WORDS AND MEANINGS: LEXIS AND SEMANTICS

WORDS AND MEANINGS: LEXIS AND SEMANTICS
Course Code
EL 2010
Credit Points
15
Course Coordinator
Dr R M Millar

Pre-requisites

None.

Co-requisites

None.

Notes

This is a 15 credit, six week course.

Overview

Meaning is at the heart of our understanding of language, ourselves and the world; and yet it is notoriously difficult to ?tie down?. Why do I think a particular word means one thing while you think it means something ? subtly or significantly ? different? This course gives you the opportunity to explore these issues. You will learn how we construct hierarchies of meaning and how these may differ from language to language; you will also come to understand how what a word means can differ from place to place and at different times. The course also considers how dictionaries and thesauri are constructed.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures, one line workshop and one-hour tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 2,000 word essay (50%); homework exercise (30%), tutorial assessment (20%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).

Formative Assessment

Students will receive formative commentary from tutors in tutorials.

Feedback

Students will receive feedback on-line for their performance in on-line assessment; they will also be encouraged to discuss this performance with their tutors. All students will receive written feedback on essay performance; again, they will be encouraged to discuss their performance with their tutors.