Admission requirements
Previous knowledge of Indo-European linguistics and reading proficiency in German and French.
Description
In this course we will be concerned with the methodology and results of reconstructing Indo-European nominal morphology. Some of the questions to be answered are: Which ablaut patterns and case endings must be reconstructed for the proto-language? How are gender and number distinguished? What makes the ¬o-stems so special? How precisely can we reconstruct Proto-Indo-European paradigms? Does internal reconstruction allow us to say something about the prehistory of the Proto-Indo-European nominal paradigms? And, most importantly, how to decide which nominal paradigms must be reconstructed for the proto-language and which not?
The focus will be on methodological issues, on reconstructing bottom-up, starting from the attested nominal paradigms in all major Indo-European languages.
Course objectives
At the end of the course, participants will be familiar with many aspects of state-of-the-art research into Indo-European nominal morphology and the dominant theories in the field. They will have developed the skills to critically assess scholarly literature on the subject of Indo-European nominal morphology.
Timetable
The timetable is available on the “MA Linguistics website”: http://hum.leiden.edu/linguistics/timetables-linguistics/timetableslinguistics.html.
Mode of instruction
Lectures and seminars.
Course Load
Contact hours (lectures, seminars): 26 hours
Weekly preparations and homework: 39 hours
Assignments, incl. final paper: 75 hours
Assessment method
The final grade will be awarded on the basis of a number of assignents, incl. a final paper. How these are weighed will be announced at the beginning of the course.
Resit: Students with a final grade of 5.0 or lower may take the resit.
Blackboard
Course materials will be distributed using Blackboard
Reading list
Course materials will be distributed using Blackboard
Registration
Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
When registering, students that are registered for the specialisation that this course belongs to, or the Research Master, take priority. The deadline for registration is August 15. All other students should contact the “coordinator of studies”:http://hum.leiden.edu/linguistics/advice-linguistics/.
General information about uSis is available in English and Dutch
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
Not applicable