First-year of study M.A. theme seminars (1MA THEME) for winter term 2025–2026 (Language, Mind, Technology)

What is this list?

This is a list of theme seminars we intend to launch in the winter term (October–February) in of our full-time M.A. programme Language, Mind, Technology.

How to navigate the list?

The list is sorted by name of the teacher. The format of each entry is the following: the title of the course, the name of the teacher, and the description of the course.

The sounds and words of the world’s languages

prof. UAM dr hab. Marcin Kilarski

This course is an overview of the ways in which the languages of the world differ in their sound systems as well as word and sentence structure. We are going to ask and answer such questions as “What are the common features that languages share?” and “How can we account for differences among languages?”. The course will consist of the following parts:

  1. An introduction to linguistic typology;
  2. Sound systems (consonant and vowel inventories, ordering of sounds);
  3. Types of word structure (types of morphemes, ways morphemes are arranged in words, means of expressing lexical and grammatical meanings);
  4. Syntactic typology (ordering of words, agreement, government);
  5. Language change (ways in which languages develop grammar and situations where grammar and word structure become simplified);
  6. External contexts (role of cultural, socio-demographic and environmental factors).

Throughout the course we will analyse examples from a variety of languages without adopting any theoretical framework. The course can serve as a starting point for future explorations of, e.g., the role of social factors such as population size in the development/loss of language structure; the extent to which patterns in language are universal or culture-specific; and the degree to which more familiar languages such as English and Polish share features found in other languages.

The final grade will be based on a 20-minute presentation (80%), participation in two guest talks organized at the Faculty of English (10%) as well as attendance and participation in discussion (10%).

Sample references

On the phonology of words

prof. UAM dr hab. Paula Orzechowska

The goal of this seminar is to provide students with an overview of contemporary phonological research related to the phonological structure of words. We will examine phenomena in both segmental and suprasegmental phonology in English as well as other languages. Students will become familiar with theoretical frameworks and methodologies used to investigate word structure. The seminar is designed for students interested in (1) phonological theory and the logical-mathematical principles underlying it, and (2) contemporary research methods for testing phonological hypotheses.

One part of the course will introduce theoretical principles, models, and tools proposed for describing and analysing segmental and suprasegmental phonology (e.g., phonological features, rules in Generative Phonology, constraints in Optimality Theory, and preferences in Natural Phonology). Formal analyses will focus on the phonological features of vowels and consonants, the phonotactics of syllables, and the suprasegmental properties of complex words (e.g., syllabification and stress placement). We will also discuss the interaction of phonology with other areas of linguistics, namely: morphology, illustrated through morphonotactics and affix ordering, and meaning using distributed semantic models. Another part of the course will focus on empirical research, drawing on various sources of external evidence in the study of word structure (e.g., psycholinguistics, language acquisition, phonetic symbolism, corpus linguistics).

Final credit will be based on continuous assessment, including class attendance, completion of reading assignments, active participation in discussions, and the completion of a final project. The final project will involve investigating an aspect of word structure of one or more linguistic systems, and reporting the findings either as an in-class presentation or a term paper.

Recommended literature

  • Baayen, H.R., Y.Y. Chuang, E. Shafaei-Bajestan & J.P. Blevins. 2019. The Discriminative Lexicon: A Unified Computational Model for the Lexicon and Lexical Processing in Comprehension and Production Grounded Not in (De)Composition but in Linear Discriminative Learning, Complexity, 4895891.
  • Clements, G. N. 1990. The Role of the Sonority Cycle in Core Syllabification, in: Kingston J. & M. Beckman (eds.), Papers in Laboratory Phonology I. Cambridge, MA: CUP, 283–333.
  • Dressler, W. U & K. Dziubalska-Kołaczyk. 2006. Proposing morphonotactics, Wiener Linguistische Gazette 73, 1–19.
  • Gordon, M. K. 2016. Phonological Typology [Oxford Survey In Phonology & Phonetics]. Oxford: OUP.
  • Hay, J. & I. Plag. 2004. What constrains possible suffix combinations? On the interaction of grammatical and processing restrictions in derivational morphology, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 22, 565–596.
  • Maddieson, I. 1999. In search of universals, in: Ohala, J. & Y. Hasegawa & M. Ohala & D.
  • Granville & A.C. Bailey (eds.), Proceedings of the XIVth ICPhS, Vol. 3, 2521–2528.