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studies:graduation:thesis:topics:linguistics [2019-09-18 19:28] – [morphology] Péter Szigetváristudies:graduation:thesis:topics:linguistics [2019-11-30 11:20] – [linguistics] Péter Szigetvári
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-====== linguistics =======+= linguistics
  
-In many topics, it is possible to compare English with Hungarian (or +These topics are suggested by DELG staff to students planning to write their BA thesis in linguistics.  They only serve as an appetizer.  You may come up with any other topic and convince a member of DELG to supervise you and that topic.  You may also select a supervisor different from the one offering your topic.
-some other language known to our staff), pointing out issues of +
-translation or language teaching, and/or typical foreigners' mistakes.+
  
-Instead of "Typical Hungarian mistakes" you may deal with mistakes made +== Irina Burukina, Marcel den Dikken, Mark Newson, Krisztina Szécsényi
-by other learners.+
  
-There are no internal deadlines on thesis title submission in DELG. Just +# The syntax and morphology of tense and aspect in English: How many tenses and aspects are there? What is the relationship between tense/aspect and finiteness? Is there a genuine future tense in English?  How does the marking of tense, aspect and futurity in English compare to that in other languages? 
-make sure you find your tutor and [[http://seas3.elte.hu/seas/dir.pl?d=DELG&t=head|head of DELG]] in due time for the formalities.+# The subjunctive mood in English: Does it exist and, if so, under which circumstances do we find it? What is the relationship between the subjunctive and imperative mood? 
 +# How can the differences and similarities between topicalisation (//This dish I wouldn't recommend to anyone//), focus fronting (//Only this dish would I recommend//), 'heavy NP shift' (//I wouldn't recommend to anyone a dish prepared by this chef//) and dislocation (both left-dislocation, as in //This dish, I wouldn't recommend it//, and right-dislocation, as in //I wouldn't recommend it, this dish//) be modelled in a syntactic analysis of these phenomena? 
 +# Cleft (//It is a pizza that he is eating//) and pseudo-cleft (//What he is eating is a pizza//, //A pizza is what he is eating//) sentences: How does their syntax work? What are they useful for? 
 +# Degrees of comparison in the adjectival system, and the interaction between morphology and syntax: e.g., //pleasanter// ~ //more pleasant; most quickly// ~ //the most quickly; dumb// ~ //a lot more dumb// ~ //more dumb than cruel// (metalinguistic comparison). 
 +# The placement of adverbial modifiers in the English clause: pre- //vs// post-modal adverbial insertion (//He likely will say yes// ~ //He will likely say yes; He likely won't say yes// ~ //He won't likely say yes//); the distribution of the split infinitive (//I decided to fully describe it / fully to describe it / to describe it fully//). 
 +# The distribution of the quantifiers //some// and //any// in negative and non-negative clauses: syntax and semantics (//I don't want to talk to somebody/anybody; If somebody/anybody tries to take my place; I wonder if somebody/anybody could help me//). 
 +# The status of //that// in restrictive relatives: relative pronoun or complementiser (//the man who/that I saw//, //the man to who(m)/*to that I spoke, *the man who that I saw//)? 
 +# The status of //if// and //whether//: complementiser or something else (//I am wondering// {//whether/*if//} //to go//, //It depends on// {//whether/*if//} //he's there//, {//Whether/*if//} //or not he did it remains an open question//)? 
 +# Sentential //vs// constituent negation: How does the distinction manifest itself, in English and other languages? Is the distinction syntactically real, and, if so, how is it represented in syntax? 
 +# The English determiner system: How many different types of determiners can be distinguished? Are these all treatable in syntax as representatives of the category D (for 'determiner')? If not, what would be the most appropriate treatment(s) of determiner-like elements that are not exponents of the head D? 
 +# Inversion of the subject and the finite verb occurs in a variety of different contexts in English: root interrogatives (//Have you eaten yet?//, //What are you eating?//); root- and non-root clauses featuring fronting of a negative constituent (//Under no circumstances would they accept this; It is reported that under no circumstances would they accept this//) sentences; conditionals (//Had you been more diligent, you would have been more successful//); locative inversion (//On this wall hung a picture of the president//). Discuss the syntax of inversion in English in as comprehensive a way as possible. 
 +# Typical errors made by non-native learners of English: (a) the use of English articles (//He became pilot, I love the music// (as a generic statement about music in general), //Budapest of my youth//); (b) English word-order (//Who did take my pen?, Why you are doing this?, *Near Budapest have they a house//). What can the theory of syntax take away from or contribute to an understanding of these errors? 
 +# The English genitive: Are //'s// and //of// exponents of the same syntactic category or not? How to analyse the co-occurrence of //'s// and //of// in expressions such as //a friend of John's//? What should the syntax say about special uses of //'s// and //of// in constructions such as //men's room, a city of great beauty, that jewel of a city, the City of London//. 
 +# Light verbs (//__make__ a turn, __take__ a walk//): How are these best represented in syntax? Do they have meaning?  If so, is their meaning constant or variable? 
 +# Different ways of expressing causation in English (lexical causatives, morphological causatives, //make// causatives, //have// causatives, //cause+to// causatives): What are the syntactic differences and similarities between them? 
 +# The special syntax of English news headlines and other forms of 'abbreviated English' or telegraphic speech. 
 +# Accusative pronouns in English: How can we account for their distribution (//I want him to leave; Who wants to leave? Me!; Me and him are good mates; Him walking out like that was rude; Poor me!; Him a vegetarian?! No way!; What would you rather me say?//)? 
 +# Different strategies in forming //wh//-questions in English and cross-linguistically: //wh//-fronting (//What did he buy?//); //wh-in-situ// (e.g., in 'quiz master questions' (//John F. Kennedy was shot in which American city?//), and in 'echo questions' (//He bought WHAT?!//)); fronting just one //wh//-phrase or all of them in multiple //wh//-questions (//Who bought what?// ~ Hungarian //Ki mit vett?//); the 'superiority effect' (//Who bought what?// ~ *//What did who buy?// ~ //Which book did which person buy?//). 
 +# The Uniformity of Theta Assignment Hypothesis and a comprehensive syntactic representation of the distribution of the Theme (//They took the pirates off the ship; The pirates walked off the ship; The pirates are off the ship; With the pirates off the ship, the voyage can finally continue; As soon as they have left the gangplank, I consider the pirates off the ship//).
  
