Historical Linguistics
Objectives
At the end of the course students should: 1) understand the specificity of the subject of Historical Linguistics and its importance in the context of Linguistics; 2) master basic and fundamental concepts of General Linguistics and Historical Linguistics; 3) know, in general terms, different analytical perspectives in the field of diachronic linguistic studies and develop the ability to assess them critically; 4) understand the relationship between different factors (internal and external) of linguistic change; 5) understand the process of diffusion of language change in the light of the current state of knowledge; 6) know diachronic aspects of various languages, particularly of European Portuguese, and be able to describe and characterize them; 7) apply the knowledge acquired to different areas of Linguistics and the Social Sciences and Humanities in general.
General characterization
Code
01100023
Credits
6.0
Responsible teacher
António Henrique de Figueiredo Pedro de Albuquerque Emiliano
Hours
Weekly - 4
Total - 168
Teaching language
Portuguese
Prerequisites
Available soon
Bibliography
BLEVINS, J. (2004): Evolutionary Phonology: The Emergence of Sound Patterns, Cambridge: C. U. Press;
CAMPBELL, L. (2004): Historical linguistics: An introduction, Edinburgh: E. U. Press, 2nd rev. ed.; COSERIU, E.
(1978). Sincronía, diacronía e historia: El Problema del Cambio Lingüístico, Madrid: Gredos, 3.ª ed.;
HALE, M. (2007): Historical Linguistics: Theory and Method, Oxford: Blackwell;
HOCK & JOSEPH (2009): Language History, Language Change and Language Relationship, Berlin: Mouton de
Gruyter, 2nd ed.;
JANDA & JOSEPH Eds. (2003): The Handbook of Historical Linguistics, Oxford: Blackwell; McMAHON, A.
(1994): Understanding Language Change, Cambridge: C. U. Press;
TRASK, R. L. (2007): Historical Linguistics, London: Hodder Education, 2nd rev. ed.;
TRASK, R. L. (2010): Why Do Languages Change? Cambridge: C. U. Press, rev. posth. ed.
Teaching method
Theoretical/PracticalClasses: lectures with student´s active participation.
Bibliographic support: class summaries, support documents, slides used in class, links, full texts of articles
and book chapters, discussion forum available online in the MOODLE platform.
Supervision: discussion sessions, oneonone tutorials, response to students´ queries by email, emessaging
or video conferencing.
Evaluation method
Available soon
Subject matter
1. General and introductory considerations on the study of language change: Historical Linguistics and History of Language; synchrony, diachrony and history; the problem of language change.
2. Data in Historical Linguistics: the study of ancient primary sources; philological work and digital textual
corpora; attestation and reconstruction.
3. Language evolution and language change: Glossogenetics vs. Historical Linguistics; the problem of the origin of language; language and evolution.
4. The comparative method and linguistic reconstruction: general trends in the development of Comparative Linguistics since the 1st half of the 19th century.
5. Explanation in Historical Linguistics — the mechanism of linguistic change: factors and causes of linguistic change; language change and synchronic variation; implementation and dissemination of changes.
6. Analysis of phonological, morphological, morphosintactic and lexical phenomena.