Language, Meaning and Communication

This course is intended for students who belong to the BA in English and students who belong to the teacher's education (lektorutdanning trinn 8-13). It can also be taken as a stand alone course for any degree programme in a particular language, since it will deal with general properties of meaning in context. The course is also open for single course students. A good command of oral and written English is recommended.

Language is often abstractly described as the symbolic connection between sound and meaning. In this course, we examine the ways in which language is designed and used to create meanings in context. The topics covered will include: concepts and content words; meaning built up at the phrase and sentence level; pragmatic inferencing and the systematic effect of context, as well as the role of cultural association and convention. The use of language in poetic and figurative ways will be discussed, as well as the ability of language to persuade, influence and obfuscate. Examples will be taken from many different languages, but primarily from English and Norwegian.

The study of meaning, or semantics, is one of the core components of language analysis. Together with phonetics/phonology and grammar it is a relevant knowledge area for anyone doing a degree in language. Many of the concepts studied here are very general, and are relevant regardless of the particular language being studied.

Higher Education Entrance Qualification (generell studiekompetanse) or prior learning and work experience (realkompetanse).

Application code: 9199 - Enkeltemner (ikke realfag), lavere grad (Nordic applicants).

A good command of oral and written English is recommended.

The students have the following learning outcomes:

Knowledge

The student has:

(i) Knowledge of the three basic components of meaning analysis: conceptual meaning, grammatical meaning and contextual information.

(ii) Understanding how the different elements of meaning combine to create utterances of communicative import.

(iii) Understanding of the terms for different kinds of relationships between meaning bearing units of language: entailment, implication and presupposition at the propositional level; synonymy, polysemy and homonymy at the lexical level.

(iv) Understanding of the concepts of metaphor, metonymy and figurative speech more generally.

Skills

The student is able to:

(i) Give examples from real language usage of the concepts and relationships at the knowledge level

(ii) Apply their knowledge of the general concepts of meaning analysis to new languages and language situations.

The class will be run by means of weekly lectures combined with targeted topics for discussion in a more informal seminar-like structure. There will be 12 lectures of one hour each and one hour a week of discussion seminar based on a topic handed out the week before. The class will usually meet for 2 hours a week, with one of those hours taken up by lecture and the other by discussion section. During the weekly discussion sessions, the students will get practice applying the general concepts to actual language examples of use.

Quality assurance: The course undergoes a midterm evaluation or an end-of-term evaluation every third year.

Language of instruction and examination

Applicants from Nordic countries: 1 June for courses offered in the autumn semester and 1 December for courses offered in the spring semester.

Exchange students and Fulbright students: 15 April for courses offered in the autumn semester and 1 October for courses offered in the spring semester.

More info about the coursework requirements

Re-sit examination