II. Semiotics and structuralism

Tu. 19.10

Wilhelm von Humboldt: language as the organ of thought.

• Portions of W. von Humboldt. 1988[1836]. On Language: The Diversity of Human Language-Structure and its Influence on the Mental Development of Mankind. (Tr. Peter Heath). Cambridge: CUP.

Th. 21.10

Ferdinand de Saussure.

• F. de Saussure, Course in General Linguistics. Introduction and Parts 1-3.

Tu. 26.10

Roman Jakobson.

• R. Jakobson. 1968. Child Language, Aphasia and Phonological Universals. Mouton. (Translation of Jakobson 1941, Kindersprache, Aphasie, und Allgemeine Lautgesetze. Also in Selected Writings, Vol. 1, 1962.

• R. Jakobson, Retrospect. Selected Writings, Vol. 2, 711-722.

Th. 28.10

Bloomfield's revival of Paninian ideas. Their rejection in American structuralism.

• Bloomfield, A Set of Postulates for Linguistic Analysis.
• Bloomfield, Menomini Morphophonemics.

Tu. 2.11

Phonemics. The notion of contrast.

• N. Chomsky. 1964. Current Issues in Linguistic Theory. (Selection).

• E. Flemming. 2002. Contrast and perceptual distinctiveness. In B.Hayes, R.Kirchner, and D.Steriade (eds.) The Phonetic Bases of Markedness. CUP.

Th. 4.11

Whorf and neo-Whorfianism.

• B.L. Whorf. 1956[1940]. Science and Linguistics. J.B. Carroll (ed.) Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf, 207-219. Cambridge, MA: MIT press.

• Li, Peggy, and Lila Gleitman. 2002. Turning the tables: language and spatial reasoning. Cognition 83.265-294.

• Levinson, Stephen C., Sotaro Kita, Daniel B.M. Haun and Björn H. Rasch. 2002. Returning the tables: language affects spatial reasoning. Cognition 84.155-188.