Second-year of study M.A. monographic lectures (2MA MONO) for winter term 2024–2025 (Full-time programmes)

What is this list?

This is a list of monographic lectures we intend to launch in the winter term (October–February) in our full-time M.A. programme in English philology (Filologia angielska) whose second year of study is the academic year 2024–2025. This list is intended for:

  1. Students at the Faculty of English who are about to enter the second year of their full-time M.A. programme: this is your reference point before your enrolment into monographic lectures;
  2. Candidates for our full-time programmes: this list gives you a snapshot of what monographic lectures were on offer for the study cycle that started in 2023.

How to navigate the list?

The list is sorted by name of the teacher. The format is as follows: the title of the monographic lecture, the name of the teacher, and the description of the monographic lecture.

Big issues and great debates in the theory of syntax

prof. UAM dr hab. Piotr Cegłowski

The aim of this series of lectures is to present and discuss the selected problems that have been at the forefront of the syntactic debate for the past couple of decades. These include both the foundational aspects of the theory of syntax (e.g. derivational vs. representational approach to syntax, “crash-proof” syntax, the place of Lexicon in the organization of grammar (Lexicalism vs. Distributed Morphology), alternatives to the classical version of the Principles and Parameters framework or the distinction between Broad and Narrow Language Faculty in the context of the evolution of language), as well as the “nuts and bolts” of the syntactic mechanics (e.g. cross-linguistic properties of nominal expressions - the so-called NP vs. DP debate, the null subject phenomenon, etc.).

Selected bibliography
  • Alexiadou, A., L. Haegeman and M. Starvou. 2007. Noun Phrase in the Generative Perspective. New York: Mouton de Gruyer.
  • Biberbauer, T., A. Holmberg, I. Roberts, M. Sheenan. 2010. Parametric variation. Null subjects in Minimalist Theory. Cambridge: CUP.
  • Cinque, G. and R. Kayne (eds). 2005. The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Syntax. Oxford: OUP.
  • Cognola, F. and J. Casalicchio (eds). 2018. Null Subjects in Generative Grammar. A Synchronic and Diachronic Perspective. Oxford: OUP.
  • Franks, S. 1995. Parameters of Slavic Morphosyntax. Oxford: OUP.
  • Hornstein, N., J. Nunes, K. Grohmann. 2005. Understanding Minimalism. Cambridge: CUP.
  • Larson, R., V. Déprez and H. Yamakido. The Evolution of Human Language. Biolinguistic Perspectives. Cambridge: CUP.
  • Luraghi, S. and C. Parodi (eds). 2013. The Bloomsbury Companion to syntax. London: Bloomsbury.
  • Isac, D. and C. Reiss. 2008. I-Language. An Introduction to Linguistics as Cognitive Science.
  • Rizzi, L. (ed.). 2004. The Structure of CP and IP. Oxford: OUP.

Language and interaction in professional contexts

prof. UAM dr hab. Joanna Pawelczyk

This interactive seminar is devoted to exploring the role and dynamics of language and interaction in contemporary professional and institutional settings. We will begin the discussion with a critical focus on the traditional juxtaposition of an ordinary conversation and an institutional interaction. We will then look into how professional identities are constructed by organization members and the various challenges they face in enacting them (e.g., women in leadership positions). Of interest will also be organizations referred to as gendered and meritocratic. Finally, we will explore the interactional and linguistic aspects of the psychotherapeutic interaction.

As this course is planned as an interactive lecture, students are expected to 1. actively participate in the discussions 2. write a reflection paper on a topic related to the theme of the lecture.

Intertextuality and transmediality in the discursive becoming of the human self

prof. UAM dr hab. Elżbieta Wąsik

he lectures will be devoted to the semiotic aspects of self-actualization of human individuals through their involvement in discursive practices in their lifeworlds. Taking a homocentric perspective, they will focus on the signifying-communicating self, that is, a self-aware human subject, interacting with other subjects through different codes, realized via different channels and media as means used to store and convey information. The human self will be considered as a participant and creator of culture. The environment, in which humans as selves actively accomplish their needs and values, and thus fulfill their intellectual potential, will be described by two terms, such as intertextuality and transmediality that nowadays find application in the semiotics of culture and media communication. The concept of intertextuality, as initially employed by poststructuralist theorists and critics of literature, will be defined by referring to relationships among texts that mediate between human individuals, who create, receive and interpret them. The meaning of the concept of transmediality, in turn, will be specified by characterizing the contemporary media culture. As will be stressed, in recent times, on a large scale, thanks to advanced technological development, various media coexist and converge, enabling the recipients of media messages to provide feedback.