Studying at York
The Structure of a Language: Modern Hebrew - LAN00042H
- Department: Language and Linguistic Science
- Module co-ordinator: Prof. Tamar Keren-Portnoy
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: H
- Academic year of delivery: 2021-22
Module summary
The module is a course in descriptive linguistics. It will develop understanding of grammatical properties of a language unfamiliar to the students, and develop techniques for inquiring into its structure. It provides an opportunity to apply principles of phonological, morphological, syntactic and sociolinguistic analysis to a particular language, and opportunity for systematic, detailed comparison of the grammar of English with that of another language.
The choice of language will vary from year to year. In this case, Modern Hebrew.
Related modules
Pre-requisite modules
Co-requisite modules
- None
Prohibited combinations
- None
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Spring Term 2021-22 to Summer Term 2021-22 |
Module aims
The module is a course in descriptive linguistics. It will develop understanding of grammatical properties of a language unfamiliar to the students, and develop techniques for inquiring into its structure. It provides an opportunity to apply principles of phonological, morphological, syntactic, psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic analysis to Modern Hebrew, and opportunity for systematic, detailed comparison of the grammar of English with that of Modern Hebrew.
The aims of this module are:
-
To familiarise students with some linguistic properties of a language other than English
-
To develop skills in comparative linguistics
-
To allow students to apply principles of linguistic analysis to a language unfamiliar to them
Module learning outcomes
At the end of this module, students will typically:
- Have an understanding of a small number of linguistic-theoretical problems discussed in current literature on a language other than English
- Have an experience of working in small groups of mixed background, offering one another mutual support
- Have experience of applying some aspect or aspects of linguistic theory to the analysis of data from a language other than English, and as a result, gain a better understanding of the relationship between data and analysis
Assessment
| Task | Length | % of module mark |
|---|---|---|
| Essay/coursework Essay 1,500 words |
N/A | 30 |
| Essay/coursework Essay 1,500 words |
N/A | 30 |
| Open Exam (4 days) Open Exam |
N/A | 40 |
Special assessment rules
None
Additional assessment information
There will be a formative assingment (essay) for submission in week 3 of Spring Term and other periodic formative assignments, either as preparation for classroom activities or as outline plans for summative assignments.
Reassessment
| Task | Length | % of module mark |
|---|---|---|
| Open Exam (4 days) Reassessment: Open Exam |
N/A | 100 |
Module feedback
Feedback will be given within 20 working days of submission.
Indicative reading
Chomsky, W. (1957). Hebrew: the eternal language. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America. Chapter 12: The struggle for revival (Chapter 11 Did Hebrew ever die? is recommended).
Mufwene, S. S. (2006). Creoles and Pidgins. In C. Llamas, P. Stockwell & L. Mullany (Eds.), The Routledge companion to sociolinguistics (pp. 175-184). Abingdon: Routledge
Izre'el, S. (2003). The Emergence of Spoken Israeli Hebrew. In B. H. Hary (Ed.). Corpus Linguistics and Modern Hebrew: Towards the Compilation of The Corpus of Spoken Israeli Hebrew (CoSIH) (pp. 85-104). Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University.
Kuzar, R. (2001). Hebrew and Zionism: a discourse analytic cultural study. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Chapter 1: Background and theory (p. 1-14 only)
Coffin, E. A. & Bolozky, S. (2005). A reference grammar of Modern Hebrew. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 2: Writing and pronunciation
Haspelmath, M. & Sims, A. D. (2010). Understanding morphology (2ndd ed.). London: Routledge. Chapter 2: Basic concepts; Chapter 10: Morphophonology;
Chapter 3: Rules; Chapter 5: Inflection and derivation.
Deutscher, G. (2006). The unfolding of language: the evolution of mankind's greatest invention. London: Arrow . Excerpt from Chapter 1: A castle in the air: pp. 36-39 only; Except from Chapter 6: Craving for order: pp183-197 only.
Glinert, Lewis. (1989). The grammar of Modern Hebrew. New York : Cambridge University Press. Ch. 40 p. 458-470; Ch. 12 p. 117-120; Ch. 39 p. 443-447 (up to and not including 39.5).
Ziv, Y. (1982). On So-Called 'Existentials. Lingua, 56, 261-281.
Berman, R. (1980). The case of an (S)VO language: Subjectless constructions in Modern Hebrew. Language, 56, 759-776.
Hacohen, G. & Schegloff, E. A. (2006). On the Preference for Minimization in Referring to Persons: Evidence from Hebrew Conversation. Journal of Pragmatics, 38, 1305-1312.
Izre'el, S. (2012). Basic Sentence Structures: A View from Spoken Israeli Hebrew. In C. Sandrine, M-N. Roubaud, M. Rouquier & S. Frédéric (Eds.) Penser les langues avec Claire Blanche-Benveniste (pp. 215-227). Aix-en-Provence: Presses Universitaires de Provence.
Feldman, L. B., Frost, R. & Pnini, T. (1995) Decomposing words into their constituent morphemes: Evidence from English and Hebrew. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21(4), 947-860.
Berent, I., Vaknin, V. & Marcus, G. F. (2007). Roots, stems, and the universality of lexical representations: Evidence from Hebrew. Cognition, 104(2), 254–286.
Berman, R. A. (2003). Children’s lexical innovations. In J. Shimron (Ed.). Language processing and acquisition in languages of Semitic, root-based morphology (pp. 243-292). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing
Amara, M., Azaiza, F., Hertz-Lazarowitz, R. & Mor-Sommerfeld, A. (2009). A new bilingual education in the conflict-ridden Israeli reality: language practices. Language and Education, 23(1), 15-35.