MA-thesis in General Linguistics (AMV441L)

MA-thesis in General Linguistics

Independent Study A (AMV001F)

Independent study project. Please contact head of program for more information.

Independent Study B (AMV003F)

Independent study project. Please contact head of program for more information.

Research methods in linguistics (AMV701F)

The course is designed for MA students in general and Icelandic linguistics and is also useful for other MA students that plan to conduct linguistics research. The course will cover the main research methods in linguistics, both in regards to experimental and natural data. We will discuss the fundamentals of the design of judgment tasks, fill-ins, elicitation tasks, behvioural and neuroimaging experiments and search in corpora such as the Icelandic Gigaword Corpus and IcePaHC. Research methods in diverse domains will be introduced, including syntax, phonology, sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, psycholinguistics, interactional linguistics and more. Finally we will discuss data analysis and interpretation of results, the pros and cons of differerent research methods and ethical considerations in linguistics.

Writing and Editing (ÍSL101F)

Training in various aspects of the writing and editing of scientific texts. Various kinds of texts (non-fiction) examined and evaluated. Training in reviewing and commenting on scientific texts and in other aspects of editorial work. The main emphasis will be on the writing of articles, but other kinds of texts will also be considered, both shorter (conference abstracts, reviews) and longer (theses, books), as well as research proposals. Discussion of guidelines for the preparation of manuscripts. Types of plagiarism and how to avoid them and find them. Texts on different subjects will be used as examples, especially writings in linguistics, literature and history. The book Skrifaðu bæði skýrt og rétt will be used as a textbook (Höskuldur Þráinsson 2015).

This course is open to students of many MA programmes in the School of Humanities, cf. the regulations of the individual subjects. Students in the MA programmes in Icelandic literature, Icelandic linguistics, Icelandic studies and Icelandic teaching can take the course as part of the MA course requirements in Icelandic literature or Icelandic linguistics. Students in the MA programme in Icelandic teaching can, however, not have this course as the only linguistics or literature course in their MA.

Treebanks (MLT302F)

This course introduces syntactically annotated corpora, including the Icelandic treebank, IcePaHC. Topics to be covered include different types of treebanks, the development of new treebanks and the use of treebanks in language technology and theoretical syntax. Quantitative methods in syntax will be introduced in the context of historical syntax, synchronic variation and theories about the relationship between language acquisition, linguistic competence and linguistic change. Students will furthermore get training in the use of software which is designed for developing treebanks, querying treebanks and processing results and they will carry out experiments in machine annotation of the syntactic properties of a text. Both students of language technology and linguistics are encouraged to enroll.

Programming in language technology (MLT701F)

The course is first and foremost organized for students in language technology that have a background in linguistics (or humanities) but are not experienced in computer science. This course is most often taken in the same semester as the course “Computer Science 1a”. If someone with a different background is interested in the course, please contact the teacher for further information.

The main goal of this course is to support students in taking their first step toward learning programming, help them to knack the basis and train them in solving simple but diverse assignments in language technology using Python. Besides, students will be introduced to NLTK (Natural Language Toolkit) that they will use further in other courses in natural language processing.

MA-thesis in General Linguistics (AMV441L)

MA-thesis in General Linguistics

Independent Study A (AMV002F)

Independent study project. Please contact head of program for more information.

Independent Study B (AMV004F)

Independent study project. Please contact head of program for more information.

Psychology of Language, Neurobiology and Genetics (AMV602F)

This course will introduce the key methods of psycholinguistics and cognitive neuroscience in research on language. We will discuss how the brain processes meaning and syntax, in addition to topics such as bilingualism, speech production, language development and comprehension of indirect language (such as irony). At the end of the course students will get insights into recent research on the genetics of language.

Icelandic in the educational system (ÍSF801F)

The main purpose of the course is twofold. First, to shed light on how Icelandic is taught in upper primary and secondary schools. Second, to explore ways of developing Icelandic as a school subject, with respect to practical and theoretical research. What ability should be emphasized in the use and practice of the language? What skills should students have obtained by the end of each school level and how should they be trained? Which aspects of language and literature are most important for the students to know and understand? What are the most used teaching methods? What kind of teaching material is most commonly used in schools and to what extent does it reflect recent knowledge and developments in the fields of language and literature? In the course assignments the students will be trained in defining and implementing their own teaching ideas, with an emphasis on recent knowledge.

Language and Society (ÍSL004M)

In this course we concern ourselves with how language and society interact by examining sociolinguistic methods and concepts with regard to international and domestic research in the field.

Among the topics discussed are language attitudes, language contact, dialects, language style and language management. We take a look at different manifestations of language use and language variation as well as contemplating on how factors such as environment, context and background of a language user potentially influence language use and choice of style.

We provide an overview of principal research methods, both quantitative and qualitative, discuss recent trends in sociolinguistics and evaluate methods and methodologies with respect to the particular research topic.

Besides presenting research on attitudes towards language and language use, considering both attitudes towards one’s own language and that of others, we consider possible outcomes of unconventional language use. Special emphasis will be put on considering the language use of those who speak Icelandic as a foreign language as well as the status of immigrants in Iceland.

Additionally, we address the current status of the Icelandic language, particularly in relation to English and other languages. Principles of language management are discussed along with people’s ideas and believes about language through time. In that respect, we have a look at Icelandic language policy, language management, language standardization and linguistic purism from different perspectives, e.g. a synchronic and diachronic angle as well as with regard to other speech communities. 

We will discuss language use of particular social groups (e.g. teenagers) in terms of its social meaning for the group on the one hand and for the speech community as a whole on the other hand.

Students are expected to complete group or individual tasks on questions and problems originating from topics and discussions in the class room.

Data collection and statistical analysis in the humanities and language technology (ÍSL612M)

Recent years have seen an increased focus on data collection and statistical analysis within the humanities. This is particularly apparent in growing branches such as psycholinguistics, cognitive literary studies and experimental philosophy, to name a few. The push towards quantitative methods occurs at a time where the validity and reliability of well-established statistical methods are called into question in other fields, with increased demands of replicability and open access as well as data protection and responsibility. In this course, students explore the value of quantitative methods in their field while getting training in the collection and analysis of data. A diverse set of research methods will be introduced, ranging from surveys to corpus analysis and experiments in which participants’ response to stimuli (such as words, texts or audio-visual materials) is quantified. Basic concepts in statistics will be reviewed, enabling students to know the difference between descriptive and inferential statistics, understand statistical significance and interpret visual representations of data in graphs. The course will be largely practical and students are expected to apply their knowledge of data collection and analysis under the instructor’s guidance. Students will work on a project within their own discipline but will also explore the possibility of cross-disciplinary work. Open source tools such as R Studio will be used for all assignments but no prior knowledge of the software or statistics in general is required. The course is suitable for all students within the humanities who want to collect quantitative data to answer interesting questions and could therefore be a useful preparation for a BA or MA project.

The Third Grammatical Treatise (ÍSM807F)

The so-called Third Grammatical Treatise is a grammatical and rhetorical discourse which is mainly based on the writings of Donatus and Priscianus. In the course, the attention will be concentrated on the ways in which the author (Ólafr Þórðarson, hvítaskáld, ca. 1210-1259) translates the foreign science of grammar and rhetoric and applies its concepts to indigenous poetry. Moreover, this treatise will be compared with the poetics of Snorri Sturluson. The subject of the course should be of interest equally for students of linguistics, litterature and medieval studies.