Semester 03

ΓΦΓ03: Phonetics -Phonology

The aim of the course is to introduce students to Phonetics and Phonology with an emphasis on the phonetic inventory of Modern Greek. Phonetics is studying the sounds of human speech as natural entities, that is, how they are produced (articulatory phonetics), how they are transmitted as sound waves (acoustic phonetics) and how they are perceived by the listener (auditory phonetics). Phonology studies the sounds of human speech as linguistic units, that is, how they are organized into the language to differentiate the meaning of words. The basic concepts of Phonetics and Phonology are discussed in relation to the Greek language.

• Tutor: George Markpoulos

ΓΦΓ04: Morphology 

The course is an introduction to Morphology, the branch of Linguistics that studies the internal structure of words and the word formation processes. Particular emphasis is placed on the morphological structure of Modern Greek words as a result of inflectional and derivational processes.

• Tutor: George Markopoulos

Semester 04

ΓΦΓ05: Syntax I (with an emphasis on the structure of Modern Greek)

This course is an introduction on the theoretical analysis of syntax from the perspective of Generative Theory (Chomsky 1957 et seq.). It describes the way the phrases and the clauses of human language are structured and presents the current methodology of analyzing the syntactic structure of natural languages. This analysis is couched within the Principles & Parameters Theory (Chomsky 1981 et seq.) as this is shaped in the frameworks of Government and Binding (Chomsky 1981 et seq., Chomsky & Lasnik 1993) and the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 2993 et seq.). The following topics are examined: (a) the nature of human Language, the Language Faculty and the innateness hypothesis, the Plato’s Problem and the theory of Universal Grammar, the generative mechanism of producing linguistic structures; (b) categories, constituency, basic phrase structure and structural relations; (c) X-bar theory; (d) theta-theory and argument structure; (e) clause structure and the derivation of the sentence; (f) agreement and A-movement; (g) the structure of C, wh-movement and the derivation of questions and relative clauses.

• Tutor: Vassilis Spyropoulos

ΓΦΓ06: Semantics

An introduction to Semantics, this course is designed with the aim of acquainting the students with the field giving a comprehensive account of all the questions dealt with by Semantics. It aims, therefore, for breadth rather than depth of analysis. It is taught in the same semester as Pragmatics, with the goal of establishing a dialogue between the two fields and of highlighting the different approaches to the study of meaning.

Ι. Introduction & brief history of the study of meaning

     from Greek Philosophy to the present day

     (including the split of the field into Semantics and Pragmatics)

II. Lexical Semantics (Word Meaning)

1. Lexeme vs. word
2. Sense and Reference
3. Meaning and Structuralism

3.1. Saussure’s valeur and Trier’s Semantic Fields

3.2. Sense relations (synonymy, homonymy, polysemy, antonymy, hyponymy, meronymy)

3.3. Semantic features (Hjelmslev)

3.4. Sapir – Whorf hypothesis

1. Prototype Theory
2. Semantic Change
3. Metaphor and metonymy: Semantics or Pragmatics?

III. Sentence Meaning

1. Utterance - sentence - proposition
2. Propositional content and truth-conditions

IV. Grammatical Meaning

1. Case study: tense and aspect

• Tutor: Amalia Moser

ΓΦΓ07: Pragmatics

This course is an introduction to the study of pragmatic meaning, i.e. meaning generated in interaction and through the contribution of context. The following topics are examined: (a) context and communication, (b) deixis, (c) speech acts, (d) conversational implicatures, (d) linguistic politeness.

• Tutor: Spyridoula Bella

Semester 05

ΓΦΓ08: Historical Grammar of Ancient Greek (Phonetics-Phonology)

The object of the class is a) the analysis of the phonological structure of Ancient Greek and changes in the phonological system of Ancient Greek. In particular, the following topics are examined: vowels, diphthongs and consonants of Ancient Greek, diachronic approach: pre-history of the phonological system of Ancient Greek (ablaut etc.), phonological rules and changes in the phonological system of Ancient Greek, ancient Greek accent, Erasmian and Byzantine-Modern Greek pronunciation, the written representation of Modern Greek, and b) the synchronic and diachronic examination of the morphological system of Ancient Greek. In particular, the following topics are examined: basic principles of morphological analysis, nominal and verbal categories of Ancient Greek, the pre-history of the morphological system of Ancient Greek and its development up to the Classical era.

