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Linguistics: Empirical and Theoretical Foundations (ETF)

Literature recommendations

A certain amount of basic knowledge in the core disciplines of linguistics and in scientific research methods is presupposed in this program. However, not every student has exactly the same background. If you would like to read up on some background knowledge prior to or during your MSc studies, you will find below a list of textbooks and materials recommended by the teachers of our Master courses (this is by no means a mandatory reading list, but intended as a pointer to optional complementary literature in case a specific subdiscipline was not a core part of your Bachelor's degree and you would like to read up on it).

  • Phonology:
    • Michael Kenstowicz & Charles Kisseberth. 1979. Generative phonology. San Diego: Academic Press.
    • Carlos Gussenhoven & Haike Jacobs. 2011. Understanding phonology. London: Hodder Arnold.
  • Phonetics:
    • Henning Reetz & Allard Jongman. 2011. Phonetics: Transcription, production, acoustics, and perception. Vol. 34. John Wiley & Sons.
  • Syntax:
    • David Adger. 2003. Core Syntax. A Minimalist Approach. Oxford University Press.
  • Semantics:
    • Irene Heim & Angelika Kratzer. 1998. Semantics in Generative Grammar. Malden/Oxford: Blackwell.
  • Typology:
    • Lindsay Whaley. 1997. An Introduction to Language Typology: The Unity and Diversity of Language. Sage Publications.
  • Psycholinguistics:
    • Eva M. Fernández & Helen Smith Cairns. 2010. Fundamentals of Psycholinguistics. Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Language acquisition:
    • Maria Teresa Guasti. 2002. Language Acquisition. The Growth of Grammar. MIT Press.
  • Morphology:
    • David Embick. 2015. The Morpheme: A Theoretical Introduction. Mouton de Gruyter.
  • Statistics / R: