Master
2023/2024
Comparative Linguistics
Category 'Best Course for Career Development'
Category 'Best Course for Broadening Horizons and Diversity of Knowledge and Skills'
Type:
Compulsory course (Linguistic Theory and Language Description)
Area of studies:
Fundamental and Applied Linguistics
Delivered by:
School of Linguistics
Where:
Faculty of Humanities
When:
1 year, 3 module
Mode of studies:
offline
Open to:
students of all HSE University campuses
Instructors:
George Starostin
Master’s programme:
Linguistic Theory and Language Description
Language:
English
ECTS credits:
3
Contact hours:
32
Course Syllabus
Abstract
The course gives a brief practical overview of the classical comparative method and explains how it is complemented today by advances in computational phylogenetic studies. It includes both theoretical lectures and elements of practical analysis of linguistic data, with a significant focus on the most cutting-edge and occasionally controversial aspects of the discipline, such as the dating of linguistic divergence and long-range linguistic relationship. Theoretical problems are illustrated using material taken from both familiar language families, such as Indo-European, and those that will be less familiar to students, e.g. language families of Southeast Asia and Africa.
Learning Objectives
- The main objective of the course is to show the modern trends and achievements in the domain of diachronic (historical) linguistics as compared to the classical comparative method that has dominated the field for the past 150 years.
- 1. The main objective of the course is to show the modern trends and achievements in the domain of diachronic (historical) linguistics as compared to the classical comparative method that has dominated the field for the past 150 years. 2. The course intends to familiarize students with the rules and conditions for the application of the comparative historical method, the basic laws and trends of language change identified with its help, so that they could be able to conduct a sober, scientific historical assessment of observed language facts.
- The course intends to familiarize students with the rules and conditions for the application of the comparative historical method, the basic laws and trends of language change identified with its help, so that they could be able to conduct a sober, scientific historical assessment of observed language facts.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- The student should be able to distinguish similarities in language that result from convergence (language contact) from similarities that are due to common descent, and be able to apply the respective methodology in any possible situation.
- The student should be able to understand the basic principles of phonetic, phonological, grammatical, and lexical reconstruction, apply them in one's own research and critically evaluate existing reconstructions and etymologies based on respective principles.
- The student should be familiarized with the basic principles of phylogenetic classification and understand most of the substantial and technical problems involved in the creation of such classifications.
- The student should be familiarized with the fundamental principles of comparative-historical linguistics and understand the formal scientific basis for distinguishing historically conditioned similarities between languages from accidental resemblances.
- The student should understand the substantial differences between language comparison on relatively shallow and significantly deeper time scales, and learn to critically evaluate various "controversial" hypotheses of distant relationship based on the quantity and quality of presented evidence.
Course Contents
- Fundamental principles of comparative-historical linguistics.
- Language relationship and language contact: the interaction of divergent and convergent processes in language history.
- Methodology of historical reconstruction on various linguistic levels (phonology, grammar, lexicon).
- Formal methods of phylogenetic classification and linguistic dating: the past and the present.
- The issue of time limit for the comparative method and the current state of macro-comparative studies.
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- Даниленко, В. П. Введение в языкознание : курс лекций : учебное пособие / В. П. Даниленко. — 3-е изд., стер. — Москва : ФЛИНТА, 2016. — 288 с. — ISBN 978-5-9765-0833-0. — Текст : электронный // Лань : электронно-библиотечная система. — URL: https://e.lanbook.com/book/84289 (дата обращения: 00.00.0000). — Режим доступа: для авториз. пользователей.
- Сравнительно - историческое языкознание : учебник для вузов, Бурлак, С. А., 2005
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Language classification : history and method, Campbell, L., 2008
- Даниленко, В. П. История русского языкознания : учебное пособие / В. П. Даниленко. — 3-е изд., стер. — Москва : ФЛИНТА, 2018. — 320 с. — ISBN 978-5-9765-0707-4. — Текст : электронный // Лань : электронно-библиотечная система. — URL: https://e.lanbook.com/book/109539 (дата обращения: 00.00.0000). — Режим доступа: для авториз. пользователей.
- К истокам языкового разнообразия : десять бесед о сравнительно-историческом языкознании с Е. Я. Сатановским, Старостин, Г. С., 2016