• Tutor: Nikolaos Pantelidis

ΓΦΓ09: Psycholinguistics-Neurolinguistics

The aim of the class is the introduction to the interdisciplinary branches of psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics. In particular, the class discusses the production and understanding of speech, the development of spoken language in children, the acquisition of linguistic capacities in animals, the learning of a second language and bilingualism phenomena, disorders in language communication, the relation between language and thought, as well as the brain foundations of language.

• Tutor: Spyridoula Varlokosta

ΓΦΓ10: Scientific Writing 

This course helps students to develop the academic skills needed to become competent academic writers. Especially, focus is given on the following topics: writing a bibliography, academic genres, planning and designing of a text, summary writing, paragraph structure, text patterns (general-specific, problem-solution), IMRAD (introduction, methods, results, discussion) structure and lexicogrammatical options of a research article and, finally, drafting/editing skills.

• Tutor: Stamatia Koutsoulelou

Semester 06

ΓΦΓ11: Syntax II

This is an advanced course in the theory of syntactic analysis of natural languages according to the Principles and Parameters Theory (Chomsky 1981 et seq.). The following topics are examined: (a) binding theory; (b) Case theory, raising, ECM and control; (c) the morphosyntax of the Greek verb system; (d) Split-Infl Hypothesis and functional categories; (e) the DP-hypothesis; (f) V-shells and the structure of the verb phrase; (g) movement and conditions on its application (bounding); (h) ellipsis.  

• Tutor: Vassilis Spyropoulos

ΓΦΓ13: Language Acquisition

The class presents some of the basic theoretical and methodological issues delat with in the discipline of the Acquisition of First Language (or Mother Tongue). It analyses the logical problem Πρόβλημα of acquisition, the role of human innate predisposition and the role of the context in acquiring a mother tongue and discusses the basic methodological approaches to collecting language material for the study of child language. Lastly, it presents the basic phases of child language development at each level of linguistic analysis (acquisition of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics) and the main theoretical approaches to the explanation of this development. 

• Tutor: Spyridoula Varlokosta

ΓΦΓ15: Cognitive Linguistics

Cognitive Linguistics offers a new approach to the study of language, which it treats as an implication of general human cognitive capacities and not as a separate competence. Language reflects the conceptual system of human beings, whose creation is intimately related to human biological foundations. Basic points of this approach include an emphasis on meaning in the study of languages as used in communication (language use) and the assumption that abstract notions are formed on the basis of patterns that stem from experience through (conceptual) metaphor.

• Tutor: Eleni Panaretou

ΓΦΓ16: Computational Linguistics

The computational processing of natural language and its applications at the different levels of linguistic analysis are the main subject of the course. Emphasis will be placed on the contribution of linguistics theory in shaping the wider area of Computational Linguistics. Grammatical models and formalisms like finite state automata will be used in the grammatical analysis of natural language with an emphasis on morpho-syntactic example cases of Modern Greek. Furthermore, students will be introduced into logic programming with the Prolog programming language. Prolog is used widely in computational linguistic applications and is based on a non-mathematical description of predicates, rules and logical implications.

• Tutor: George Markopoulos

Semester 07

ΓΦΓ17: Text Linguistics-Discourse Analysis

The course deals with the linguistic analysis of texts (both spoken and written literary and non-literary), as well as the broader dimension of discourse. It aims at familiarizing students with the principles and methods of text analysis in different contexts (e.g. conversation, narrative, media texts, legal and political discourse, advertisements etc). In particular, the following themes will be discussed: principles of communication, relations between text and context, genres (theory and text types), cohesion mechanisms, differences between spoken and written texts, as well as between narrative and non-narrative texts, principles of textuality, text relations and signals. The analysis of discourse will be related to social parameters, as well as teaching applications.

