Unit LINGUISTICS
- Course
- Humanities
- Study-unit Code
- GP005962
- Curriculum
- Classico
- CFU
- 12
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2021
- Offered
- 2021/22
- Type of study-unit
- Obbligatorio (Required)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa integrata
LINGUISTICS (MODULE 1)
| Code | GP005976 |
|---|---|
| CFU | 6 |
| Teacher | Alberto Calderini |
| Teachers |
|
| Hours |
|
| Learning activities | Base |
| Area | Filologia, linguistica generale e applicata |
| Academic discipline | L-LIN/01 |
| Type of study-unit | Obbligatorio (Required) |
| Language of instruction | Italian |
| Contents | Introduction to linguistics. Semiotic approach. Linguistic variation. Phonetics. Phonology. Prosody. Morphology. |
| Reference texts | G. Basile, F. Casadei, L. Lorenzetti, G. Schirru, A.M. Thornton, Linguistica generale, Bologna, Carocci, 2010 [isbn 9788843048908] G. Berruto, M. Cerruti, La linguistica. Un corso introduttivo, Torino, UTET 2017 [isbn 9788860084835] N. Grandi, Fondamenti di tipologia linguistica, Roma, Carocci, 2006 [isbn 9788843073191] |
| Educational objectives | The courses of Glottologia and General Linguistics introduce students to the scientific study of human language, which they actually approach for the first time. They aim to guide them towards a general awareness of the nature and functioning of language, and to provide them with more specific knowledge of both the theoretical and methodological foundations of its scientific study and the structural levels in which it is articulated. The module starts with an overview of the epistemological peculiarities of the discipline accompanied by an outline of the history of studies up to recent approaches. It continues with the essential consideration of language within the domain of semiotics, and with an examination of the broad phenomenology of linguistic variation in each of the dimensions in which it occurs. Finally, it deals with the phonic, phonemic and morphological levels. |
| Prerequisites | none |
| Teaching methods | Classroom lectures |
| Other information | Non-attending students are required to contact the teacher to plan an exam program. |
| Learning verification modality | Oral exam; middle-course oral text at the end of Module 1 |
| Extended program | 1. Introduction to Linguistics: general characters of the scientific study of human language. Notes on the history of linguistics. Overview of the precursors from the Middle Ages to the late eighteenth century. The discovery of the comparative method and the debut of scientific linguistics. Characteristics of nineteenth-century reconstructive comparative historical linguistics. Saussure and the birth of synchronic linguistics. 2. Human language as a semiotic code. Semiosis and sign; classification of signs; code; communication process and models (linguistic and other types); semiotic properties and classification of codes: continuity vs. discretion, arbitrariness vs. iconicity, combinability, articulation, sequentiality vs. simultaneity, positionality, productivity; double articulation; other properties; essentials on zoosemiotics. 3. Linguistic variation. Translingual variation: world languages and classification approaches. Genetic classification: notion of linguistic relatedness, comparative method and heuristic validity of the determination of relatedness; rudiments of historical-linguistic reconstruction with examples from the Italic branch of the Indo-European family, i.e. from the Romance dialectology. Survey of the main families. Areal classification: European languages, Balkan languages league, theoretical notions and case studies of phenomena. Typological classification; universals of language and limits to linguistic variation (and arbitrariness). Intralinguistic variation: linguistic community, repertoire and communicative competence, diachronic and synchronic variation, axes of synchronic variation, internal varieties of a language. Dialect variation; Italian dialects. Interlinguistic variation: contact, interference. Bi- and multilingualism, diglossy. 3. The phonetic-phonological level. Phonetics and phonology. Articulatory phonetics: phonatory tract and mechanism of phonation; continuous-discrete relationship; IPA alphabet; classification of speech sounds: vowels: basic contrast and accessory contrasts; consonants: differentiating factors; modification of sounds. Acoustic phonetics: acoustic characteristics of sounds and linguistic correlates: accent, tone and tonality, quantity (> prosodic elements). Phonology: phoneme, phonemic repertoire, allophony, distribution, phonemic oppositions and their classification, neutralization, natural segment classes and distinctive feature. The syllable as a phonological unit: structure, universal restrictions and differences between languages in syllabification, sonority hierarchy, sonority sequencing, maximal onset principle; syllabic peculiarities of / s /. Prosodic elements and their relevance: stress, types of stress, tone and tonality, distinctive vs. expressive value; tonal languages; elements of tonology. 