Postgraduate Course: History of Linguistics (LASC11129)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The history of enquiry into language, across continents and centuries, with due attention to relevant epistemological and methodological issues. |
| Course description |
A survey of national traditions and trans-national exchanges in the study of language and languages from ancient times to the present, with an emphasis on understanding how current approaches have evolved. The course examines methodological issues that arise in the history of a scientific discipline, as well as the sociology of the history of linguistics, using models proposed by Kuhn and Latour amongst others. It considers too how linguistics came to be institutionalised as an academic subject, and how its interests overlap with those of anthropology, artificial intelligence, education, informatics, legal theory, literary criticism, philosophy, psychology, religion, semiotics, sociology and other subjects.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2016/17, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 18,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
One 3500-word essay (100%) |
| Feedback |
Part of one lecture session is devoted to preparing for the course assessment, and students are encouraged as well to attend the Friday session for students doing the UG version of the course, in which, following the class examination at the end of Week 5, issues arising from the results are discussed, highlighting particular strengths exhibited, along with misunderstandings or argumentative shortcomings, with an explanation of how to avoid them and attain the best possible results in the essay. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- understand the background of modern linguistic research and how current approaches evolved
- get a deeper perspective on relevant epistemological issues
- situate theoretical approaches in their historical context
- appreciate Latourian and Kuhnian models of history of science
- gain a critical sense of how to deploy historical evidence and argument
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Reading List
| In addition, Prof Joseph¿s Oxford Bibliographies History of Linguistics bibliography serves as guide to further reading. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Students are also expected to acquire or sharpen the following transferable skills:
- Engage in autonomous thinking and analysis.
- Critically appraise material they have studied.
- Develop their research skills, in terms both of access to existing information and conducting original observation.
- Improve their expository writing skills.
- Become familiar with modes of analysis from other areas of the humanities and social sciences that are widely used in present-day history of linguistics. |
| Keywords | linguistics,history,epistemology |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof John Joseph
Tel: (0131 6)50 3497
Email: John.Joseph@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Toni Noble
Tel: (0131 6)51 3188
Email: Toni.noble@ed.ac.uk |
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