LING 254A SEM 2 "Locatives", Spring 2008
Time and Place: Tuesday & Thursday 14-15:50, Rolfe 3123
Course ID: 65340602
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.