Banner Shadow

Welcome

Welcome to the Institute of Linguistics! On this website you can find all the important information about the institute.

End of Seminars = Start of Term Papers

With the conclusion of the lecture period, the work on the term papers begins. We kindly request all students writing term papers or theses in linguistics to follow our guidelines.

We celebrate Katharina Hartmann’s 60th birthday

During the birthday workshop “Syntax in Focus – A workshop in honour of Katharina Hartmann’s 60th birthday” we presented the festschrift in honour of Katharina on January 12, 2024: “To the left, to the right, and much in between“. It can be downloaded for free as an e-book (PDF) here.

We congratulate the Institute of Linguistics on the newly approved special research area NegLaB

From April 2024, the new DFG special research area “Negation in Language and Beyond” (SFB 1629 NegLaB) will start at Goethe University. The Institute of Linguistics is significantly involved in numerous projects at the SFB.

MA student Farbod Eslami Khouzani receives this year’s DAAD Prize

The MA linguistics student Farbod Eslami Khouzani (picture, middle) received this year’s DAAD Prize for international students on October 5th, 2023. His outstanding academic achievements as well as his social commitment were recognized. We congratulate him! More information

Prof. Katharina Hartmann and Prof. Frank Kügler nominated for the best doctoral supervision

The Goethe Research Academy for Early Career Researchers (GRADE) awards a prize every year for the best doctoral supervision. This year, two of the professors from linguistics have been nominated: Prof. Frank Kügler and Prof. Katharina Hartmann. More information

Apply now for the BA Linguistics until August 31, 2023
You can find information and links under: Freshmen/Beginners

Information for students

Studies

The Department of Linguistics at Goethe University Frankfurt offers in collaboration with the Department of English and American Studies, the Department of Psycholinguistics and the Teaching of German, and the Department of Romance Literatures and Languages two linguistic programs, a BA Linguistik taught in German and an  MA Linguistics taught in English. In addition, the Department takes part in the BA Germanistik and in the Teacher Education Program.

Further information:

Research

​Overview about the research at the institute

The Institute of Linguistics, which is based in the Faculty of  Modern Languages (FB 10), has special expertise in the fields of language structure (syntax and phonology), semantics and pragmatics, psycholinguistics (language acquisition, language processing), and historical linguistics, and represents known researchers. In addition, there are close contacts and cooperation with the linguists in the Institutes of English and Romance Studies, with philosophy (Faculty of Philosophy and History, FB 08), and the Institute for Empirical Linguistics (Faculty ofLinguistics and Cultural Studies, FB 09).

Besides the Institute of Linguistics, there is also research and teaching in linguistics in other institutes. More details can be found here:

The potential of the Frankfurt linguistics is especially in the realm of foundational research in linguistics. The active research is bundled in various projects.

Talk by Ur Shlonsky (University of Geneva) in the Syntax Colloquium

We are happy to announce a talk by Ur Shlonsky (University of Geneva) in the Syntax Colloquium.

The talks will take place in person. Room IG 4.301

Date: February 05, 2024

Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct

Title: “Clause-internal focus – movement and locality: Evidence from some African and some non-African languages”

Abstract:

I present several arguments in favor of a clause-internal (“vP-peripheral”) FocusP and provide some examples of movement to its specifier. Focus°, I additionally argue, is selected by a head. I discuss the properties of this additional structure and its role in the syntactic computation.

Talks by Sebastian Walter (Frankfurt/Wuppertal) and Noémi Ecsedi (Frankfurt) in the Semantics Colloquium

We are happy to announce talks by Sebastian Walter (Frankfurt/Wuppertal) and Noémi Ecsedi (Frankfurt) in the Semantics Colloquium.

The talks will take place on campus in IG 4.301.
If you wish to participate virtually via Zoom, please contact Lennart Fritzsche for the link.
 

Date: February 1, 2024

Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct

 

Sebastian Walter

Title: Indirect discourse as mixed quotation: Evidence from self pointing

Abstract:
Indirect discourse, e.g., Peter said he was thirsty, is standardly viewed as a statement of what someone said or thought without quoting them directly. However, there are instances of indexicals which can receive a shifted interpretation in indirect discourse (Plank, 1986; Anderson, 2019), meaning that they are interpreted from the matrix subject’s perspective. This suggests that at least some elements in indirect discourse can be quoted.

In a rating study, self pointing gestures aligned with a focalized third-person pronoun in indirect discourse were judged acceptable, cf. (1).

(1) Peter complained that [HE] again had to pay the bill for the whole group. + self pointing

Assuming that quotation involves a demonstration that can target elements beside words (Clark & Gerrig, 1990), Ebert & Hinterwimmer (2022) propose that self pointing aligned with a third-person pronoun is a character viewpoint gesture quoted from the protagonist (cf. Maier, 2015, for a mixed quotational approach to free indirect discourse).

