*This is an experimental course. Students are expected to participate actively in the course and to take responsibility foor their own learning. I will guide, facilitate, and advise as best I can, and also hope to learn something along the way. I will provide readings, class activities, discussions, and other resources. You are also welcome to find new materials online and share them with the group!*
This course explores the domains of epistemics and evidentiality in grammar and social interaction. We will examine both the ways in which English and other languages express if, whether, and how one knows something (epistemic modality and evidentiality) as well as how participants negotiate who knows what when engaging in everyday social interaction (epistemic stance and status). Furthermore, we will explore how these two domains, i.e. the grammar of knowledge and the epistemics of interaction, are related.
The course is ideal for students with a background in English Linguistics and those who have taken the TMA Modules. The course will incorporate insights about grammar in social interaction from typology, Conversation Analysis, and Interactional Linguistics. As such, the course help students develop insights into how grammar and social interaction are organized, enable students to describe and analyze grammatical and interactional patterns, and consider the real-world implications of insights from research on these domains.
Evaluation: Students will write a short essay of approximately 3,000 words.
- Kursleiter*in: Nicholas Williams