specialist and popular, will be discussed with respect to their structure, characteristic features, functions they perform and contexts in which they are produced. Here, the many discourses contained therein will be explored. Finally, perspectives that can be chosen to analyse them will be presented. In other words, the seminar is meant to acquaint students not only with the knowledge of various facets of health communication but also equip them with the tools needed to examine its aspects. Students’ MA theses will be devoted to the study of various discourses in a variety of contexts within widely understood health communication.
Bibliography:
Duszak, Anna. 1998. Tekst, dyskurs i komunikacja międzykulturowa. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
Fleischman, Susanne. 2001. “Language and medicine”, in: Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen and Heidi E. Hamilton (eds.), The handbook of discourse analysis. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 470-502.
Gee, James Paul. 2001. An introduction to discourse analysis. Theory and method. London: Routledge.
Gotti, Maurizio and Franc¸oise Salager-Meyer (eds.). 2006. Advances in medical discourse analysis – oral and written contexts. Bern: Peter Lang.
Gotti, Maurizio. 2008. Investigating specialised discourse. Bern: Peter Lang.
Gotti, Maurizio. 2011. “Insights into medical discourse in oral and written contexts”, in: Anna Loiacono, Giovanni Iamartino and Kim S. Grego (eds.), Teaching medical English. Milan: Polimetrica, 29-52.
Gwyn, Richard. 2001. Communicating health and illness. London: Sage.
Harvey, Kevin and Neyla Koteyko. 2012. Exploring health communication. Language in action. London: Routledge.
Hyden, Lars-Christer and Elliot G. Mishler. 1999. “Language and medicine”, Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 19: 174-192.
Language and cognition in a second language acquisition and bilingualism perspective
Second language users differ from monolinguals in a number of ways. The very presence of an L2 in the mind of a second language user affects both cognitive representations and cognitive processes. This seminar will have two thematic strands connected with the topic of language and cognition. The first one is linguistic representations and mental representations connected with language. In other words, we will look into what second language users talk about and how they talk about it, and how they mentally represent the world. We will discuss three approaches to language and cognition: linguistic relativity, thinking for speaking and embodied cognition, as well as empirical support for each of these. Although we might look into some work done with monolinguals, the focus will be on linguistic and conceptual transfer in second language users. The other thematic strand is language processing in a psycholinguistic perspective and mental processes in bilinguals as compared to monolinguals. Here we will deal with topics such as language lateralization, categorical vs. non-categorical perception, lexical processing and language control. The focus throughout the course will be on second language users and bilinguals, although crosslinguistic and pedagogically-oriented research is also a possibility.
This seminar is strongly research-oriented. Students will be encouraged to engage in research projects early on, as well as to participate in ongoing research projects. The MA thesis will require designing, conducting and reporting on an empirical study employing qualitative or quantitative methodology used in second language acquisition and/or psycholinguistic research.
Course outline and credit requirements: During the first semester students will be expected to choose the topic of their project and collect the references. In the second semester, they will be expected to prepare a detailed research project. Over the third semester they will be expected to conduct the experiment and report on it. The last semester will be devoted to writing the thesis. Classroom activities will focus around these stages of preparing the thesis. We will start by studying published research reports. Later on, more time will be devoted to students reporting on their projects. Guidance on research methods will be provided throughout the course.
Prerequisites: Keen interest in the topic. Any of the references listed below can provide the candidate with an overview of the topic of this seminar.
Basic references:
Cook, Vivian and Benedetta Bassetti (eds). 2011. Language and bilingual cognition. New York: Psychology Press.
de Groot, Annette M.B. 2011. Language and cognition in bilinguals and multilinguals. New York: Psychology Press.
Jarvis, Scott and Aneta Pavlenko. 2008. Crosslinguistic influence in language and cognition. New York: Routledge.
