Languages of the world
Veranstaltungsart: Proseminar
Zeit: Tuesday 2-4 p.m.
Raum: SfS, room 1.13
Gerhard
Jäger
office: SfS, room 1.20
secretary: 1.22 (Christine Clauder)
Course description
The course gives an introduction into the diversity of the languages of
the world, the reasons for their differentiation, their geographical
distribution, genetical relationships, and their typological
similarities and differences. The goal of the course is to give a
general impression of the linguistic diversity across the world, but
also to discuss approaches to classify languages according to their
historical relationships or their grammatical similarity. Last but not
least we will focus on recurrent grammatical patterns, so-called
typological universals.syllabus
| date | topic | literature | homework* |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10/19 |
genetic language
classification I |
Ethnologue | Homework 1 |
| 10/26 |
genetic language classification II | Baxter & Manaster Ramer 2000 | Homework 2 |
| 11/2 |
morphological
typology |
Whaley, chapters 7 and 8 | Homework 3 |
| 11/09 |
Typology of color terms | Homework 4 | |
| 11/16 |
|
||
| 11/23 |
intermediate test | ||
| 11/30 |
Greenbergs
Universals, Word Order
Typology |
Whaley, chapters 5 and 6 | Homework 5 |
| 12/7 |
case marking systems |
Whaley, chapters 9 and 10 |
Homework 6 |
| 12/14 |
case marking systems (cont.) |
||
| 12/21 |
tense and aspect, | Homework 7 | |
| 1/11 |
head marking
and dependent
marking, vowel
systems |
Whaley, chapter 8 |
Homework 8 Homework 9 |
| 1/18 |
clause types, relative clauses | Homework 10 | |
| 1/25 |
ditransitive
constructions,
diathesis |
Homework 11 |
|
| 2/1 |
final test |
*The homeworks will not be graded, and they need not be turned in. You are advised to do the exercises nevertheless because they are a good preparation for the written tests.
The final tests are graded. If your result does not show up in Campus, you can inquire it at the secretary's office.
literature:
- Baxter, William H. and Alexis Manaster Ramer. 2000. Beyond lumping and splitting: Probabilistic issues in historical linguistics. In Colin Renfrew, April McMahon, and Larry Trask, editors, Time Depth in Historical Linguistics. The McDonald Institute for Archeological Research, Cambridge, UK, pages 167--188
- Whaley, L. J. (1997), Introduction to Typology. The Unity and Diversity of Language. [A copy of the relevant chapters can be found on the shelf next to room 1.13 at the SfS.]