4. The morphological component. The notion of "word" and the difficulty of an unitary definition of such a unit; criteria for determining the word. Morpheme, allomorphy, types of proper allomorphy, morphophonological interface, suppletivism; models of approach to morphology; character of the morphological process; functions of morphology: lexicon and semantics, syntax; classification of types of morpheme and morphological processes (morphological techniques). Morphological typology: synthesis and fusion indices, morphological types. Non-concatenative morphology, Prosodic Morphology, interlinguistic case studies. |
LINGUISTICS (MODULE 2)
| Code | GP005977 |
|---|---|
| CFU | 6 |
| Teacher | Alberto Calderini |
| Teachers |
|
| Hours |
|
| Learning activities | Base |
| Area | Filologia, linguistica generale e applicata |
| Academic discipline | L-LIN/01 |
| Type of study-unit | Obbligatorio (Required) |
| Language of instruction | Italian |
| Contents | Historical linguistics. Comparative method and reconstruction. Theory of linguistic change. Indo-European. Italic languages. |
| Reference texts | S. Luraghi, Introduzione alla linguistica storica, Roma, Carocci, 2006 [isbn 9788843036639] |
| Educational objectives | The Glottologia Module 2 is based on historical linguistic issues and first addresses the dynamics of linguistic change. Then it deals with the diachrony of a specific linguistic family, the Indo-European one. Of this family, it targetedly examines the Italic branch in its most ancient phases following the history of the Latin-Faliscan and Sabellic varieties (700-50 BC) through the sources, mainly epigraphic. In addition to theoretical knowledge of historical and Indo-European linguistics, the module therefore aims to provide students with knowledge and analytical skills in relation to pre-Roman linguistic documentation and the circulation of writing and formular clichés in ancient Italy. |
| Prerequisites | none |
| Teaching methods | Classroom lectures |
| Other information | Non-attending students are required to contact the teacher to plan an exam program. |
| Learning verification modality | Final oral exam |
| Extended program | 1. Phenomenology of linguistic change: phonetic-phonological change. Typology of phenomena: assimilation, metaphony, differentiation, others. The phonetic-phonological change within the models of linguistic change: neogrammatic model; structuralist model and phonological approach: phonologization, defonologization, splitting, chain changes; effects of changes on inventory and distribution; examples from Romance and Germanic languages; revised neogrammatic model: the propagation of phonological change and the sociolinguistic approach. 2. Phenomenology of linguistic change: morphological change. Typology of processes: replacement of synthetic forms with analytical forms; loss, restructuring, introduction of morphosyntactic categories; grammaticalization. Analog change. Examples from the Latin-Romance diachrony. Semantic-lexical change: typology, examples from Latin-Romance and Germanic diachrony. 3. Indo-European linguistics. Constitution of the family. Comparison and reconstruction: the scientific approach, the comparative method and the reconstruction of relatedness relationships; representation models. Principles of comparative analysis and comparative procedures. The reconstructed Proto-Indo-European. Phonology: vowel system, diphthongs; consonant system: Germanic consonantism, “centum” and “satem” outcome of the dorsals; outcomes of labiovelar stops, "Mediae Aspiratae", syllabic sonorants; the laryngals. Principles of Indo-European morphonology: root and introflexive morphological variation (“apophony”); hints on the Wortbildung of the inflectional classes. 4. The Italic branch. Languages of ancient Italy. Documentation and history. Languages of the Italic branch and reconstruction of genetic relationship. Writing and alphabets; Greek origin and role of the Etruscan; transmission of the alphabet, formation and development of the Latin and Sabellic writing traditions. Formular structures and textual typologies. Historical phonology and morphosyntax of Italic languages. Sabellic dialectology. Analysis of Latin, Faliscan, Sabellic, Venetian, Etruscan epigraphic texts. |