LMB AN14G3 MA Evening Course Current Trends in Linguistic Theory- Essay Topics
Instructor: Dr. Kovács Éva
evikov@ektf.hu
Length: 2000 words
Deadline: 12 December, 2009
Choose one of the topics and write a ’short essay’ on it. You can choose a topic not listed but
make sure your tutor approves of it. Writing your essay will require careful reading of the
material prescribed for the topic and making a systematic account of your findings.
Your essay should begin with an introduction where you explain what problem you
are going to investigate, why this problem is interesting for linguistic analysis and how you
are going to proceed. The main body of the essay should contain a systematic survey of the
problem, examples to illustrate your point and its justification. The essay should close with a
conclusion where you summarize your main claims.
Essays must be written following the guidelines given in Turabian, Kate L. 2007. A
Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. The University of
Chicago Press. Submitting your essay beyond the prescribed deadline means 10% deduction
of the total points per week.
Plagiarism will not be tolerated. At best, you will have to write an essay on another
topic. At worst, it will be assessed as is and recorded as a fail.
Topics
1.
Theories of the evolution of human language
Foley, W. 1997. Anthropological linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell, 45-78.
Lieberman, P. 1984. The Biology and Evolution of Language. Chapter 12. Cambridge Mass.:
Harvard University Press.
Tallerman, M. 2005. Language Origins. Pespectives on Evolution. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 21-47.
2.
Cross-cultural variation in politeness and personhood
Foley, W. 1997. Anthropological linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell, 260-285.
Brown, P. & S. C. Levinson. 1987. Politeness: some universals in language usage.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3.
Language and Gender
Foley, W. 1997. Anthropological linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell, 286-306.
McConnell-Ginet, S. 1988. Language and Gender. In Newmeyer F. (ed.) Linguistics: The
Cambridge Survey. Volume IV. Language: The Socio-Cultural Context. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 75-99.
4. Differences in male-female conversational styles
Foley, W. 1997. Anthropological linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell, 286-306.
Tannen, D. 1990. You just don’t understand. Men and Women in Conversation. New York:
Morrow, 24-73.
5. The universal asymmetry in cultural evaluation of the sexes
Foley, W. 1997. Anthropological linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell, 286-306.
Posaldo, M. Z. 1974. Women, Culture, and Sociaety: A Theoretical Overview. In Women,
Culture, and Society. Rosaldo, M. Z. & L Lamphere. (ed.) Stanford: Stanford University
Press, 1974: 17-42.
Chodorow, N. 1974. Family Structure and Feminine Personality. In Women, Culture, and
Society. Rosaldo, M. Z. & L Lamphere. (ed.) Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974: 4366.
6.
Linguistic Relativity
Foley W. 1997. Anthropological linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell, 192-214.
7.
Metaphors and Metonyms
Kövecses, Z. 2002. Metaphor. A Practical Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press,
3-27; 143-161.
Croft, W. & D. A. Cruse 2004. Cognitive Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 193-224.
8.
Common Source and Target Domains, Kinds of Metaphors
Kövecses, Z. 2002. Metaphor. A Practical Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press,
3-41.
9.
The Universility of Conceptual Metaphors
Kövecses, Z. 2005. Metaphor in Culture. Universality and Variation. Cambridge University
Press, 17-63.
10.
Cross-Cultural Variation and Within-Culture Variation in Metaphor
Kövecses, Z. 2005. Metaphor in Culture. Universality and Variation. Cambridge University
Press, 67-111.
11.
Metaphors in Business Discourse
Koller, Veronica 2004. Metaphor and Gender in Business Media Discourse. A Critical
Cognitive Study. Houndmills – New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 65-113.
Kovács, Éva. 2007. Metaphors in English, German and Hungarian Business Discourse: A
Contrastive Analysis. In Eger Journal of English Studies. Volume VII. Éva Antal and Csaba
Czeglédi (eds), 2007: 111-128.
12.
English Phrasal Verbs in Cognitive Linguistics
Kovács, Éva. 2007. Exploring English Phrasal Verbs. Pandora Könyvek. Eger: EKF, Líceum
Kiadó, 193- 253.
Kövecses, Z. & P. Szabó. 1996. Idioms: A View from Cognitive Semantics. In Applied
Linguistics, Vol. 17. No. 3, 1996: 326-355.
13.
Sense Relations in Cognitive Linguistics
Croft, W. & D. A. Cruse 2004. Cognitive Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 141-192.
14.
Any topic of your choice related to anthropological linguistics and cognitive
linguistics