Undergraduate Course: Linguistic Reconstruction and Language Classification (LASC10052)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | Language Sciences |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | Courses on language change tend to focus on developments from earlier stages of a language to more recent ones; theoretical approaches to such changes; and possible explanations of them. This module is involved with a different perspective on historical linguistics, and concentrates on comparing modern or earlier attested languages to assess whether they belong to the same family, and on the possibilities for reconstructing aspects of their unattested, ancestral proto-languages. This is a particularly lively and controversial area of linguistics at present: methodologies and key theoretical assumptions are under revision, and the implications of historical linguistic work for other disciplines are being debated widely in the scientific press. Although we shall concentrate principally on Indo-European linguistic reconstruction, we shall also consider problems of the comparative method in connection with Australian aboriginal languages; the Greenberg-Ruhlen groupings in the Americas determined by the method of mass comparison; and the application of novel quantitative methods of comparison to the languages of the Andes. There will also be scope for investigating the relationship of historical linguistic methods and evidence with those from other historical disciplines, including archaeology and population biology. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 3 Linguistics/Language Sciences courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module, students should have:
- A firm foundation in the methodology and argumentation associated with the study of comparative linguistics and language classification
- The ability to analyse historical linguistic data from the perspective of language family affiliation
- A clear knowledge of methods, data and current controversies in current research
- An understanding of the prospects for and limitations on interdisciplinary research involving comparative linguistics. |
Assessment Information
| Assessment for this course is by two essays. The first focuses on the first part of the course with a word limit of 1,000 words (35% of the total assessment to be submitted by week 7) and the second may be on any aspect of the course approved by the course organiser with a word limit of 2,000 words (65% of the total assessment to be submitted by the end of semester 1). |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Not entered |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Not entered |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Ronnie Cann
Tel: (0131 6)51 1839
Email: |
Course secretary | Ms Stephanie Fong
Tel:
Email: |
|
|
University Homepage