-===== syntax =====+== Zoltán G. Kiss
  
-  -  Future-like elements in English. +* is there voicing assimilation in English?, compare the behaviour of obstruent clusters with respect to voicing in voicing languages (like Hungarian, Spanish, Russian, etc.) vs. aspirating languages (like English) 
-    //be going to, be about to, be to, be expected to// +* neutralization in phonology, does complete neutralization exist?, neutralization phenomena (flapping, stops after fortis fricatives, vowel reduction, nasal place assimilation in English, voicing assimilation in Hungarian, etc.), the role of speech perception in potentially neutralizing positions 
-  -  Modal Auxiliaries: When do they express different meanings and when +* the role of Voice Onset Time in the laryngeal contrast of obstruents; the role of phonetic features other than vocal fold vibration in the contrast of obstruents (vowel duration, consonant duration, glottalization, release, etc.) 
-    do they express similar meanings? +* the laryngeal contrast of fortis vs lenis fricatives and affricates in English, what is their contrast based on? 
-    //Can I or May I? I can/may play the didgeridoo? It may/might happen? +* phonological and non-phonological (social, stylistic, dialectal, frequency, etc.) factors in phonological variation (e.g., glottalization, glottalling, flapping, Linking/Intrusive R, the distribution of /j/, etc.) 
-    You may/might leave the room? That might/should/will be enough?// +* different theoretical approaches to the analysis of Linking and Intrusive R (rule-based theories vs. phonetics-based vs. historical approaches vs. analogy-based analyses, etc.) 
-  -  Tense and aspect in English: how many tenses and aspects are there? +* variation in the realizations of CUBE vowels, when are the diphthongs pronounced long (without glides), when are the long monophthongs (R-vowels) realized as long vs. diphthongized; phonological and nonphonological factors in broadening, smoothing, breaking, unbreaking
-    Morphology/syntax; distribution; tense/aspect and finiteness +
-  -  The subjunctive mood in English: does it exist and where? +
-    Present/past subjunctive; main/subordinate clause subjunctive +
-  -  How many prepositions are there? +
-    Is //in front of// a preposition? And //touching//? +
-  -  Topicalization or left dislocation? +
-    //This dish I can't recommend. That dish, I wouldn't recommend it// +
-  -  Cleft and pseudo-cleft sentences: what are they good for? +
-    //It is Joe who brought it. What Joe said was funny.// +
-  -  Comparison in adjectives and adverbs.. +
-    //Pleasanter// or //more pleasant//? //Fewer// or //less//? //Most quickly// +
-    or //the most quickly//? +
-  -  Future: Simple versus Progressive. +
-    //The train will be arriving soon. What will happen to the money?// +
-  -  The Split Infinitive. +
-    //I decided to fully describe / fully to describe / to describe +
-    fully...//? +
-  -  Some and any in negative and non-negative clauses. +
-    //If somebody/anybody tries to take my place... I wonder if +
-    somebody/anybody could...// +
-  -  The status of that in restrictive relatives: relative pronoun or +
-    complementiser? +
-    //the man who/that I saw, the man to who(m) that I spoke, the +
-    man who that I saw// +
-  -  The status of whether: is it a complementiser? +
-    //I wonder whether to go/// ////I am anxious for to go. It depends on +
-    whether/if he's there. It depends on whether/// ////if or not he's +
-    there.// +
-  -  What relatives in non-standard English. +
-    //a man what I know, the reason what he gave, the house what I live +
-    in,// but  //the house in what I live// +
-  -  The relationship between phrasal verbs and prepositional passives. +
-    //the plane took off --- the bed was slept in// +
-  -  Sentential vs. constituent negation: is the distinction real? +
-    //he may not have read the article / he may have not read the +
-    article// +
-  -  Pre-, Post- and Central determiners: how many different types of +
-    determiner are there? +
-    //all these many questions, each of her several problems// +
-  -  Inversion: is it the same in interrogatives, conditionals and +
-    negative fronting? +
-    //Have you seen him?, had I seen him (I would have ...), Hardly had I +
-    seen him// +
-  -  Typical Hungarian (German, etc.) mistakes in the use of the English +
-    articles.  *//He became pilot.// *?//I love the music.// *//I love Renaissance//(?).  *//Glasgow of today.// +
-  -  Typical Hungarian (German, etc.) mistakes in English word-order.  *//Who did take my pen?// *//Dickens in his book says…// *//Near Bük have they a house.// +
-  -  Are semi-auxiliaries auxiliaries? And marginal auxiliaries? +
-    //have to---ought to---need(s) to---want to---was to,// etc. +
-  -  Special cases/meanings/uses of "the genitive". +
-    //a woman of great beauty---the City of London---cow's milk---Down's +
-    syndrome// +
-  -  Light verbs: do they have meaning? Are they idioms? +
-    //make a turn---take a look---do a favour,// etc. +
-  -  Different ways of expressing causation in English (and Hungarian). +
-    //had him pay---made him pay---caused him to pay---forced him to +
-    pay,// etc. +
-  -  The special syntax of English proverbs. +
-    //Easy come, easy go.---First come, first served.---Once bitten, +
-    twice shy.// etc. +
-  -  The special syntax of English news headlines. +
-    //Italy strikes mushroom.---Wheely bin cat woman charged.// etc. +
-  -  Sentence stress: contrast and emphasis. +
-    //Liz NOTICED Joe, but HE didn't notice HER. --- Oh, I DO apologize.//+
  
