ELEMENTS OF TYPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS
Knowledge of basic notions of Linguistcs are beneficial. Nevertheless, if necessary, basic notions will be discussed again during lectures if necessary.
The exam consists of two parts:
1) A short written essay or powerpoint on an individually assigned short paper. The written essay (of up to 5 pages) or powerpoint (of up to 15 slides) must be sent by email to the lecturer by the registration deadline for the exam, and their evaluation will be part of the overall assessment.
By the end of the module, the student has a good grasp of the main theoretical foundations of linguistic typology such as interlingual comparison, the notion of linguistic type, the difference between absolute and implicational universals, implicational hierarchies, semantic maps, linguistic area, etc.
The course will address important basic notions of linguistic typology:
- the notion of type
- the construction of a representative languages sample
- linguistic universals and their possible explanations
- morphological and syntactic typology
- semantic maps
At the end of this more theoretical part, we will look at some examples of typological analysis regarding specific linguistic phenomena:
- coordination
- alignment systems
- pragmatic phenomena
Lectures
Office hours: by appointment only (write an email to alessandra.barotto@uninsubria.it)