Language Change

LELA60051 Language Change 15 Semester 2 Postgraduate Taught Level 4 Ricardo Bermudez-Otero Unit coordinator Linguistics & English Language 1 FHEQ level (Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) ' Masters/Integrated Masters P4 ' European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System Rating : 7.5 This course addresses the fundamental issues in the study of language change:   •   how linguistic innovations first arise,   •   how change is implemented in grammars,   •   how change propagates through the speech community,   •   what causal factors are at work at each step in the process of change.You will be invited to examine current models of language change critically. This will involve:   •   identifying their implicit assumptions about the nature of language,   •   testing their logical structure and their empirical basis,   •   evaluating their claims to explanatory adequacy. This course addresses the fundamental issues in the study of language change:   •   how linguistic innovations first arise,   •   how change is implemented in grammars,   •   how change propagates through the speech community,   •   what causal factors are at work at each step in the process of change.You will be invited to examine current models of language change critically. This will involve:   •   identifying their implicit assumptions about the nature of language,   •   testing their logical structure and their empirical basis,   •   evaluating their claims to explanatory adequacy.By the end of the course you should be able to:   •   recognize and analyse specific instances of various types of language change,   •   apply the appropriate conceptual and theoretic tools to diachronic problems,   •   detect the ontological assumptions behind particular approaches to change,   •   evaluate the logical coherence and empirical grounding of arguments concerning language change. The principal aims of the course unit are as follows:<ul> <li> Address the fundamental issues in the study of language change: <ol> <li> how linguistic innovations first arise,</li> <li> how change is implemented in grammars,</li> <li> how change propagates through the speech community,</li> <li> what causal factors are at work at each step in the process of change;</li> </ol> </li> <li> Examine critically current models of language change,</li> <li value="1"> identifying their implicit assumptions concerning the nature of language,</li> <li> testing both their logical structure and their empirical basis,</li> <li> evaluating their claims to explanatory adequacy.</li></ul> By the end of this course students will be able to:<ul> <li> understand the major questions in the study of language change;</li> <li> recognize the most important types of change in each area of grammar;</li> <li> understand and critically evaluate the most important theoretical perspectives on language change.</li></ul> By the end of this course students will be able to:<ul> <li> detect the ontological assumptions behind different approaches to language change;</li> <li> evaluate the logical coherence and empirical grounding of arguments concerning language change;</li> <li> understand the limitations of the empirical record in historical linguistics;</li> <li> understand the scope and limits of explanatory arguments concerning language change.</li></ul> By the end of this course students will be able to:<ul> <li> recognize and analyse specific instances of various types of language change;</li> <li> use diachronic evidence in order to test different approaches (formalist, functionalist) to the nature of language</li></ul> By the end of this course students will be better able to:<ul> <li> recognize and appreciate different modes of argument and explanation in disciplines concerned with human behaviour;</li> <li> understand the relationship between description, prediction, and explanation in disciplines concerned with human behaviour;</li> <li> produce a succinct, coherent, and persuasive synthesis of complex information</li> <li> write essays in the appropriate style and with the appropriate format</li> <li> produce and present a presentation on a specific technical question bearing on a larger debate.</li></ul> Unit 1.      Problems in historical linguisticsUnit 2.      Theoretical perspectives on language changeUnit 3.      The implementation of phonological change: the Neogrammarian controversyUnit 4.      The causes of phonological innovation: bottom-up and top-down effectsUnit 5.      Morphophonological change and analogyUnit 6.      The life cycle of phonological patternsUnit 7.      The implementation of syntactic change: gradual or catastrophic?Unit 8.      The causes of syntactic change: formal factorsUnit 9.      The causes of syntactic change: functional factorsUnit 10.    GrammaticalizationUnit 11.    Recapitulation of the course One one-hour lecture per weekOne one-hour seminar per week 0 Other 100% One essay, 3,000 words maximum, 75% One written group report on seminar, 1,000 words maximum, 25% Comments made during class discussion regarding the relevance and coherence of student responses or participation in discussion. (In other words, you should be able to judge from the discussion which ideas are better or worse.)Written comments on the assessed coursework, plus face-to-face discussion if desired (on the understanding that this deanonymizes the marking). Y McMahon, April M. S. (1994). Understanding language change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Trask, R. L. (1996). Historical linguistics. London: Arnold. Lectures 22 0 128