Kroll, Judith F. and Annette M.B. de Groot (eds). 2005. Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Pavlenko, Aneta (ed.). 2009. The bilingual mental lexicon: Interdisciplinary approaches. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Pavlenko, Aneta (ed.). 2011. Thinking and speaking in two languages. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Experimental pragmatics: Issues in language/emotion interface
This seminar offers insight into processes and mechanisms underpinning comprehension of emotional meaning in communicative context. It aims at exploring and explaining most recent interdisciplinary research on how emotions influence language processing. Although emotions permeate communication, constantly coloring our perception, and instantly gearing our comprehension, no language theory has so far accounted for how, or when emotion and language interact to impart their respective communicative contents. Experimental research has just started to explore the dynamics and chronometry of emotion/language interactions, and shows that emotional markers enter linguistic contents processing rapidly, and profoundly alter the patterns of linguistic import processing. We will study most recent research (theoretical, and empirical) on the mechanics and dynamics underpinning emotional, and verbal contents processing. Our explorations are settled at three distinct levels: (i) behavioral, concerned with verbal and nonverbal means of manifesting emotional significance; (ii) mental, dedicated to the inferential heuristics involved in emotion communication and comprehension; and (iii) neuro-physiological, exploring the brain mechanics involved in affective and linguistic contents computation.
The course is aimed at students who seek to study quite a novel edge in linguistic pragmatics research (experimental pragmatics), are keen on reading extensively and discussing vehemently the emotion/language interface; are eager to discover experimental methods and to employ them in their own M.A. research projects. Prospective students are expected to be experimentally-minded, research-driven, and eager to spend many long hours designing and running their own experimental studies at our Language and Communication lab.
Suggested reading:
Bar, M. (ed.). 2011. Predictions in the Brain. Using our Past to Generate a Future. Oxford University Press.
Horn, L.– G. Ward (eds.). 2006. The Handbook of Pragmatics. Blackwell.
Lewis, M. – J. Haviland-Jones – L. Feldman Barrett 2008. (eds.) Handbook of Emotions. Guildford Press.
Mitchell, M.– J. Jolley. 2010. Research Design explained. Wadsworth.
Noveck, I.– D. Sperber (eds.). 2004. Experimental Pragmatics. Palgrave.
Issues in phonology from the phonetic and typological perspective: Accounts, descriptions, overviews
Phonology deals with systems of sounds. It discovers ways in which sounds work together to convey meanings. In the course of phonological investigations various concepts and terms are used which are supposed to facilitate the explanation. Any phonological theory needs such explanatory tools in order to be able to express a particular view on how sounds are represented in the mind and how they function in speech.
For instance, sounds may have an UNDERLYING REPRESENTATION in the mind of the speaker, which consists of PHONEMES, which turn up as ALLOPHONES in speech. Phonemes have FEATURES, which may be DISTINCTIVE or REDUNDANT; they constitute higher units such as SYLLABLES or FEET. A RULE or PROCESS changes a phoneme into an allophone, or an allophone is DERIVED from a phoneme. Sounds build language-specific INVENTORIES of CONSONANTS and VOWELS. Sounds differ in MARKEDNESS (some are more MARKED, some are more NATURAL). Sounds may be ordered according to the SONORITY scale. There are PHONOLOGICAL UNIVERSALS across languages. EASE OF ARTICULATION may lead to LENITION while CLARITY OF PERCEPTION may lead to FORTITION.
In this seminar we will examine some important concepts in phonology, trace their origin and history and analyze how useful or effective they have been in explaining phonological systems. We will approach our task from the typological and phonetic perspective. Students will be expected to refer to the sources like WALS, UPSID, the Ethnologue and browse through the files of currents conferences and sessions on phonology (e.g. the Annual Meetings on Phonology began as Phonology 2013 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, LabPhon, Manchester Phonology Meeting, The Old-World Conference on Phonology, The CUNY phonology forum, The North American Phonology Conference, International Child Phonology Conference, ICPhS, SLE, PLM, etc). Participants will choose an issue of interest and provide a comprehensive account of its development. The resulting theses will be descriptive-analytic or supported by one’s own experimental evidence.
The only prerequisite to this seminar is the motivation to study sounds of language. Introduction to phonetics will be useful but not necessary since a tabula rasa start may have advantages for the proposed topic.
