TTh
Jeff
Conn connjc@pdx.edu 503-725-4099 East Hall 241
Office Hours: Tues
Historical linguistics deals with how languages change over time. The study of individual words is, of course, an important component of this study, but represents a relatively minor component of change in terms of the overall grammar of a language. In addition to changes in the lexicon, we will look at sound change as well as changes in morphology and syntax; each of these grammatical sub-components can be considered evolutionary systems in and of themselves. Equally as important to the study of language change is the methodology used. Some say linguistics began with the work of the Brothers Grimm and the Neogrammarians, but much has changed in the analysis of language and how it changes since that time. Much has been learned about the relevance of social factors in language change as represented in the work of William Labov and his co-workers. Particularly important has been the study of pidgins and creoles, where change is telescoped and thus more susceptible to observation and analysis. The most important question we will consider is why languages change, a perhaps unanswerable question. Although we will be using English for most of our examples, we will also consider change in languages unrelated to English. In addition to the examples discussed in the text, graduate students will introduce the class to language groups genetically and areally distant from Germanic and even Indo-European.
The computer labs
should be equipped with some IPA font or another in Microsoft Word, but you can
download them for free at:
http://www.sil.org/computing/fonts/Lang/silfonts.html
Or here: http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/fonts.htm
For extra Phonetics help, visit Peter Ladefoged’s website: http://phonetics.ucla.edu/
Campbell, Lyle. 2004. Historical
Linguistics: An Introduction (2nd Ed).
Hock, Hans Heinrich. 1986. Principles of Historical
Linguistics.
Joseph, Brian D. and Janda, Richard D.
(Editors). 2005. The
Handbook of Historical Linguistics.
Labov, William. 1994. Principles of
Linguistic Change, vol. 1: Internal Factors.
Labov, William. 2001. Principles of
Linguistic Change, vol. 2: Social Factors.
Final grades are determined on the following basis:
Undergrads |
Grads |
|
10% |
10% |
Class participation |
30% |
25% |
Problem Sets |
30% |
25% |
Homework |
30% |
30% |
Final exam |
|
10% |
Language family report |
Class
participation. The mark for class participation depends first of all
on regular attendance. More importantly it depends on being prepared and
actively contributing to class discussion. Students will be regularly asked to
contribute in class, and are encouraged to ask questions. Participation is based on the following:
·
Class attendance
·
Preparation of homework and readings
·
Active involvement
Problem Sets. Problem Sets are the graded version of the
homework. Late Problem Sets will be
reduced by 10% of the total grade, and they will not be accepted once the
answers have been distributed/discussed. Grad students are required to do all 5
Problem Sets, while undergrads are only required to do 4 (will take best 4 out
of 5).
Homework. Homework exercises will come from the book and other sources. These exercises are turned in, discussed in class, but not graded for correctness. You get credit for just doing them, but neglecting to turn them in will hurt your grade. Each homework is worth 10 points. Any homework turned in late will receive only 8 points. There are 10 possible homeworks – only 9 are required for grads and 8 for undergrads. Can do 1 extra for extra credit.
Language Family report (graduate students only). Graduate students will pick a language family on which to report to the class, presenting oral reports periodically during the course. These are designed to investigate the topics in class/text into other languages not discussed. The topics will include at least the following:
Final
exam. The exam covers all of the course material and is fairly
objective in its nature.
TTh
Jeff
Conn connjc@pdx.edu 503-725-4099 East Hall 241
Office Hours: Tues
Week |
Tuesday |
Thursday |
1 |
1 (T 27 Sept) Introduction Bureaucratic preliminaries |
2 (Th 29 Sept) Read 1 - Introduction
(1-10); 2 - Sound Change (16-49) |
2 |
3 (T 4 Oct) Ch 2 – Sound change Ch 1 Ex 1.1 (Choose
3), 1.2, pp. 10-15 Ch 2 Ex 2.1 pp. 52-61
(to be assigned) |
4 (Th 6 Oct) Ch 3 - Borrowing Ch 2 Ex 2.4, 2.6,
2.7 pp. 52-61 |
3 |
5 (T 11 Oct) Ch 3 - Borrowing Problem Set 1 due |
6 (Th 13 Oct) Ch 4 – Analogical Change Ch 3 Ex Choose 2
from: 3.2, 3.3, 3.5 |
4 |
7 (T 18 Oct) Ch 4 – Analogical Change Problem Set 2 due Ch 4 Ex 4.2 |
8 (Th 20 Oct) NO CLASS |
5 |
9 (T 25 Oct) Ch 9 – Semantic/Lexical Change Problem Set 3 due |
10 (Th 27 Oct) Ch 9 – Semantic/Lexical Change Ch 9 Ex TBA Ch 10 – Syntactic Change Can turn in Problem
Set 3 here too |
6 |
11 (T 1 Nov) Ch 10 – Syntactic Change Ch 10 Ex TBA |
12 (Th 3 Nov) Ch 5 -
Reconstruction Problem Set 4 due |
7 |
13 (T 8 Nov) Ch 5 - Reconstruction Ch 5 Ex TBA |
14 (Th 10 Nov) Ch 5 - Reconstruction Ch 8 – Internal Reconstruction Ch 5 Ex TBA |
8 |
15 (T 15 Nov) Ch 8 – Internal Reconstruction Ch 8 Ex TBA |
16 (Th 17 Nov) Ch 7 – Models of
Linguistic Change Problem Set 5 due |
9 |
17 (T 22 Nov) Ch 7 – Models of Ling Change Ch 11 – Explaining Ling Change |
(Th 24 Nov) Thanksgiving |
10 |
18 (T 29 Nov) Ch 11 – Explaining Ling Change What’s next for Language Change? |
19 (1 Dec) What’s next for Language Change? REVIEW – Grad students report |
|
Final Exam: T 6
Dec, |
|