-===== phonology =====+== Péter A. Lázár
  
-  -  The present state of "cure-lowering". +* Multiword items classified in various English (and Hungarian) sources/frameworks. 
-    //poor = pour//? //tour = tore//? +* Regular polysemy types in English (and Hungarian): //a heavy book// vs //a difficult book; a chicken// vs //some chicken.//  How language (type) has a role. 
-  -  The "Carrot Rule" in American English. +* Instances of word forms of a lexeme having different/restricted/special senses: //in my eyes// vs //a black eye.// 
-    //marry = Mary = merry//? //mirror = squirrel//? +* Word families vs lexical/semantic fields. 
-  -  The Glottal Stop in Standard British and in London popular speech. +* Dictionaries: print or electronic? Which, when, how? Advantages and disadvantages. 
-    //bottle = bo'l//? //not enough = no' enough//? //butter = bu'er//? +* Types of oppositeness: just two, three, or many more? Oppositeness with various word classes? 
-  -  The "stop"-vowel in British and American. +* Polysemy developing into homonymy: when/why/how it happens. 
-    //shop = sharp//? //passable = possible//? //God = "Gawd"//? +* Combining forms (neo-classical “compounds”) in English (and Hungarian). 
-  -  The th-sounds: how are (and were) they replaced by foreigners? +* Non-right-headed compounds in English (and Hungarian). 
-    Check older Hungarian dictionaries/textbooks; ask +* The opacity and the fixity gradience of English (and Hungarian) idioms. Can a word be an idiom? 
-    French/German/Italian etc. people. +* Creative variation with English (and Hungarian) idioms. 
-  -  Compounds in English and Hungarian: definition, stress, spelling. +* “English gets millionth word on Wednesday, site says”. On how many levels is this an impossible claim? 
-    Are the following compounds: //global warming, paternity suit, apple +* Inflection vs derivation: crisp contrast or gradience?
-    tree, railway//? +
-  -  Diphthongization of the long high vowels. +
-    Are /iː/ and /uː/ pronounced as diphthongs: //tree, mean, feet, two, +
-    moon, boot//? +
-  -  The Low Rising Tone: its nature and use. +
-    Check handbooks and compare. Contrast with Hungarian. +
-  -  Words beginning with //re-/de-/pre//: how is the vowel pronounced? +
-    Compare //decorate, detective, December, de-ice,// etc. +
-  -  Intrusive-R: how long has it existed and how widespread is it? +
-    //vanilla// [r] //ice, we saw//[r] //it, a spa//[r] //in Surrey// +
-  -  Stressed prepositions: when do they occur? +
-    //Finish it for me. Who with? During the lecture.// etc. +
-  -  Length of vowels and consonants in English: diphthongs, geminates. +
-    //be---been---beet; black ace---black case; kiss Tom---kissed Tom//; +
-    Hung. //szvetter// +
-  -  Palatalization in English and Hungarian. +
-    //H. //ússz---moss---tetszik/tetsszen/tessen//; E +
-    //nature---mature---grandeur---amateur//// +
-  -  A comparative analysis of transcription systems for English: aim and +
-    usefulness. +
-    //move// = mu:v---moov---múv; //centrifuge// = +
-    sentrɪfjuːʤ---sentrifyooj---szentrifjúdzs +
-  -  The phonological aspects of loanword adaptation in English. +
-    French //genre,// Russian //Gorbachev,// Spanish //macho,// Italian +
-    //pizza// +
-  -  Yod Dropping across the Sea: /uː/ and /juː/ in British and in +
-    American English. +
-    //tune---duty---mature---endure---avenue---overdue// etc.+
  
