Scholarly reflection on language usually interacts with developments in society. This is particularly true for Russia. Starting with Peter the Great’s language reforms, such interaction has produced four agendas for linguistic inquiry: the national agenda (1700-present), the scientific agenda (1860-present), the Marxist agenda (1917-1989) and the cybernetic agenda (1953-1975).
In this course, the implications of each of these agendas for the type of problems to be addressed and methods to be applied will be shown. This includes analysis of original sources. Some of the linguistic problems encountered will be studied in depth, in that the various approaches to them that have been suggested throughout the period under review will be compared. Selected topics to be dealt with are likely to include: – the treatment of Russian syntax and the case system starting with Lomonosov; – the rise of historical and comparative linguistics; – the origins of structuralist phonology and morphology in the Kazan’ School (Baudouin de Courtenay) and their development in the Prague School; – the fate and fortunes of Marr’s “New Teaching on Language” and Stalin’s interference with linguistics; – some of the formal (mathematical-looking) approaches to language that proliferated after 1953.
Onderwijsvorm
The course includes both formal lectures and a tutorial component. Students are expected to prepare for each session by reading articles or book excerpts and to form an opinion on them, usually on the basis of set questions.
Leerdoelen
After completing the course, the student should have gained: – an overall understanding of the development of reflection on language in Russia since 1700; – an overall insight into the chronology of linguistic discovery;- a more detailed insight in the origins and development of a few classic topics of Russian linguistics.
Toetsing
During the course, each student is expected to deliver a short oral presentation. After the course, each student is expected to write a paper of approximately 10 pages on one of the topics discussed. Students must pass the presentations; the paper determines the final mark.
Rooster
Zie het rooster van de MA Slavic Languages
Informatie
Dr. W.A. van Helden, See stafleden
Overzicht
See under Description.