Dear all,

thank you for participating in the last live session of our seminar in 2020. Phew… The presentation can be found, as every week, in the folder very practically called Presentations. In preparation for the next session, please do the following:

1. Read the following text:
   • There’s no new text, but perhaps re-read Middeke, Kirsten (2019) Syntax for our next session.
     
2. Watch the following videos on syntax:
   • Syntax III: Semantic roles & valency
   • Syntax IV: Constructions
3. Have a look at the sheet with your new homework tasks.
   • You can find it also on Blackboard in the Course material/Homework folder.
4. If you feel like it, fill out this feedback form.

As always – if you have any questions, feel free to contact me at any time. I will regularly check the forums on Blackboard as well as my emails.

Enjoy the winter break, stay safe & stay healthy!

Merry wishes,

Martin

Dear all,

thank you for participating in the live session of our seminar. The presentation can be found, as every week, in the folder very practically called Presentations. In preparation for the next week’s session, please do the following:

1. Read the following text:
   • There is no new text for next week. However, you might want to reread our last text, i.e. Bieswanger & Becker (2017: 75-95). 
2. Watch the following videos:
   • Inflection & derivation
   • Word formation
3. Have a look at the sheet with your new homework tasks.
   • You can find it on the Blackboard page of this seminar in the Course material/Homework folder.
4. If you feel like it, fill out this feedback form.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at any time!

Best wishes,

Martin

Dear all,

thank you for participating in the live session of our seminar. The presentation can be found, as every week, in the folder very practically called Presentations. In preparation for the next week’s session, please do the following:

1. Read the following text: Bieswanger & Becker (2017: 75-95), i.e. Chapter 5, Morphology. 
2. Watch the following three videos on Phonology.
   • (Phonology to) Morphology I
   • (Phonology to) Morphology II
   • (Phonology to) Morphology III
3. Have a look at the sheet with your new homework tasks. You can find it on the Blackboard page of this seminar in the Course material/Homework folder.
4. If you feel like it, fill out this feedback form.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at any time!

Best wishes,

Martin

Update: In the original post, the link to the feedback form lead to the old form. It’s updated now. Sorry about that…

Dear all,

thank you for participating in the live session of our seminar. The presentation can be found, as promised, in the folder suitably called Presentations. In preparation for the next week’s session, please do the following:

1. Read the following text: Bieswanger & Becker (2017: 58-73), section 3.2 Phonology. 
2. Watch the following three videos on Phonology.
   • Phonology I
   • Phonology II
   • Phonology III
3. Have a look at the sheet with your new homework tasks. You can also find it on the Blackboard page of this seminar in the Course material/Homework folder.
4. If you feel like it, fill out this feedback form.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at any time!

Best wishes,

Martin

Dear all,

thank you for participating in the live session of our seminar. The presentation can be found, as promised, in the folder suitably called Presentations. In preparation for the next week’s session, please do the following:

1. Read the following text: Bieswanger & Becker (2017: 50-58), section 3.1.3 Phonetic transcription. If you want to read more about the topic, you can read Plag et al. (2009: 29-54).
2. Watch this video.
3. Have a look at the sheet with your new homework tasks. You can also find it on the Blackboard page of this seminar in the Course material/Homework folder.
4. If you feel like it, fill out this feedback form.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at any time!

Best wishes,

Martin

Dear all,

the PowerPoint presentation used for the preparatory videos for Week 2, can be found here (IPA, speech organs, consonants) & here (vowels).

Best regards,

Martin

Dear all,

thank you for participating in the first session of our seminar. In preparation for our next week’s session, please do the following:

1. Read the following text: Bieswanger & Becker (2017: 39-50)
   • How to access the book is explained here.
   • How to use the VPN client is explained here.
2. Watch the following videos
   • IPA, speech organs, consonants
   • Vowels
   • Introduction to articulatory phonetics
3. Have a look at the sheet with your first homework tasks. You will find it on Blackboard in Course material/Homework
4. If you feel like it, have a look at this feedback form.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at any time!

Best wishes,

Martin

Let’s get started

Lo and behold! You have come to the blog page of the seminar Introduction to linguistics II (17309). This is the place where you will find all the necessary information about our seminar.

What I offer?

This module (=seminar & lecture) offers you an introduction to the basic concepts and methods of linguistics on various levels of analysis: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics as well as text linguistics. At the end of the semester, you will understand what linguistics is about and you will be ready to attend further, more specialised courses. Moreover, by successfully attending this module, you will earn 5 ECTS credits.

What you have to do?

In order to achieve the goals mentioned above and in order to get your credit points, you have to do the following on weekly basis:

1. Read a short textbook chapter to prepare for the live sessions. Sometimes,  there will also be optional follow-up readings.
2. Watch the pre-recorded video(s) to prepare for the live sessions.
3. Attend the live session. This is the core of our seminar. We will discuss the topics introduced in the texts & videos.
4. Do your homework. The homework tasks will prepare you for the weekly quizzes you have to take in order to pass. The homework will be discussed in the following live session.
5. Take the quiz. The quizzes will be published on Fridays at noon. You will have time until Monday to answer the questions.

This video explains how to get a (digital) copy of the textbook.

Live sessions

The live sessions take place on every Wednesday & start at 12:15. We will meet in a WebEx room which you can access using this link. In order to enter this room, you will need the following password: 5tSJB9c8YnQ

You can find useful information and tips concerning WebEx here.

Tutorial

The course is accompanied by a tutorial organised by Eva Sirlinger. All details can be found here.

If anything

If you experience any technical difficulties, if you have any questions about the course or if you simply want to talk about linguistics, feel free to contact me at any time. There is a number of ways you can do that:

• My email: martin.konvicka@fu-berlin.de
• My office hours: Tuesdays, 14:00-16:00 in my personal WebEx room.
• My Twitter account: @teapotlinguist

Stay healthy, stay safe & see you on Wednesday!

Martin