Linguistics

This course provides an overview of major subfields in linguistics, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and historical linguistics. By the end of the course, students are expected to better understand key issues, methodologies, and data involved in modern linguistic theories, and how linguists approach the study of human language. 

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. This course focuses on the linguistic theory related to the coding of the linguistic message into sounds, particularly the fundamentals of articulatory/acoustic phonetics and segmental/suprasegmental phonology. In particular, students are able to analyze the phonetic and phonological aspects of a language or linguistic variety from different perspectives: synchronic, diachronic, sociolinguistic, and acquisitional. Students analyze phenomena of phonetic and phonological disruption in pathological speech; and set up autonomously theoretical and experimental research in the fields outlined above. Topics include: articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, form and substance of the signifier; and the development of phonetic/phonological competence during childhood.

This course introduces the scientific study of human language. Utilizing Andrew Radford’s An Introduction to English Sentence Structure (2009), the course provides a concise and clear introduction to current work in syntactic theory, drawing on the key concepts of Noam Chomsky's The Minimalist Program. By looking at data mainly from English, it also introduces students to a few linguistic mysteries found not only in present-day English but also in languages like Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Belfast English, Elizabethan English, etc.  

This course provides the opportunity to gain analytical skills which will be a solid foundation for conducting research in the following linguistics-related fields: child language, language acquisition, computational linguistics, machine translation, sign language, pidgin and creole, comparative linguistics, historical linguistics, language and thought, speech therapy, textbook writing, etc.  
 
A companion course (CO310) focuses on more traditional ideas of generative syntax, which forms a basis of the current theory. Students are encouraged to take this course as well. 

This is an intermediate English Historical Linguistics course which should be taken after studying the basics of linguistics offered in CO201 Introduction to Language Studies and/or CO202 Introduction to English Linguistics at this school or anything equivalent to these anywhere.  

Building on the knowledge from these introductory courses, this course investigates the internal linguistic development of the English language from a synthetic to an analytic language, i.e. loss of inflections, depending on a more fixed word order, and emerging periphrases and function words such as auxiliaries and prepositions in constructing sentences. It also delves into the external influences on the English language throughout its history, namely, lexical borrowings from Greek, Latin (Classical and Medieval), Old Norse, and (Norman-)French words. 

The course first studies selected features of pronunciation, spelling, and grammar of English from its earliest stage of development. It also considers the cultural, social, and political aspects of the external history of English, especially in terms of vocabulary.  

By the end of the course one will have understood why the English language has become the lingua franca of the world but, for many speakers of it, whether native or non-native, ‘”English is among the easiest languages to speak badly, but the most difficult to use well’ (C. L. Wrenn, The English Language, 1977, p.9). 

This course focuses on the practical aspects of the automated processing of human languages. It develops knowledge of useful and logical aspects, as well as useful prototypes of the same nature. The course introduces the basics of the programming language Python.

This course examines a range of issues rooted in language and culture: language and thought; identities, self and ‘othering’; cultural diversity in verbal and nonverbal communication; language, gender and sexuality; popular culture and global cultural flow; language and power; globalization and language planning and policy in different cultural contexts.

This course examines language in relation to migration in the contemporary multilingual world. It looks at how language is used by people on the move, and by those with whom they interact, in areas including health, education, the law and the workplace. It also explores how language practices are shaped by face-to-face and mediated encounters and by the constraints of political and institutional contexts. Key questions are: What languages and forms of communication get used, when, why and where? What linguistic factors enable and limit access for migrants to services and resources? What are the consequences?

This course traces first language development and examines different theoretical models of learning and acquisition throughout one’s lifespan. It discusses social, psychological, and linguistic aspects of languages and focuses not only on pre-natal to pre-school language development, but also development during later years in school. 

 

This course provides a study of psycholinguistics and the complex psychological processes underlying the use of language. It investigates the processes that take place in our minds when we use language as well as how these processes develop in children. Language impairment, for example in patients who have sustained brain damage, or in children with atypical language development, is also discussed. 

This course engages in media translation as a vehicle of social and cultural change. Through a variety of case studies ranging from film dubbing and the aesthetics of B-movie subtitling, to internet memes, music videos and song lyric translation, the course provides a keener understanding of the ways in which media, technology and translation influence one another (and society) as agents of cultural change.
 

Through lectures, discussions (both in-class and online), and guided practice activities, students will have the opportunity to:
1) Understand and describe theories of mass media;
2) Experience and describe what happens in the process of translating media;
3) Compare how media translation takes place in different cultural contexts;
4) Identify and critique elements of media translation in the world around them; and
5) Critically reflect on their own learning experiences as they relate to the educational goals of the University.