LING 252 "Locatives", Spring 2004
Tuesday & Thursday 12-1:50, Public Policy 2119
Description:
Locative expressions are abundant in language, yet they have not
been as much studied as, for example, tense.
Recently, one notices a growing interest in space and spatial
expressions (there is a new series "Explorations in
Language and Space" by Oxford University Press and various
books among other by Robert Levinson). The pro-
seminar is devoted to the study of locatives. I propose to
cover (depending on time) the following topics:
♠ Morphological systems (locative cases in various
languages, especially Uralic and Caucasian languages,
locative PPs in Indo-European)
♠ Semantics of spatial expressions: Jackendoff has
proposed a layered structure, one element defining the spatial
region, the other a path. We first study the subtleties of
specifying the region.
+ axes and frames (Levinson): some special properties of Australian
indigeneous languages, Inuit, and Oceanic
languages.
+ factors determining the use of Ps (Tversky, Landau)
+ modes and directionality (special attention to Uralic languages, in
particular Finnish (V. Fong))
+ orientation (Nam, Kracht)
♠ Interactions between syntax and semantics:
+ are local cases structural or semantic? (Vainikka vs Niikanne)
+ case selection and the bimorphemic analysis (Kracht)
♠ Metaphorical uses of spatial expressions
+ fictitious motion, ception (Talmy, Givon)
+ aspects of cognitive grammar (Langacker)
♠ Historical development: how spatial expressions "radiate"
into other domains (tense, possession, etc)
Prerequisites:
No special knowledge besides basic linguistic training is needed.
The mathematics and formal semantics which is
involved is fairly basic.
Material (under construction, comments welcome):
♠ An extensive LaTeX bibilography
for your perusal.
♠ A course reader.