28 February: fyi -- MA in Metaphor, NL

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New MA in Metaphor Studies
at the Vrije Universiteit (VU), Amsterdam, Netherlands

Starting in September 2008, the VU will offer a track
within the Master of Arts degree programme in English
Language and Culture that is centred on the study of
metaphor.

This special programme will consist of four taught courses
(each worth 10 ects) plus a Master’s thesis (20 ects).
Three of the courses are focused on metaphor, and are
compulsory. The fourth course can be chosen from the wide
range of topics offered in the Department of Language and
Communication and other departments in the Faculty of
Arts. Each student will then complete a Master’s thesis of
approximately 30,000 words. The one-year programme is
designed as follows:

Semester 1
– Metaphor in discourse
Instructor: Prof. Gerard Steen
Addresses conventional uses of metaphor in language and
questions about how it can be defined and identified, when
and how it is used, and how it can be analysed in
linguistics.

– Metaphor, metonymy and creativity
Instructor: Dr Irene Mittelberg
Attention is given to the cline between conventional and
novel metaphor and the link to metonymy, examining various
forms of expression in the media, politics, arts and
sciences.

– Elective course

Semester 2
– Metaphor, Embodied Experience and Thought
Instructor: Dr Alan Cienki
Considers how our language about the physical world is
connected to how we think about and express abstract
ideas; engages questions from linguistics, psychology and
philosophy.

– MA thesis

This MA degree may serve as solid preparation for PhD work
on metaphor and other language phenomena in various fields
of linguistics, and the humanities more broadly. It may
also prepare the student for professional activities in
teaching, document design, editing, communication advice
and other fields in which text analysis plays an important
role.

For general information about the MA programme in English,
please see http://www.let.vu.nl/master/english/ . For
specific questions, please contact the programme
coordinator, Dr Alan Cienki, e-mail a.cienki AT let.vu.nl
.

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