MM1006 - HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS

courses

ID:

MM1006

Duration (hours):

42

CFU:

SSD:

GLOTTOLOGIA E LINGUISTICA

Located in:

CHIETI

Url:

Course Details:

PHILOLOGY, LINGUISTICS AND LITERARY TRADITIONS/CORSO GENERICO Year: 1

Year:

2025

Course Catalogue:

https://unich.coursecatalogue.cineca.it/af/2025?co...

Date/time interval

Primo Semestre (01/10/2025 - 31/01/2026)

Course Objectives

The course aims to provide the students with a wide picture of the unique and crucial complexity of language, resorting to multi-disciplinary epistemological hints as well as references to the key achievements in the recent history linguistic theory.
Besides the deepening of the relevant notions of Historical Linguistics, the main learning outcomes include:
1. Understand the concepts and the technical terminology of historical linguistic theory.
2. Grasp the universal mechanisms of language change through time, thus drawing a cross-linguistic paradigm of language development.
3. Acquire the scientific methods, both deductive and inductive, of language reconstruction and comparative linguistic analysis.
4. Recognize the contribution of Historical Linguistics to the explanatory adequacy of linguistic theory.
5. Appreciate the common heritage that languages share as well as the variety that differentiates them.
6. Examine the socio-cultural factors that influence language change through history and make the relevant generalizations to different languages and cultures.
7. Manage a variety of learning sources and tools, including digital collections of old texts, digital linguistic corpora, on-line material and portals, technological devices, etc.

Course Prerequisites

It would be desirable to have a very good command of Italian.
Although not necessary, it may be useful to have some knowledge of (one or more) foreign languages, or of (one or more) ancient languages.

Teaching Methods

Frontal lessons, with frequent group- and individual-exercises.
Dynamic PowerPoint presentations.
Students are also invited to actively participate in the discussion of the topics of the course, both during the lesson and in the deferred debates (forums and chats of the e-learning platform).

Assessment Methods

Oral exam aimed at verifying the ability to apply the class contents to selected cases of linguistic analysis. The exam may include some parctical exercises.
The interview will be assessed according to the following criteria:
(i) congruence of the response;(ii) organization of the discourse;(iii) ability for critical reasoning;(iv) appropriate use of the technical-specialist terms of the discipline,;(v) argumentative originality.
At the end of the task, students can decide whether to accept the grade or repeat the exam.
Grades from 0 to 30.Grades are assigned according to the following scale:
1-17 = not pass18-21 = pass22-24 = average25-27 = good28-29 = very good30-30 and distinction = excellent.

Texts

The material is entirely offered by the course-convenor in the form of notes, PowerPoint presentations, PDF, etc., and is available on the University platform (Moodle). This material is more than enough for an adequate preparation for the final exam.
To integrate the course’s material, it is recommended to read at least one chosen volume on Historical Linguistics and one chosen volume on General Linguistics, among those listed below. Even though it is highly recommended, the reading of the suggested texts will not be part of the exam.
HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS
- Campanile, E., De Felice, E., Gusmani, R., Lazzeroni, R. e Silvestri, D. (2017). Linguistica storica. Roma: Carocci.
- Magni, E. (2014). Linguistica storica. Bologna: Pátron Editore.
- Fanciullo, F. (2013), Introduzione alla linguistica storica. Bologna: il Mulino.
- Luraghi, S. (2006). Introduzione alla linguistica storica. Milano: Feltrinelli.
- Campbell, L. (2004). Historical linguistics: An introduction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- Trask, R. L. (1996). Historical Linguistics. London: Routledge.
- Bynon, T. (1977). Historical Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
GENERAL LINGUISTICS
- Berruto, G. e Cerruti, M. (2017). La Linguistica. Un corso Introduttivo. Torino: UTET.
- Casadei, F., Lorenzetti, L., Schirru, G., Thornton, A. M. e Basile, G. (2010). Linguistica generale. Roma: Carocci.
- Graffi, G. e Scalise, S. (2002). Le lingue e il linguaggio. Introduzione alla linguistica. Bologna: Il Mulino.

The course deepens the knowledge in the field of Historical Linguistics. Building upon exemplified data, the students will be trained to describe and discuss, both theoretically and empirically, a wide range of linguistic phenomena from ancient and modern languages.
The historical-diachronic analysis will be carried out on the canonical levels of analysis applied to natural languages (namely, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) and their interplays. Variation and diachronic development will be deepened and detailed at all levels of linguistic analysis. In particular, attention will be paid to different processes of grammaticalization and syntactic change.
The mechanisms of language change over time will be studied with focus on the Indo-European family and its subsequent linguistics ramifications.
The analysis of the historical linguistic data will be framed within a typological (cross-linguistic) approach, which aims to explore and deepen the structural relations among languages as well as the linguistic universals underlying linguistic change over time.

Course Language

Italian

More information

Attendance to the course is highly recommended.
Students who cannot attend are kindly asked to take an appointment with the lecturer to discuss alternative learning methods. The programme is the same for both attending and non-attending students.