LANGUAGE TYPOLOGY: SYNCHRONIC AND DIACHRONIC VIEWS
| Title | ΤΥΠΟΛΟΓΙΑ ΓΛΩΣΣΩΝ: ΣΥΓΧΡΟΝΙΚΕΣ ΚΑΙ ΔΙΑΧΡΟΝΙΚΕΣ ΟΨΕΙΣ / LANGUAGE TYPOLOGY: SYNCHRONIC AND DIACHRONIC VIEWS |
| Code | Γλ2-396 |
| Faculty | Philosophy |
| School | English Language and Literature |
| Cycle / Level | 1st / Undergraduate |
| Teaching Period | Winter/Spring |
| Common | No |
| Status | Active |
| Course ID | 600013405 |
Programme of Study: 2024-2025
Registered students: 0
| Orientation | Attendance Type | Semester | Year | ECTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KORMOS | Elective Courses | Winter/Spring | - | 6 |
| Academic Year | 2017 – 2018 |
| Class Period | Winter |
| Faculty Instructors |
|
| Weekly Hours | 3 |
| Total Hours | 39 |
| Class ID | 600109013
|
Class Schedule
| Building | Φιλοσοφική (Νέα) |
| Floor | Όροφος 1 |
| Hall | ΑΜΦΙΘΕΑΤΡΟ 107 (126) |
| Calendar | Πέμπτη 16:00 έως 18:30 |
Course Type 2016-2020
- Scientific Area
Course Type 2011-2015
Specific Foundation / Core
Mode of Delivery
- Face to face
Digital Course Content
- e-Study Guide https://qa.auth.gr/en/class/1/600109013
- eLearning (Moodle): https://elearning.auth.gr/course/view.php?id=7796
Erasmus
The course is also offered to exchange programme students.
Language of Instruction
- English (Instruction, Examination)
Learning Outcomes
At the end of the course, students should:
- be familiar with basic principles, tools and methodology of linguistic typology
- be able to appreciate linguistic diversity
- be exposed to numerous phenomena from different linguistic levels (morphology, syntax, phonology)
- have developed their ability to synthesize information
- have enhanced their problem-solving and analytical skills
General Competences
- Apply knowledge in practice
- Retrieve, analyse and synthesise data and information, with the use of necessary technologies
- Make decisions
- Work autonomously
- Generate new research ideas
- Design and manage projects
- Appreciate diversity and multiculturality
- Be critical and self-critical
- Advance free, creative and causative thinking
Course Content (Syllabus)
This course will briefly present the vast diversity that the approximately 7000 living languages of today present in terms of their phonology, morphology and syntax. At the same time, it will offer an introduction to Typology, the field of linguistics that classifies languages according to their common features while seeking an explanation as to why certain structures are more common than others or why certain structures are cross-linguistically unattested. For that purpose, different theoretical approaches (e.g. formalist vs. functional) will be addressed taking into consideration both synchronic and diachronic views. In addition, issues of methodology and language-sample-construction will be discussed, terms such as language families and language universals will be clarified, while topics in morphological typology (the relationship between morphemes-words-sentences, types of affixation), syntactic typology (sentential word-order, ergative-absolutive systems) and phonological typology (preferred sounds, syllable structure, stress and tone) will be explored. Questions that will be answered during the course include, among many others: (a) why is Greek genetically closer to Iranian/Farsi than Hungarian? (b) why is English (phonologically) exotic? (c) why are there languages where in a sentence like “Mary slapped John and left”, it is actually John who left and not Mary?
Keywords
language families, universals, samples, formalism, functionalism, linguistic phenomena
Educational Material Types
- Notes
- Slide presentations
- Audio
- Multimedia
Use of Information and Communication Technologies
Use of ICT
- Use of ICT in Course Teaching
- Use of ICT in Communication with Students
Course Organization
| Activities | Workload | ECTS | Individual | Teamwork | Erasmus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lectures | 117 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Reading Assigment | 20 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Exams | 3 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Quizzes | 10 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Total | 150 |
Student Assessment
Description
Final exam.
Student Assessment methods
- Written Exam with Multiple Choice Questions (Formative, Summative)
- Written Exam with Short Answer Questions (Formative, Summative)
- Written Exam with Problem Solving (Formative, Summative)
Bibliography
Additional bibliography for study
Bickel, B. & J. Nichols. 2007. Inflectional Morphology. In T. Shopen (ed.), Language Typology and Syntactic Description, Voll. III, pp. 169-240. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Comrie, B. 1981/1989. Language Universals and Linguistic Typology. Syntax and Morphology. Oxford: Blackwell.
Croft, W. 1995. Typology and Universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dixon, R.M.W. 1994. Ergativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Greenberg, J. 1966a. Some Universals of Language with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements. In J. Greenberg (ed.), Universals of Language. 2nd. Edition. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
Greenberg, J. 1966b. Chapter 3, Grammar and Lexicon. In J. Greenberg (ed.), Language universals with special reference to feature hierarchies. The Hague: Mouton.
Greenberg, J. 1978, Some generalizations concerning initial and final consonant clusters. In J. Greenberg, C. A. Haspelmath, M., M. Dryer, D. Gil, and B. Comrie (eds.) 2005. The World Atlas of Language Structures. Oxford: Oxford University Press [N.B: abbreviated as WALS]
Hayes, B. 1995. Metrical Stress Theory. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press
Lieber, R. 2009. Introducing Morphology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Linguistic Typology 11. 2007 (Various papers in this issue by Bickel, Nichols, Polinsky, etc.)
Moravcsik. E. 2013. Introducing Language Typology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pereltsvaig, A. 2012. Languages of the World: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Song, J.J. 2018. Linguistic Typology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Velupillai, V. 2012. An Introduction to Linguistic Typology. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Whaley, L. 1997. An Introduction to Language Typology: The Unity and Diversity of Language. Sage Publications.
Last Update
15-12-2019
