We are happy to annouce the following course by our new colleague, Sascha Bargmann:
“Idioms and their variability”
Monday, 12.15-13.45; room IG 3.201
Start: 9.4.2018
Description
Idioms, like kick the bucket (≈ ‘die’) or pull strings (≈ ‘use connections’), show much more variability than has traditionally been assumed. Not only can their component words often be inflected (morphological variability), repositioned (syntactic variability), or even exchanged (lexical variability), it is usually also possible to insert a modifier (an adjective or a noun) and apply its meaning to the meaning of a part of the idiom (so-called internal modification: pull influential strings ≈ ‘use influential connections’) or the meaning of the idiom as a whole (so-called external modification: kick the social bucket ≈ ‘die socially’). While we will consider all of the before-mentioned topics in this class, our main focus will be on so-called conjunction modification, in which a modifier that is inserted into an idiom modifies the literal meaning of an idiom’s part, while the idiom as a whole is still understood in its idiomatic meaning, as in pull Kim’s tattooed leg (≈ ‘make fun of Kim’ + ‘Kim has a tattooed leg’).
Modules
L2/5, L3: FW2
BA English Studies: BAES 3.41
Empirische Sprachwissenschaft: En 5
Registration
During the first course meeting.
Please contact the lecturer, Mr Sascha Bargmann.