• Tutor: Dionisis Goutsos 

ΓΦΓ18: Introduction in the learning and teaching of a Second Language   

The course aims at raising students’ awareness of key terms of Second Language Acquisition research as well as its pedagogic applications in second language classrooms. SLA is a broad and constantly expanding field of research aiming at explaining with a variety of theories, hypotheses and theoretical frameworks how people acquire any additional or second language (L2) after the completion of the first language acquisition. The relationship between SLA findings and language pedagogy in terms of different learners’ profiles, teaching methodologies, learning outcomes and syllabi design will be broadly discussed.

• Tutor: Maria Iakovou

Semester 08

ΓΦΓ20: Sociolinguistics

The class discusses the basic principles, issues and research that concern the relation of language to society.

• Tutor: Spyridoula Bellai

ΓΦΓ21: BA Thesis

The basic goal of the final year project is familiarization with scientific writing in linguistics. Its aims include the creative engagement with a part of scientific materials and its understanding, as well as the foundation of scientific knowledge and the original synthesis of scientific opinions. The topic of the final year project may concern any of the branches of linguistics and depends of the tutors available for supervision and their specifications. 

ΓΦΓ23: Stylistics

Stylistics is one of the disciplines of the study of texts that focuses on the study of style of both literary and non-literary texts. The linguistic approach to style differs from other approaches such as that of the Theory of Literature, with respect to the emphasis of stylistics to the study of style through the analysi of the text’s language. Style is not a subjective, evaluative and intuitively approachable notion but an objectively defined feature of texts, which emerges form the language of each text. The following topics will be defined: concept and definitions of style, types of style (literary, vernacular, scientific), different approaches to style, style as a choice, style as deviation, language and poetics: Jakobson’s view, formal and functional approaches to style, language levels and stylistic analysis, stylometry, cognitive stylistics.

• Tutor: Eleni Panaretou

ΓΦΓ24: History of Linguistics

This course consists of a survey of theories developed from “Kratylos” to the present day. Particular emphasis is given in the 20th century theoretical schools (Structuralism, Functionalism and Transformational-Generative grammar). The aim is to engage students in understanding their origins, practicing with their methodology in the analysis of the linguistic material and in evaluating the contribution of these theories in the formation of (linguistic) science and of scientific thought generally.

• Tutor: Stamatia Koutsoulelou

ΓΦΓ25 Language Change

The course aims at introducing students to the basic concepts of the theory of language change. The main focus will be on understanding the causes and the mechanisms behind change at all levels of linguistic analysis. Specifically, the class consists of three units; in the initial one, the discussion will be concentrated on change as a basic property of language as well as to the presentation of the core questions usually underlie the field, e.g. why does language change over time, or, why do we study change, how do speakers perceive of change etc? In the second, there will be a detailed presentation of the specific types of language change, e.g. sound (phonetic and phonological) change, morphological, syntactic and semantic change; further, special attention will be paid to the specific mechanisms by which change takes place (e.g. reanalysis, analogy). In the final part, it will be resumed the discussion on the nature of language change (relation to language in general, causes, explanation) in its historical perspective, starting from the 19th century until today (Neogrammarians and the traditional historical-comparative linguistics, Structuralism, sociolinguistic approaches, Generative Grammar, functional-typological approach/ Grammaticalization). Language acquisition and/or usage of language as locus of change, discretion between internal and external (to wit, language contact) factors are to be found in the centre of attention in the last unit of the course.

• Tutor: Th. Giannaris

ΓΦΓ31  Literacy

New Literacy Studies consist the multimodal field of construction and negotiation of meaning in social interaction through verbal and written texts (digital and/or printed). The course is designed to the study of language use as social practice and social process. Special attention will be given to the interplay between Literacy Studies and Language Teaching.

• Tutor: V. Intzidis