Based on the results of the study presented in this talk, it is proposed that mixed quotation is available in indirect discourse as well. However, it is more constrained than in other instances of reported speech, meaning that only some elements of the original utterance can be quoted.

 

Noémi Ecsedi

Title: Metaphor and Expressive Meaning

Abstract: 
Such expressions that convey personal feelings, sensations, evaluations, and one’s own stance are referred to as “expressives”, cf. (1) (Löbner, 2003). Expressives, whether they possess positive or negative connotations, play an integral role in communication.

(1) Oops / damn / darling.

Metaphors, like expressives, are part of natural language too, cf. (2). They are produced and understood by speakers. The insights from intensive metaphor research, characteristic of the second half of the twentieth century, led to the understanding that metaphors are no longer merely seen as rhetorical devices in literary texts, as was the case in ancient times. Instead, they are viewed as a linguistic phenomenon ubiquitous in everyday language (Reimer & Camp, 2008).

(2) Juliet is the sun.

The topic of this talk is metaphor and expressive meaning. It aims to investigate whether the characteristics used to identify expressive meaning can demonstrate the expressive function of metaphorical expressions, cf. (3).

(3) Sam is a pig.

Two talks by Kwaku Sasu (GU) / Ateş İsmail Çalışır (GU) in the Syntax Colloquium

We are happy to announce two talks by Kwaku Sasu (GU) and by Ateş İsmail Çalışır (GU) in the Syntax Colloquium.

The talks will take place in person. Room IG 4.301

Date: January 29, 2024

Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct

Kwaku Sasu:
Title: “Negation in Anufo”

Abstract:

The talk looks at Negation in Anufo, A Niger-Congo language spoken in Northen Ghana. A general overview of negation patterns in the language and other aspects of negation in the language will be discussed.

Ateş İsmail Çalışır:
Title: “Biased Polar Questions in Turkish”

Abstract:

Biased Polar Questions are a cross-linguistically observed phenomena, closely related to High and Low negation in polar questions. In this talk, I will try to argue for a biased polar question analysis in Turkish and potential consequences and evidences regarding their syntactic and contextual status.

Talk by Lennart Fritzsche (Frankfurt) in the Semantics Colloquium

We are happy to announce a talk by Lennart Fritzsche (Frankfurt) in the Semantics Colloquium.

The talk will take place on campus in IG 4.301.
If you wish to participate virtually via Zoom, please contact Lennart Fritzsche for the link.
 

Date: January 25, 2024

Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct

Title: Ja or Jaaaaa? How Prosodic Modulations Influence the Scalar Interpretation of Adjectives

Abstract:
The traditional view that language is arbitrary (Hockett, 1960) has become increasingly challenged recently (e.g., Blasi et al., 2016): Iconic mappings between form and meaning are found throughout language, as for example in prosodic modulations of length such as looooong (Fuchs et al., 2019).

In German, it is possible to modulate the length of response particles in responses to polar questions containing a gradable adjective, cf. (1).

(1)   A: Findest du Berlin schön? (‘Do you find Berlin pretty?’)
       B: Jaaaaa. (Lengthened German Ja ‘Yes’)

Empirical work on whether these instances of particle lengthening are iconic is lacking. The data presented in this work suggests that this is the case: Prosodic modulations allow access to semantic scales and manipulate the degree to which a certain property has to hold for a given individual. For example, in (1), the lengthening of the response particle results in a boost of the degree to which the hearer thinks Berlin is pretty as compared to an ordinary answer such as Ja.

Talk by Feras Saeed (Göttingen) in the Syntax Colloquium

We are happy to announce a talk by Feras Saeed (Göttingen) in the Syntax Colloquium.

The talks will take place in person. Room IG 4.301

Date: January 22, 2024

Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct

Title: “On the morphosyntax of nominal modification: patterns of adjectival agreement”

Abstract:

In this talk, I look at three different patterns of adjectival agreement which arise in two different contexts in the Arabic noun phrase. In the first context, the adjective is postnominal [NA], hence it agrees with the modified noun in all features. In the second context, the adjective is internominal in the [N1-A-N2] configuration, i.e. cases where an adjective modifying a following noun ([N2]) is preceded by another noun ([N1]). Here, the adjective can, unexpectedly, display two different patterns of agreement, the choice of which depends on the morphosyntactic properties of the modified noun [N2]. Thus, if [N2] is nominative and cannot inflect for definiteness, the adjective shows split agreement, agreeing with [N1] in definiteness and case and with [N2] in number and gender. If, on the other hand, [N2] is genitive and inflects for definiteness, then the adjective shows misplaced agreement, i.e. it cannot agree with the modified noun [N2] in any feature, and instead agrees with [N1] in all features. A closer look at the derivational properties of adjectives in this language reveals that they have a different syntactic representation from what has been presumed previously, consequently their accessibility to nominal features is not after all unexpected. The corollary of this discussion is that nominal agreement is syntactic and subject to locality.