The Department of Semitic Languages will host a workshop “Semantics of Grammatical Markers in Semitic Languages and Approaches to Its Description” dedicated to the studies of grammatical semantics and methodological problems associated with it.

The choice of adequate methodology that would help answer the questions of descriptive linguistics tasks plays an important role in the studies of the semantics of grammatical markers:

• How can the right methodology assist in research on grammatical polysemy and differentiation of grammatical meanings coded with one marker;
• How can corpora be used for the studies of grammatical semantics;
• How should semantic fieldwork be conducted;
• Which difficulties do the studies of the semantics of the grammatical markers in dead languages and especially those with limited corpora pose?

These and similar questions will be addressed during the workshop.

Four keynote lectures on the corpus methodology for studying grammatical semantics in general and as applied to the material of Semitic languages will be given within the scope of the workshop. Beside this, there will be short presentations on various subjects related to the descripton of grammatical markers and functions in individual Semitic languages.

On the 13^th of February, Prof. Aharon Geva Kleinberger (University of Haifa and CSIC-CCHS Madrid) will deliver a keynote lecture on Semantics and structure of traditional Palestinian agricultural binominal nomenclature.

All interested in the subject are welcome to attend the workshop. Advance registration is required for attendance at all keynote lectures. Registration can be made at the following e-mail address: jufurman@zedat.fu-berlin.de