-===== morphology =====+== Attila Starčević
  
-  -  Negative prefixes in English. +* Palatalization in English: how many times and when? 
-    The use of //non-, un-, in/il/ir-// (//dis-, mis-//); their assimilated +* Rules and lexicalization: when and how does a rule die? 
-    forms +* Lexical and postlexical rules in English 
-  -  "Ethnonyms" in English: Are there any patterns? +* Treatment of a historical rule in English: e.g., the influence of /l/ on the preceding vowel (//all// vs. //ally//) 
-    //Nepalese, Turkish, Kuwaiti, Canadian, Rumanian, Cuban, Malay// +* How did breaking and broadening happen in English? 
-  -  Irregular past tense forms: Are there any patterns? +* Analysing an older piece of text linguistically (e.g., Chaucer’s poetry) 
-    //blew, flew, drew, thought, brought, sought, meant, dealt, felt// +* Has coda /l/ always been ‘dark’ in English?
-  -  Vacillation in regularity--irregularity: how irregularities +
-    disappear. +
-    //dived---dove, learned---learnt, dreamed---dreamt//; Shakespeare: +
-    //holp//  > PresE //helped// +
-  -  Rapidly spreading derivational suffixes: //-able// and //-ize/-ise//. +
-    //downloadable, un-put-downable; vandalize, computerize...//+
  
-===== lexicon and dictionaries =====+== Péter Szigetvári
  
-  -  Style labels in English dictionaries: different editions or +* Phonotactic constraints of English 
-    different dictionaries (or both) compared for the treatment of +** The distribution of glides 
-    various labels +** The distribution of liquids 
-  -  Style, register, etc. labels in dictionaries of English +** Excrescent plosives in consonant clusters (//prin//[t]//ce//) 
-  -  Grammar in English dictionaries: what, how much, where, how +* R-vocalization and its effects on the vowel system of English 
-  -  The lexicon/grammar divide in dictionaries (English) +* L-vocalization and its effects on the vowel system of English 
-  -  Major review article of a dictionary /of different editions of the +* How many degrees of stress are there in English? 
-    same work+* The sound system of Hunglish
  
-===== general =====+== Miklós Törkenczy
  
-  -  Linguistic punning in English. Based on data analysis, old or +* Flapping after sonorant consonants in English accents 
-    current. +* //Càpi//[ɾ]//alístic// vs. //mìli//[t]//arístic//: the (non)applicability of    flapping in “identical” environments 
-    //We called him "tortoise", because he taught us!// +* “Yod-dropping” in unstressed syllables 
-  -  Aesthetic judgments on languages. "beautiful" and "ugly". +* The phonology of the irregular past 
-    Field work: ask people to judge recorded passages. Which is most +* How regular is English stress? 
-    "pleasant"? +* The stressing of compounds: patterns and predictability 
-  -  Condemned innovations in recent English. +* Stress clash (adjacent stresses) in words. 
-    Forms that purists try to eradicate: //there's four people; didn't +* Socially conditioned phonological variation in English
-    ought to have said;// etc.+
  
  
studies/graduation/thesis/topics/linguistics.txt · last touched 2019-11-30 12:55 by Péter Szigetvári