Course Co-ordinator: Dr R M Millar

Pre-requisite(s): None.

Note(s): This is a 15 credit, six week course.

Meaning is at the heart of our understanding of language, ourselves and the world; and yet it is notoriously difficult to 'tie down'. Why do I think a articular word means one thing while you think it means something 'subtly or significantly' different? This course gives you the opportunity to explore these issues. You will learn how we construct hierarchies of meaning and how these may differ from language to language; you will also come to understand how what a word means can differ from place to place and at different times. The course also considers how dictionaries and thesauri are constructed.

2 one-hour lectures, one line workshop and one-hour tutorial per week.

1st Attempt: One 2,000 word essay (50%); homework exercise (30%), tutorial assessment (20%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).