Blockseminar Cutting Edge Language Research Goals and Tools of Modern Linguistics

The purpose of a PhD thesis in linguistics is to find out something new about human language and languages. To achieve this you have to cross the boundaries of what is known and to venture into uncharted waters. The sea change that linguistics is currently undergoing on its way to a more and more mature science makes the adventure trip of dissertation research not only more intriguing, but also more challenging. This intensive seminar is designed to support PhD students in this trying situation and to help them elaborate their thesis proposal into an up-to-date professional research plan. The following core topic areas will be covered: 1. Theory: Elements of philosophy of science, current historical context of the discipline of linguistics, landscape of modern linguistic schools and theories of language, theory-based hypothesis formation and operationalization. 2. Methodology: Hypothesis testing, range of pertinent modern tools (standard tests, questionnaires, corpus studies, experiments, meta-analyses), basic concepts of statistics. 3. Strategy: Defining intermediate targets, selection of optimal methods for reaching them, determining branching pathways depending on intermediate results, providing for fallback options if findings turn out to be different from what was hoped for. 4. Networking: Local and general (including international) cooperation, resource sharing, meta-analyses and cumulative knowledge-building, competition and culture of constructive scientific debate (adversarial collaboration). Cumming, Geoff 2012. Understanding The New Statistics. Effect Sizes, Confidence Intervals, and Meta-Analysis. New York: Routledge. González-Márquez, Mónica, Irene Mittelberg, Seana Coulson & Michael J. Spivey (eds.) 2007. Methods in Cognitive Linguistics. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Meindl, Claudia 2011. Methodik für Linguisten: eine Einführung in Statistik und Versuchsplanung. Tübingen: Narr. Myers, James (ed.) 2012. In Search of Grammar: Experimental and Corpus-based Studies. Taipei: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica. Scholz, Barbara C., Pelletier, Francis Jeffry and Pullum, Geoffrey K., -Philosophy of Linguistics-, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2015 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = . Bemerkung The venue of this intensive seminar is the VIU (Venice International University), Venice, Italy: http://www.univiu.org/index.php Accommodation fees in on-site dormitories range from 204 EUR (in a four-bed room) to to 456 EUR (single room) for six nights. Zielgruppe Alle, die zu einem linguistischen Thema promovieren oder eine solche Promotion planen. Anmeldung NEUE ANMELDEFRIST! Dank dem Entgegenkommen der Verwaltung in Venedig konnte die Anmeldefrist verlängert werden. Anmeldungen müssen bis spätestens 15. März 2015 beim Seminarleiter eingegangen sein: zaefferer_AT_lmu_DOT_de LMU München SoSe 2015 Italienische und Slavische Philologie Department II Griechische und Lateinische Romanische Italienische und Slavische Philologie Sprachen und Kommunikation