Professor Rudanko's Seminar

In recent years the advent of large electronic corpora has opened up new and exciting opportunities for the study of constructions selected by verbs and adjectives in recent English. The course is designed to help participants to write a BA thesis in this area. The emphasis is on projects for which it is easy to collect data from a suitable electronic corpus, and on constructions in which verbs or adjectives select different dependents. (Notice, for example, the verb remember, which permits I remembered to lock the door and I remembered locking the door, among other constructions.) English is rich in such variation. For their BA thesis projects, participants will investigate the variation in the case of a suitable verb or adjective, with the help of authentic data from an appropriate electronic corpus of recent or current English. The OED is an important resource for each project.
                      The course includes classroom instruction, homework assignments and readings so that participants will have the necessary background for writing a thesis in the area of the seminar. I will help each participant to find a project that is suitable for a BA thesis. I will also help each participant with data collection, to make sure that everyone will have an appropriate amount of data for a BA thesis.

To apply for a place, please act as instructed.

Those who want to attend this seminar should send me an email in the first half of August to arrange for an appointment before the seminar begins in September. Appointments should take place in the second half of August. (My summer holiday runs till about August 10.) My email address is: juhani.rudanko@uta.fi.

    Juhani Rudanko

Lecturer Toikkanen's Seminar

The group is designed for students interested in research topics in literature and culture. The proper tools and method of study will be specified in the seminar.