Prospectus

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Historical Linguistics

Course
2016-2017

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

Linguistics bachelor

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.
J.J.W. Buis, G. Post & V.R. Visser (2015). Academische vaardigheden voor interdisciplinaire studies. Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press.
Other materials (slides and exercizes) will be distributed through Blackboard.

Registration

Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.

General information about uSis is available in English and Dutch

Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs

Registration Contractonderwijs

Contact

For questions about the content of the course, please contact the teacher:
Tijmen Pronk

Administrations Office: van Wijkplaats: osz-oa-wijkplaats@hum.leidenuniv.nl

Coordinator of Studies: Else van Dijk