JAP225 Visiting Professor's Course

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2017
Extent and Intensity
0/0/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Prof. Yoshihisa Nakamura (lecturer)
Mgr. Jiří Matela, M.A., Ph.D. (alternate examiner)
Guaranteed by
doc. PhDr. Luboš Bělka, CSc.
Department of Japanese Studies – Asia Studies Centre – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Mgr. Jiří Matela, M.A., Ph.D.
Supplier department: Department of Japanese Studies – Asia Studies Centre – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Mon 25. 9. 9:10–12:25 K12 nerezervovat, Fri 29. 9. 14:10–17:25 K23, Mon 2. 10. 9:10–12:25 K12 nerezervovat, Tue 3. 10. 14:10–15:45 B2.24, Thu 5. 10. 9:10–10:45 K32, Fri 6. 10. 14:10–17:25 K23
Prerequisites
JAP111a Japanese language II.-theory
Basic knowledge of modern Japanese.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
Title of the course: Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics: Argument-Structure Constructions, Typology, and Evolution of Language
The course intends to provide basic theoretical and methodological knowledge in the area of cognitive linguistics with a certain focus on constructions in English (e.g. resultative constructions, conative constructions, middle constructions, double-object constructions, and so forth). Since one of the central tenets of cognitive linguistics is that language reflects the way we categorize and conceptualize the world (i.e. “construal” in Langacker’s Cognitive Grammar), we will look at new analyses of constructions within the cognitive framework and contrast English constructions and Japanese (and Czech) constructions as part of a cognition-based linguistic typology (how Czech is located in this typology will be a good research question). The typological studies will be based on two modes of cognition, called I-mode and D-mode of cognition, which are closely related to “subjectivity” of language. These two modes of cognition also allow us to investigate the evolution of language from the cognitive perspective.
Syllabus
  • 1. Introduction of the course: content vs. construal.
  • 2. Cognitive and conceptual structure of constructions I
  • 3. Cognitive and conceptual structure of constructions II
  • 4. Network of constructions
  • 5. Mechanism of composition: Chomsky’s Merge vs. Langacker’s merge
  • 6. Cognitive mechanism of grammaticalization
  • 7. Contrastive analysis of English vs. Japanese constructions
  • 8. Two modes of cognition: I-mode and D-mode
  • 9. Cognition-based linguistic typology
  • 10. Evolution of language from the cognitive perspective
Literature
  • NAKAMURA, Yoshihisa (ed.). Ninchi bunpóron II. Tokyo: Taishúkan shoten. 2004. ISBN 978-4-4692-1285-3
  • NAKAMURA, Yoshihisa, UEHARA, Satoshi. Raneká no (kan)shukansei to sono tenkai. Tokyo: Kaitakusha. 2016. ISBN 978-4-7589-2225-8
  • TSUBOMOTO, Atsuró et. al. (eds.). "Uchi" to "soto" no gengogaku. Tokyo: Kaitakusha. 2009. ISBN 978-4-7589-2145-9
Teaching methods
Lectures with PowerPoint presentations, handouts and other materials; discussion on selected points of the presented topics.
Assessment methods
Final paper.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2012, Spring 2014, Autumn 2016, Autumn 2018, Autumn 2019.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2017, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/autumn2017/JAP225