Linguistics

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. The aim of the course is to illustrate the diversity of the world's languages and the implications of this diversity for a general theory of language and its use, discussing the main methods and results of the typological-functionalist approach and of the approaches developed in the pragmatic field. Through the comparison of different languages, belonging to the various families attested in the world, the theoretical and methodological bases for the analysis of structural, semantic and pragmatic diversity of human languages are discussed in detail, also in relation to cultural diversity. At the end of the course, students are able to trace different languages back to different 'linguistic types' and have an up-to-date knowledge of threatened and endangered languages; have a thorough knowledge of the notions of linguistic and pragmatic universals; be able to set up and carry out autonomously an interlinguistic comparison with respect to single linguistic and pragmatic phenomena; be familiar with the main techniques of data collection and linguistic documentation; and be able to orient themselves within the descriptive grammars of different languages.

The course is organized in five parts. For each topic, different perspectives and theoretical proposals are compared, in the light of the most recent scientific debate:

1. Introduction to linguistic diversity
2. The world's languages and their health status.
3. Analyzing linguistic diversity: data collection and methods of analysis
4. Linguistic typology: seeking order in chaos
5. Explorations of linguistic diversity

The topics addressed in the second part of the course are listed below. The list may be subject to change depending on the specific interests of the attending students.

• Different languages construct words differently: morphological types
• Subject and object in world’s languages: syntactic types
• The categorization of time and reality: languages without time markers, time and reality of nouns and adjectives
• Noun categories: genders (how many?) and number (beyond singular and plural...)
• Parts of speech: how are people, things, and events categorized? Are there languages without adjectives?
• The expression of gratitude in the world's languages: is saying 'thank you' a universal phenomenon or does it depend on education and culture?
• How to communicate misunderstanding? The expression of error and its repair in world languages
• Languages without AND and languages without OR: connectives beyond logical distinctions

A basic knowledge of general linguistics is required. Those who have never taken a basic linguistics exam will have to recover independently, by studying a basic manual (Berruto & Cerruti 2011 is suggested).

This course focuses on the relationships between language and society with special focus on those areas where Dutch is spoken. Questions about language variation are central to the course. How and why does variation emerge? What social, individual, and linguistic factors are important? Concepts addressed include standard language, accent and dialect, youth language, ethnolect, gender differences in language and gendered language as well as the differences between language variation and language change, linguistic style differences, racist and sexist language and the social meaning and function of language differences. Other topics include language planning, multilingualism, codeswitching, the status of minority languages and their role in education, language loss and language shift among migrants.

This seminar course surveys major approaches and current issues relevant to the study of language in society. It aims to familiarize students with a range of theoretical and conceptual frameworks they may refer to in addressing sociolinguistic questions across a variety of sites and to provide general principles that they may consider when engaged in the study of language in social context. For this purpose, we will critically discuss classical and contemporary research in sociolinguistics to explore the historical background, prevailing assumptions, methodological perspectives, and analytic strengths of different approaches to language in society and consider recent developments in the field. Students will also be enabled to use empirical methods to conduct sociolinguistic research.

The objective of the course is to develop the student’s knowledge of English morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics at an advanced level, as well as their knowledge of the history of the English language. The course introduces the detailed grammatical analysis of English, which includes the analysis of the constituent structure of English words and clauses. It also introduces historical variants such as Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, and Late Modern English, as well as the historical basis for the present-day social and regional variation in English.

This course examines the different anatomical structures that are involved in voice production and speech articulation. Topics include: tissues, organs, systems, and apparatus; locomotor system; the bony skull and cranial norms; facial bones; central and peripheral nervous system; brain stem; cranial nerves; nerve pathways; muscles of the head; mimic muscles; nose; pharynx; oral cavity; tongue; larynx; vocal cords; thorax; diaphragm muscle; respiratory system.

How do we create meaning from the air we breathe and from marks on a page? How has language been exploited now and throughout history for effect, self-expression, and story-telling? In this course, students study the most intricate, powerful, and beautiful parts of our most valuable human asset - language. In three strands this course explores in detail how newspapers, adverts, and politicians all try to persuade us; how linguistic meaning and structure are key to making ourselves understood; and how the 1500-year history of English tells us about who we are and where we came from.

This hands-on course examines how new technologies and vast bodies of real language data have transformed the study of the English language. Students examine multi-million-word collections of language and focus on analyzing real data using computational tools to find out more about language, culture, and society. While computational methods are used extensively, no advanced computing knowledge is required.

Phonology is the ability of the human brain to organize speech sounds. This course explores different aspects of phonology within generative linguistics, using rule-based frameworks in the tradition of Chomsky and Halle’s (1968) Sound Pattern of English.  The course discusses phonological representations, phonological features, phonology-morphology interaction, syllabification, and stress assignment.   

This course is the first half of the course Modern Chinese, which introduces the basics of phonetics, phonology, lexicology, and syntax of modern Chinese. The first half of the course includes three sections: introduction, phonetics and phonology. The introduction section highlights the relationship between the Chinese language and Chinese characters, the history of Putonghua (standard Mandarin Chinese), Chinese dialect classification, and the standardization of the modern Chinese language. The phonetics section covers basic knowledge of acoustic and general phonetics. The phonology section provides an introduction to the phonology of Putonghua, and the relationship between Hanyu Pinyin Fang’an (the Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet) and the Mandarin phonological system.

This course is for students who have no previous knowledge of Irish Sign Language (ISL). Students develop a basic knowledge of signs so that they are able to participate in simple everyday communicative situations. ISL may be of particular value to students seeking a career in health or education or for those who have contact with deaf people through work, friends, or family. It may also be of intrinsic interest to linguists.