Theoretical aspects of translation
The seminar will focus on a range of theoretical aspects of translation. The instruction will begin with an overview of the discipline's history, and will proceed with discussions of equivalence, functional theories of translation, discourse and register analysis approaches, system theories, as well as translation studies as an interdiscipline. Special attention will be devoted to issues related to audiovisual translation in general and audio description (making audiovisual media accessible to the blind and the visually impaired) in particular. During the course numerous empirical studies and theoretical models will be discussed and the students will be strongly encouraged to conduct their own small-scale research projects.
To successfully complete the course the students will be required to attend the classes, complete reading assignments, actively participate in discussions, be prepared to deliver an oral presentation and make systematic progress on their M.A. theses. They will be expected to provide topics and outlines of their M.A. theses by the end of the second semester.
Prospective candidates are expected to have an excellent command of English, be well-familiar with the principles of academic writing, have an inquisitive mind, be well-motivated and capable of independent study.
Suggested reading:
Munday, Jeremy. 2008. Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications. London: Routledge.
Venuti, Lawrence (ed.). 2001. Translation Studies Reader. London: Routledge.
The self in task-and-means oriented conversations
In the theoretical part of the course, the attention will be paid to the principles of scientific work and writing. The students will be familiarized here with such particular distinctions and notions as: the field of academic activity, the scope of the investigative domain, the material object of study and its formal subject-matter as a set of relevant properties of the investigated object, the investigative perspective and the aspects of the investigated object, theory and method as constituents of a scientific discipline, as well as with techniques of collecting and eliciting the source material and the means of their presentation.
The specific part of the seminar is addressed to those participants who intend to write their MA theses on verbal and non-verbal behaviors of people from the perspective of human linguistics. Therefore, presentations during the course will focus on the principles of interpreting and describing the linguistic performances of human individuals, specified as signifying and communicating selves, on the basis of their textual products or text-processing activities. Thus, students interested in analyzing the linguistic-communicational properties of task-and-means-oriented conversations, excerpted from authentic literary or journalistic texts in English, will engage in searches for various types of interpersonal relationships, starting from the properties of communicating selves, going through the observable elements which make up various kinds of temporary and long-lasting communities and ending with the aggregation of the chains of communication participants in the structure of human society in general.
Select bibliography
Bois, Joseph Samuel 1966/1972. The Art of Awareness. A Textbook on General Semantics and Epistemics. Seventh printing. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Co.
DeVito, Joseph. 1976. The Interpersonal Communication Book. New York: Harper and Row.
Downes, William 1984/1998. Language and Society. London: Fontana Paperbacks. 2nd edition. Cambridge, England, New York, NY, Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press.
Goffman, Erving 2000 [1959] Człowiek w teatrze życia codziennego. Opracował i słowem wstępnym poprzedził Jerzy Szacki. Przeł. Helena Datner-Śpiewak i Paweł Śpiewak. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo KR [The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh, Social Sciences Research Centre].
Posner, Roland 1988. “What is an academic discipline.” In: Regina Claussen, Roland Daube-Schackat (eds.), Gedankenzeichen. Festschrift für Klaus Oehler zum 60. Geburtstag.Tübingen: Stauffenburg, 165–185.
Posner, Roland 2003. “The relationship between individual disciplines and interdisciplinary approaches.” In: Roland Posner, Klaus Robering, Thomas a. Sebeok (eds.). Semiotics. A Handbook of the Sign-Theoretic Foundations of Nature and Culture. Volume 3. Berlin – New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2341–2374.
Yngve, Victor H(use) 1996. From Grammar to Science. New Foundations for General Linguistics. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Specjalizacja celtycka
Language ideologies in the English-speaking world
This seminar considers the ways in which views on the nature of language, language ideologies, and language and identity have fundamentally altered the research agendas and foci in the field of sociolinguistics over the past several decades. It examines how these newer ways of understanding language in society have been applied to English-speaking countries, particularly with reference to North America and the UK and includes attitudes toward non-standard varieties of English and minority languages, particularly Celtic ones.
Selected Bibliography
Duchene, Alexandre and Monica Heller. 2007. (eds.) Discourses of Endangerment: Ideology and Interest in the Defence of Languages. London: Continuum
Lippi-Green, Rosina. 1997. English With an Accent. Hove: Psychology Press.
