Course Description
The synchronic and diachronic grammar of an older Indo-European language. Possible offerings include Avestan, Hittite, Lithuanian, Old Church, Slavic, and Old Irish or topics such as Indo-European phonology, morphology, or syntax.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Additional written assignments with more complex responsibilities.
Athena Title
Topics in Indo-European Ling
Prerequisite
LING 2100 or LING 2100E or LING 2100H
Semester Course Offered
Offered every even-numbered year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
At the end of the course, students, having read a substantial body of material on comparative/historical linguistics and on one or more old Indo-European languages, will be able to discuss the origins, theories, methodologies, and results of research on genetic language families and on Proto-Indo-European and its subsequent developments. They will understand the basic elements of Proto-Indo-European phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon and their specific developments within one or more historically attested old Indo-European languages. They will be able to perform basic reconstructions of Indo-European sounds, grammatical structures, and lexical categories.
Topical Outline
The choice and sequence of topics will vary from instructor to instructor and from semester to semester in terms of the particular Indo-European language(s) investi- gated. Topics will consist of the theory of and evidence for Indo-European and the comparative/historical linguistic field in general; phonological, morphological, syntactic, and lexical features of Proto-Indo-European and their developments in one or more Indo-European languages; reconstruction methods and techniques; current problems in Indo-European research. A number of graded tasks will be assigned, such as quizzes, tests, and various writing assignments done either in or outside of class.