Admission requirements
None.
Description
An introduction to historical linguistics, illustrated mainly by examples from Dutch and its nearest cognates German, English and Frisian. All aspects of languages undergo change: from sounds, word formation and lexical meaning to sentence structure. How does this change take place and what causes it? These questions are discussed using examples from well-known languages and the knowledge thus obtained is applied to daa from lesser known languages during the seminars.
Course objectives
At the end of the course, participants are expected to
be familiar with the basic terminology and processes of historical linguistics;
have an understanding of the methodology of historical and comparative linguistics;
be able to apply this methodology to previously unseen data.
Timetable
Mode of instruction
Weekly lectures and seminars.
Course Load
Total course load: 140 hours
Lectures: 13 hours
Seminars: 13 hours
Seminars: Academic Skills:12 hours
Assessments: 4 hours
Preparation lectures and assignments: 52 hours
Preparation assessment: 46 hours
Assessment method
Oral presentation during classes (passed) Written half-term examination (25%) and final examination (75%) with open questions. There is one resit (100%).
Blackboard
Blackboard will be used for providing literature to the students and communicating with them.
Reading list
To be bought in advance: Robert McColl Millar (2015): Trask’s Historical Linguistics. 3rd edition. London/New York: Routledge. Other materials (slides and exercizes) will be distributed through Blackboard.
Registration
Enrollment through uSis for the course and the examination or paper is mandatory.
Application for Contractual Enrollment
Contact
t.c.pronk@hum.leidenuniv.nl