General Linguistics

Objective

Specializing allows students to focus their studies on one of the linguistic disciplines. General Linguistics is one of the specialization options. The module builds on the knowledge acquired in the compulsory modules and is complemented by elective courses and the practice module. The master's thesis is written in the subject area of the specialization module.

Course content

The General Linguistics module deals with specific content of general linguistics at an advanced level. Special attention is given to the three core areas of General Linguistics: (a) philosophical foundations (epistemological status of linguistics; linguistics as a deductive and as an empirical science; notion of structure in linguistics; language and logic; language and thought); (b) basic empirical issues of linguistic research (language evolution; universality vs. particularity in language; biological and cultural models of human language; linguistic diversity; structure vs. use as essential features of language); and (c) linguistic categories (language-specific vs. universal categories; formal and substantive criteria in the determination of categories; structural and meaning-related categories; psychological reality of linguistic approaches to categorization). In the lecture, these topics will be presented and different approaches to individual questions discussed. In the seminar and in the practical, individual empirical questions of language description and comparison will be addressed with the aim of illustrating the relevance and scope of application of the aforementioned questions with as diverse examples as possible, ranging from phonological systems to discourse organization.

Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to understand general linguistics questions, reflect critically on them, and draw appropriate theoretical and practical conclusions from possible answers. They will have the intellectual and methodological know-how to carry out the observation and description of linguistic phenomena and to use the results as a basis for observing complex relationships. They will also be able to discuss the same linguistic phenomenon from multiple perspectives and thus come to realize that there are no final truths in science, only weaker and stronger hypotheses. They will have learned that variability at all levels is one of the fundamental properties of language and that, consequently, language should be understood and studied less as an object and more as a process.