UCL - Dutch linguistics: Syntactic, semantic and functional aspects of word order

[GERM2833]

[30h] 6 credits

This two-yearly course is taught in 2008-2009, 2010-2011,...

Teacher(s):

Language: NL

Level: Second

Aims
Main themes
Content and teaching methods
Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Aims

The aims of this course are :
to acquire insight into the basic principles which govern word order (in particular the Functional Sentence Perspective or FSP).
to be able to apply the functional principles to different languages and/or to authentic material in Dutch.

Main themes

In this course, J. Firbas' theory of Functional Sentence Perspective will be introduced and applied to modern written Dutch.

Content and teaching methods

In this course, J. Firbas' theory of Functional Sentence perspective will be applied to modern Dutch. According to this Czech scholar, the FSP is the final result (within the syntactic possibilities) of a tension between (what he calls) the basic distribution of thematic, transitional and rhematic elements on the one hand, the contextual dependence and the semantic structure on the other hand.
First hand evidence will be adduced to show that word order in Dutch can be considered as the result of an interplay between syntactic, semantic and functional principles.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Evaluation : oral exam (theory and applications); students will be invited to comment on various examples taken from the course and from their own collected material.
Course materials and selected reading :

1 Syllabus and personal notes.

2 Sites :
http://www.ilv.ucl.ac.be/gramlink-nl/syntaxis/http://www.uclouvain.be/index.htm.
http://oase.uci.kun.nl/~ans/ (links-rechts-principe).

3 Short bibliography :

Firbas, J., 1992, Functional sentence perspective in written and spoken communication. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
Geerts, G., W. Haeseryn, J. De Rooij & M.C. van den Toorn, 1992, Algemene Nederlandse Spraakkunst. Groningen/ Leuven : Wolters-Noordhoff [ANS], pp. 1235-1247.
Godin, P.,1992, La Perspective communicative de la phrase: une application au néerlandais. In : J. Lerot & Ch. Thys (eds). Texte, Communication et Cognition. Louvain-La-Neuve, Documents du DIFR: Cahiers F.L.E. N°2, 87-108.
Godin, P., 1999, Rhématisation du sujet grammatical en néerlandais et les correspondants en français et en anglais, in Le langage et l'homme XXXIV, n°1, 1999, pp. 25-43.
Taalbaakbulletin, 1996, Van links naar rechts - De plaats van informatie in de zin. In: Taalbaakbulletin, december 1996, 12-16.