Linguistics

This is a graduate level course that is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. There are two versions of this course; this course, UCEAP Course Number 188B and Bologna course numbers 29886 and 81714, is associated with the LM in Modern, Post-Colonial and Comparative Literatures and the LM in Geography and Territorial Processes degree programmes. The other version,  UCEAP Course Number 188A and Bologna course number 78696, is associated with the LM in Language, Society, and Communication degree programme.
This course examines languages as cultural features linking the human communities to their territories, history, and geopolitical evolution, with a particular analysis of the changes occurred in the spatial dimension of languages, in connection to acculturation processes and to linguistic policies. In this respect, the course deals with the regional division of the European languages and with the EU language policy both in respect to minority languages and to the process of linguistic education of its citizens. The relationship between linguistic diversity and biological diversity is also explored with a geographical focus on the issue of language death. The course examines the relationship between space/place and language from different perspectives. At the beginning of the course, the students explore the field of cultural geography and its main themes, concepts, and keywords. After having explored the differences between linguistic geography and geographies of languages, the course focus on the second and using both theories and empirical cases, looks at the interconnections between culture, cultural geography, and language geography; language as cultural phenomenon; toponyms and culture; and semiotics of space. Moreover, the course observes how the relationship between geography and language expresses itself in different configurations of bodies and spaces: digital and media spaces, literary spaces, migratory fluxes, terrorism discourses and place-bound semiotics, tourism performance, and cultural and intercultural spaces.

This course provides an introduction to the literary culture of the medieval period, highlighting some of the key cultural issues of this era.  Students orient themselves in this long period (roughly from 600 to 1500) by looking at a range of texts and genres - poetry, prose, drama, lyric - from the early medieval as well as the later medieval periods. In exploring the various locations of the Middle Ages, students consider borders, boundaries, and zones between different places and periods. 

This course presents theories on the diversity of languages. Through a theoretical approach, it focuses on the relationship between language, culture, and geographical environment to study the representation of the world in relation to languages. The first part of the course deals with the categories of linguistic variation and the importance of translation and language learning. It presents characteristics common to languages or invariants, investigating the universals of language. The course then introduces the genetic classification of languages and revisits its history and related theories. It also discusses the typological classification and the areal method. The first part of the course serves as a theoretical foundation to lay the groundwork for the second part on sociolinguistic structures, which studies the contact of languages to explain the formation of mixed dialects.

This course is designed to identify and discuss basic concepts and problems in the area of translation studies as well as provide an overview of translation as a profession. The course is not language specific. It will however have a theoretical and pragmatic component with specific hands-on activities.