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Introduction to historical-comparative methods in linguistics

Aims

This module will introduce some key concepts of classical and formal historical linguistics. It will address long-standing questions about the transmission of languages through time, and students will learn about and apply old and new techniques to probe into the past of our species, building on their existing skills in language and linguistics.

By the end of the module, students will have gained basic understanding of:

  • the idea of linguistic kinship and the origin of Indo-European languages;
  • the scientific methods to make discoveries on the prehistory of languages and peoples;
  • the concepts of reconstruction and historical explanation in modern linguistics;
  • family trees in biology and linguistics;
  • what is true and false regarding popular debates on ‘long-range’ issues such as: ‘is Japanese related to Turkish?’ or ‘when was proto-Indo-European spoken?’;
  • some exciting new tools that current linguistic theory (and biostatistics) might provide for digging ever deeper into the past of human languages.

Special exemplification of the classical comparative method will be provided on proto-Indo-European morpho-phonology during the seminar sessions, and the students will eventually be able to reapply the procedures to other linguistic domains, possibly including aspects of their native languages.

Note that a Research Extension module can be taken alongside this module, for students who wish to write a dissertation.

This module will be capped at 35.

About this module

  • Module name
    Introduction to historical-comparative methods in linguistics
  • Course code
    L48H (LAN00048H)
  • Teacher
    Monica-Alexandrina Irimia
  • Term(s) taught
    Spring-Summer
  • Credits
    20