Linguistics

This course introduces the fundamentals of English syntactic ideas and theories through close readings and discussions of assigned passages in the textbook. It addresses the core theories of contemporary linguistics. 

The course examines the foundation, nature, applications, and development of language. Themes addressed include language and communication: language among systems of communication; animal communication; language traits; and writing; the cognitive bases of language: brain and language; language disorders; origin and evolution; and the relationship between thought and language; historical linguistic development: language before and after the 19th century as well as in the 20th century; and the evolution of grammar; universal grammar and classification of languages.

The course offers a theoretical and practical introduction to translation and translation studies. It discusses seminal theorists on the topic of translation including Jakobson, Benjamin, Schleiermacher, and Tymoczko. This course examines key translation concepts such as fidelity, loyalty, equivalence, and types of translation. 

This course is a general introduction to Psycholinguistics, the study of how humans acquire, comprehend, and produce language. The course explores the fundamental questions in the field such as, What does it mean to know a language? How does an individual access and use that knowledge when producing or understanding language? How did we come to use language as we do now? 

This course explores the theoretical and practical concepts of the varieties of the English language around the world. It discusses traits of these varieties of English such as vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar. Topics include: language, dialect, and accent; regulatory varieties and vernacular varieties; English as a native language, a second language, and a foreign language; dominant normative varieties-- American English and British English; other national varieties; vernacular varieties in the English-speaking world; English as a second language-- Africa and Asia; English as a foreign language for international communication; models of English for teaching foreigners.

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.