Specialists from different traditions discuss and demonstrate four research traditions in the study of linguistic diversity, including the background and the role of this tradition in the history of linguistics:
Universals and diversity: How do researchers who start from the assumption that there are structural and other specifically linguistic universals accommodate the observed variation among languages?
Description and analysis: How do researchers who aim to describe a language in its own terms develop analytic concepts and methods that are applicable cross-linguistically?
Processes of change: How do researchers reconcile long term general trends in language change (e.g. ‘sound laws’) with the fact that short term developments are seemingly random?
Cognition and use: How do researchers who start from the assumption that general cognitive and communicative capacities and processes underlie knowledge and use of language accomodate the observed variation among languages?
Timetable
maandag 15-17 en vrijdag 9-11
Method of Instruction
werkcolleges
Course objectives
to be added
Required reading
see website
Examination
Homework assignments
Information
see <http://www.hum.leiden.edu/lucl/research-master-linguistics/programme/>
Blackboard/webpage
see http://www.blackboard.leidenuniv.nl
Overview
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