Aleksandra Ćwiek

Aleksandra Ćwiek

Phonetician

Teaching

Introduction to linguistics (WiSe 2023/24)

Bachelor's course, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Sprach- und literaturwissenschaftliche Fakultät, 2023

Course description:
The course introduces students to the subject areas, questions and methods of linguistics. The focus is on the various levels of grammatical structure formation - phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and the related sub-areas of phonetics, graphemics and pragmatics. Basic linguistic terms and concepts will be explained using traditional and modern methods of analysis based on the example of German and their interaction will be described. The approach will be characterized by a view of the cognitive foundations of language and the typological classification of German in the spectrum of the world’s languages.

Sound symbolism (SoSe 2022)

Master's seminar, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Sprach- und literaturwissenschaftliche Fakultät, 2022

Course description:
In linguistics studies, we learn that morphemes are the smallest units that carry meaning. But can sounds have a meaning? In this seminar, we will explore this question. We will look at linguistic iconicity at the level of sounds. We will look at the possibilities of sounds to create meaning across languages and within a language. We will also discuss why sound symbolism might be so important to our communication system. As participants, you will be encouraged to conduct your own experiments in groups based on previous research.
Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of phonetics and phonology, good command of English texts
Advantageous: Knowledge of Praat, statistical evaluation methods (with R)

Iconicity in Language (WiSe 2020/2021)

Bachelor's seminar, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Sprach- und literaturwissenschaftliche Fakultät, 2020

Course description:
According to de Saussure (1916), arbitrariness is one of the fundamental principles of a linguistic sign. A theory that is often cited in opposition to the Saussurian view is iconicity, which according to Perniss & Vigliocco (2014, 2) means “any resemblance between certain properties of linguistic/communicative form […] and certain sensori-motor and/or affective properties of corresponding referents”. For almost 100 years, new evidence in favor of iconicity in language has been presented again and again. In this course, we will explore the question of whether arbitrariness and iconicity can coexist in languages and according to which principles iconicity can occur. In the first part, we will look at previous research on iconicity and then carry out our own empirical work in the second part.

Iconicity in Language (WiSe 2018/2019)

Bachelor's seminar, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Sprach- und literaturwissenschaftliche Fakultät, 2018

Course description:
According to de Saussure (1916), arbitrariness is one of the fundamental principles of a linguistic sign. A theory that is often cited in opposition to the Saussurian view is iconicity, which according to Perniss & Vigliocco (2014, 2) means “any resemblance between certain properties of linguistic/communicative form […] and certain sensori-motor and/or affective properties of corresponding referents”. For almost 100 years, new evidence in favor of iconicity in language has been presented again and again. In this course, we will explore the question of whether arbitrariness and iconicity can coexist in languages and according to which principles iconicity can occur. In the first part, we will look at previous research on iconicity and then carry out our own empirical work in the second part.