Postgraduate Course: Diachronic Linguistics (LASC11010)
Course Outline
School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
Summary | Detailed introduction to descriptive and theoretical aspects of historical linguistics, covering phonetic, phonological, morphological and syntactic change from a crosslinguistic perspective. |
Course description |
Course Outline:
1 Lexical and Semantic Change
2 Sound change
3 Morphological change
4 Grammaticalization
5 Word Order Change
7 Language Contact and convergence
8 Language Birth
8 Language shift and death
9 Language variation and change
Discussion of topics for essays
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisites | None |
High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- demonstrate core skills in linguistics, including the ability to interpret linguistic data at the various levels of linguistic description
- understand and articulate key concepts and debates in historical linguistics
- evaluate critically arguments and positions in ongoing debates in the literature
- write a clear, reader-friendly, well-structured essay, taking up and arguing a position based on argumentation in the literature on a central topic in historical linguistics
- provide a clear logical argument
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Reading List
Bynon, Th. 1977. Historical Linguistics (Cambridge textbooks in Linguistics). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Campbell, L. 2004, 2013. Historical Linguistics: An Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 2nd or 3rd edition.
Kroch, A.S. 1989. Reflexes of grammar in patterns of language change. Language Variation and Change 1, 199-244.
McMahon, A. 1994. Understanding Language Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thomason, S. G. 2001. Language Contact: An Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press |
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Ability to analyse linguistic data, evaluate claims, and provide logical argumentation
Ability to write well-structured, reader-friendly texts
Ability to articulate and defend positions in a linguistic debate |
Additional Class Delivery Information |
Attend all lectures as scheduled |
Keywords | language change,historical linguistics |
Contacts
Course organiser | Prof Bettelou Los
Tel: (0131 6)51 1842
Email: B.Los@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Toni Noble
Tel: (0131 6)51 3188
Email: Toni.noble@ed.ac.uk |
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