Bilingual Lexicon

Hausarbeit – Mental Lexicon – new directions in old debates
Dr. John M. Tomlinson, Jr Zentrum fur Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft Schutzenstrasse 18 10117
Berlin
Topic
In this seminar, we tried to get an idea of where the future of research on the Mental Lexicon
could be headed. Some old debates continue (rules vs. storage), whereas some have died out
(connectionism vs. serial models in lexical access/bilingualism). Ultimately, what I’m looking for is
that 1) you have understood specifc aspects about the debate, e.g. representational questions,
methodological/evidential concerns, the linguistic phenomena, etc and 2) that you can develop an
thesis/argument/proposal in some hypothetical future avenue of research. In some ways, this is
part of what I’m looking at is WHAT you argue, but more important is HOW you argue.
Here are a couple of options for “general topics” for your Hausarbeit:
(1)  Describe a debate that we have covered in class and propose some
aspect/idea/contention that you feel has not been adequately discussed or not even
discussed at all. You will be required to not to argue for a specifc position, rather make a
relevant point or consideration that has not been discussed in the literature (or at least to
your knowledge, and will then need to argue why this in important/relevant/meaningful/etc.
(2)  Propose an experiment or other empirical examination (corpus study or phenonmeon
in another language). This could be an improvement or “Erganzung” von Experiments
discussed in class or a novel experiment. You would need to propose a methodology, an
experimental design (Independent variables, Dependent variables, Hypotheses, etc.), and
what your hypothetical results would support
(3)  Discuss some morphological properties of a given language that might be an issue for
accounts of the mental lexicon that we have discussed so far
In general, if you have other ideas, you can just email me and we can talk about it.
Structure
I would recommend that every student write an outline before they start writing. I wouldn’t
recommend relying on the classic “Hausarbeit” structure, e.g. Fragestellung, (main question of
your work) etc. Rather concentrate on what you think is the best way to structure the paper for
the reader. For example, in the write-ups, the idea not only to introduce the problem or debate,
but also make it clear why this is important/relevant. The reason for this is to get the to WANT
to read more and to get their attention. This can be done with examples, funny anecdotes, etc.
You should have headings for your different sections, e.g. “Introduction” or “blah blah Theories”,
but they do not have to be enumerated, e.g. “1.1” or “5.4.1a”
Generally, you need some type of structure that maps out the structure of your argument. I’m
quite fexible as to how this is done.
Requirements
Hausarbeit (ca. 12 Seiten/24.000 Zeichen) A4 paper 12 point font (Times New Roman or Times)
Double spaced Margins- 1 inch by 1 inch Separate title page Separate page for the bibliography
English or German
–  If you decide to write in English, you should have a native speaker (not me) go through and
correct typos and grammatical errors. I’d also recommend consulting a style book
(Fowler’s Modern English Use (Oxford) or “The Elements of Style (Skunk)) just as you
would consult the Duden if you were writing in German.
–  Likewise, if you write in German, you would need to consult the Duden for style guidelines and
Rechtschreibung
References and citations
–  References in the bibliography should be formatted either in APA or MLA
–  your bibliography will need to have at least 5 sources. At least 3 of these should be from peer-reviewed journal articles, whereas the others can be any that you choose.
–  IMPORTANT: You need to cite ideas that are not yours. In academic scholarship, this is
paramount. If you don’t believe me ask Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg. Otherwise, it would count as
plagiarism.
–  Citation style: if you cite an idea or fnding from a(n) author(s), please use the following
conventions:
–  Tomlinson(xxxx) claimed/argued/etc.
–  Tomlinson, Smith, and Bob (xxxx)’s study/results/fndings/etc. suggest/support/show/
demonstrate/etc.
–  “Recent fndings suggest that when Germans listeners hear non-sepearable affxed verbs such as
verstehen, the stems of such verbs (stehen) are also activated (Smolka & blah blah, 2014).
How will my paper be evaluated?
From a pedagogical perspective, I’m interested in 3 main issues:
(1)  Have you understood the source material and it this evident in your writing?
(2)  Are you able to relate the more conceptual ideas discussed in the seminar and the writings to
more concrete (morphological/linguistics) phenomena?
(3)  How polished is your writing and how well do both the sentences within a paragraph as well
as from one paragraph to the next fow together (is your paper “easy” or “hard” to read). In
other words, how have you connected “ideas” in your writing into a coherent structure/
argument. After every sentence, you should ask yourself “why is this sentence/paragraph here and
not there”, and you should be able to give yourself a good answer.
But there are writing specifc issues that you should be pay attention to:
1)  The relationship betweens words and evidence. We’ve talked about how science (and
especially statistics) cannot prove things. So, don’t use words like “this study proves X”. Use more
neutral language like “supports”, “suggests”, “shows”, etc.
2)  Do not reference yourself or what you think. This is not a personal letter to me, rather this is
supposed to be a piece of independent scholarship from a neutral party (you), who is trying to
make statements about what we know, don’t know, and what your contribution to this knowledge
could/might be. In other words, I shouldn’t see the words “I”, “me”, etc. in your Hausarbeit.
3)  Long sentences work in German, but not in English. Scientifc writing in English is supposed to
be short and concise. This makes your arguments more transparent and easier to understand. If
you write in German, you can have long sentences, but try to avoid making one sentence into an
entire paragraph. I’ve already read “die Kritik der reinen Vernuft” and do not think that any of you
will be writing about Metaphysics

By admin in Essays on August 2, 2016