"G. d'Annunzio"
Having taken the General Linguistics exam is required.
The course aims at providing students with the tools and methods of historical linguistics, with a view to being able to cope with the reconstruction of the Indo-European protolanguage through inter-linguistic comparison. Students will get to know the concepts of language family and language type and the tenets underlying the genealogical, typological and areal classification of languages.
This course, divided into two parts, introduces and develops the basics of comparative and Indo-European studies in the former, with the reconstruction of Indo-European on a linguistic and cultural level; in the latter, it tackles and discusses language classification from a genealogical, typological and areal viewpoint.
The course is divided into two parts:
Part I
Theoretical and methodological aspects of Historical Linguistics - the historical-comparative method; - the Indo-European language family; - the main phonological features of Indo-European languages; - linguistic and cultural reconstruction of Indo-European.
Part II
Classification of languages - genealogical classification; - typological classification; - areal classification.
- F. FANCIULLO, Introduzione alla linguistica storica, Bologna, Il Mulino. - A. NOCENTINI, L’Europa linguistica: profilo storico e tipologico, Firenze, Le Monnier. - Further teaching material provided by the teacher will be available online.
Taught classes together with practice drills aimed at theoretical in-depth analysis of the issues dealt with in class, and at their practical application. Given the technical quality of the discipline, attendance is warmly recommended.
Final oral test. Students who regularly attended are allowed and given the opportunity to take two optional ongoing tests during the Course. They will be in the form of a written questionnaire made up of open questions with predefined response space and multiple-choice questions; the final score will result from the average of the scores got in the single tests. The students who have obtained a final score of at least 18/30 will be allowed, if they wish, to dispense with the oral test, by entering directly the mark resulting from the average of the written tests.
For any clarification related to the topics dealt with in class or to reference bibliography, please address the teacher during her reception time or contact her via mail.
