HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS – LIGN 150

Spring 2013, Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:30-10:50

Peterson Hall 103

Welcome to LIGN 150! Have a great Spring quarter!

Instructor:

John Moore

AP&M 4141

Email: moorej@ucsd.edu

phone: (858) 534-1155

Office hour: Wednesdays 10:00-11:00 and by appointment

TA:

Scott Seyfarth

Email: sseyfarth@ucsd.edu

Office hour: Fridays 10:00-11:50 (AP&M 3351E)

Sections: Mondays 12:00-12:50 (Center Hall 207)

Tuesdays 12:00-12:50 (HSS 1106A)

Textbook:

Recommended Text: Campbell, Lyle (2004) Historical Linguistics: An Introduction (2nd Edition), The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.

(available through amazon.com)

The course won’t follow the text exactly; however, I will point out which chapters are relevant throughout the course for students who would like additional exposure

I have two copies of this book on reserve at the Linguistics Language Laboratory (AP&M 3432A), open M-F 9-5

Announcements:

Office hours for finals’ week:

Monday 11-12 and 3-4

Tuesday 12-12:50

Wednesday 10-11

All in AP&M 4141

Overview:

This course is an introduction to Historical Linguistics; we will be concerned with how languages change and how this change leads to families of related languages. Particular emphasis will be on techniques of historical reconstructions and historical phonology.

The coursework will consist of weekly homework assignments, a take‑home midterm, and a take‑home final. Please see the grading policy, but note it is very important to do all the homework in a timely fashion. There is a recommended textbook, but the course will be centered on class discussions and problems sets. Hence, regular attendance is crucial.

The following is a rough outline of the topics:

- Types of language change

- Phonetic versus phonemic change

- The Comparative Method

- Internal Reconstruction

- Languages families - the Tree Model versus the Wave Model

- Putative language families of the World

- Lumping versus Splitting and other controversies

- Aspects of Indo-European

Midterm and Final: Both the midterm and final are take-home exams; they are similar to the homeworks, but a bit longer. The midterm will be posted a week before it is due – probably late April or early May. The final will be posted on Tuesday, June 4^th (week 10) and will be due by Wednesday, June 12^th at 12:00 noon.

Handouts: I will post various handouts, with data sets, etc. before lectures. Please print these out and bring them to class (or have them on a laptop).

Collaboration: I allow collaboration on the written work, but it very important that this is limited to discussing ideas and not working out detailed solutions. It is also important that the written work is done independently. You must also list everyone you collaborated with on each assignment/exam. If any work looks too close, I may have to refer the case to the Office of Academic Integrity.

Emails:

We will do our best to answer emails with questions about homeworks, etc. To get the most out of this, please note the following:

(i) If you wait until the last minute, there is a possibility we won’t get to your email in time. This is particularly true for emails sent Wednesday night (I go to sleep early …).

(ii) Feel free to email either of us (John or Scott). If you email both of us, please send a single email with both addressees – that is, please don’t send separate emails to each. We will respond with a ‘reply all’ – that way there can be a conversation, and we can be sure you are not getting different (and maybe conflicting) responses.

(iii) We can clarify things and discuss material already presented in class, but we can’t check your analyses.

Handouts:

From textbook – phonetic symbols and conventions

Handout on types of sound change (recommended reading: Chapter 2)

Handout on chain changes

Handout on phonemic analysis

Handout on phonetic vs. phonemic change

Handout on phoneme mergers in Spanish

Handout on borrowing

Handout an analogy

First handout on the comparative method

More comparative method