Ricento, Thomas. 2000. Ideology, Politics and Language Policies. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Politics of memory: metaphor in the multimodal context
This MA seminar combines two major theoretical approaches: cognitive linguistics and discourse studies in an attempt to elucidate the interaction between language and collective memory and identity. In particular, it will focus on identifying cognitive processes underlying the construction of meaning in a dynamic multimodal environment. It will also look into how linguistic strategies are deployed in creating group cohesion, in particular in discourses of inclusion and exclusion. At the methodological level it will draw on both qualitative and quantitative analyses, including metaphor-led discourse analysis and corpus approaches to discourse. Potential MA theses topics should centre on issues related to the politics of memory in English-speaking countries, both of the inner circle (UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Anglophone Canada, Anglophone South Africa) and the outer circle (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Philippines, Malaysia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya). Data sources for analyses can include, among others, such media genres as press articles, radio broadcasts, TV interviews, blogs and Internet forums, as well as visual representations (paintings, memorials), films and music. In year I the focus will be on critical reading of literature and in-class, hands-on application of the discussed analytic tools to samples of data. In year II students will be able to follow their own interests by presenting case studies relevant to their MA projects.
Basic references
for the course:
Baker, Paul. 2006.
Using Corpora in Discourse Analysis. London: Continuum.
Geeraerts, Dirk – Hubert Cuyckens. 2007.
The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics. Oxford: OUP. 214-235.
Wodak Ruth and Meyer, Michael. 2001.
Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Sage.
Basic references for the interview with the candidates:
Kövecses, Zoltán. 2000. Metaphor. An introduction. OUP.
Wodak, Ruth. 2001. “What CDA is about - a summary of its history, important concepts and its developments” In pp. Wodak Ruth and Meyer, Michael. 2001. Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Sage. 1-13.
Open your eyes to the multilingual mind – language processing in bilinguals and multilinguals
This seminar is aimed at students interested in how the human mind processes languages especially in bilinguals and multilinguals. We will look into the psychological and physiological factors underlying language understanding and use. A particular priority will be given to studies employing the most innovative methods used in research on language processing such as eye-tracking (monitoring of eye movements). During the seminar students will have access to world-leading eye-tracking equipment and will learn how to use it in research. We will also test how fast humans react to various types of visual and auditory stimuli. We will analyse what these reaction times can tell us about how languages are processed in the minds of bilingual/multilingual speakers. Equipped with the necessary knowledge, substantial guidance and ample instruction, students will have an opportunity to run an empirical study which may help uncover some of the intricacies of language processing in the bilingual/multilingual mind. In the seminar a wide selection of research topics will be provided so that each student can work towards an M.A. thesis which best addresses his/her interests.
Prerequisites:
Keen interest in language processing by bilinguals and multilinguals.
Knowledge of more than one foreign language is welcome but not obligatory.
Suggested reading:
De Angelis, Gessica De. 2007. Third or Additional Language Acquisition. Multilingual Matters.
Gaskell, Gareth, ed. 2007. Oxford Handbook of Psycholinguistics. 1st ed. Oxford University Press, USA.
Gleason, Jean Berko, and Nan Bernstein Ratner, eds. 2005. Psycholingwistyka. Trans. Jerzy Bobryk. Gdansk: Gdanskie Wydaw. Psychologiczne.
De Groot, Annette M. B. 2010. Language and Cognition in Bilinguals and Multilinguals: An Introduction. Psychology Press.
Seminarium dla studentów międzywydziałowych studiów tłumaczeniowych
Psycholinguistic aspects of interpreting
In this seminar students will learn about the theoretical models and research methods developed in psycholinguistics which can shed more light on the cognitive processing involved in conference interpreting. Memory and the mental lexicon of unidirectional and bidirectional interpreters will be the focus of the seminar but participants are free to explore other areas of Interpreting Studies (IS) which draw on psycholinguistics.
Students are required to participate in class discussions based on reading assignments and deliver a presentation on a selected topic. By May 2015 each student must submit the topic of his/her MA thesis together with an outline and a preliminary bibliography. In November 2015 each student presents the draft version of the first chapter of the thesis. Students are expected to complete their theses by the end of May 2016.
Introductory reading
Pöchhacker, Franz. 2003. Introducing Interpreting Studies. London: Routledge.
