NPFL141 Linguistics - 2026 Summer

1  Description and objectives of the course

The course will help students get familiar with advanced topics in linguistics, especially syntax, semantics, pragmatics, stylistics, sociolinguistics, historical linguistics and psycholinguistics. Many topics will be addressed both from the perspective of traditional linguistics and from the formal perspective of mathematics and computer science. Students are expected to have basic knowledge of linguistics, for example, as provided by NPFL063 - Introduction to General Linguistics.

This course replaces NPFL106 Linguistics, NPFL121 Selected topics from Czech grammar and NPFL115 Readings from semantics and pragmatics.

2  Readings

In most classes, we will discuss one or more papers (sometimes books or dissertations). It is expected that everybody will have read the papers before the class.

You need to provide a brief summary for each paper. Create a Google doc document named "NPFL141 <your_name>" and share it with us. Then for each paper:

• add a new section
• add 4 bullets summarizing the paper
• one bullet summarizing what you find interesting
• one bullet summarizing what you find problematic
• is it relevant to your work
• one question you would ask the author if you could

​The summary has to be finished by Tuesday at 6 pm.

For each paper, one person will be responsible for leading the discussion (in some cases, it will be the instructor).
 

3  Active class participation

"Active participation" refers to your comments and questions during class, your answers to our questions, etc. We do not keep track of whether your answers, etc., are correct, but simply whether or not you participate. It is important that you read the assigned papers (especially if you are leading the discussion) and that you prepare language analyses.

4  Grading

Requirements for "započet":

• Up to three absences 
• Presentation of one paper
• Summary of each paper (see instructions above)
• Homework as assigned

5. Tentative Schedule (2025)