Language Evolution and Language Diversity

Teacher(s)

Sabel Joachim;

Language

Deutsch

Prerequisites

Introduction to German linguistics (syntax and morphology). 

Main themes

Study of German, French and other non indoeuropean languages (syntax and morphology) : grammatical functions, agreement, question formation, case, word order correlations.
Sociolinguistic aspects (language contact, pidgin and creole language), and the evolution of language (human vs. animal communication).

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	At the end of the cours, the students should: have developed a knowledge of the methodology of contrastive and typological linguistics, especially in comparing German, French, with different non indoeuropean languages, understand the importance of linguistic research for other scientific disciplines, have acquired the competence in linguistic argumentation, be able to present competently one of the topics of this course.

Content

In this course we will study three central aspects of language:
1. When and how has the human language faculty evolved in the course of the evolution ?
2. Similarities and typological differences in grammar. We analyse the degree in which grammars of human languages differ or show similarities. These similarities and differences will be discussed with respect to phenomena such as case marking, question formation, agreement, word order, grammatical functions, and the distribution of pronouns, in languages such as German, French, and "exotic" languages.
3. We discuss the relationship between languages in terms of " language families " and explain how the different language families have evolved. The following topics will be discussed: The spread over of languages in the world (i.e. the development of language families), the different types of language families (in Europe, in Eurasia, in South- and South-East-Asia, in Africa, in the Middle Orient, in the Pacific, in Australia and in America).
The course requires the student's active participation in discussions, in reading scientific texts. Furthermore, every student has to give a short presentation on "contrastive and typological linguistics" at the end of the course.

Evaluation methods

The exam consists of an oral presentation on a theme defined in advance with the student.
In the event of a second session, an alternative evaluation method will be determined (e.g. written exam on the course content).

Other information

The grade is composed of the result of a personal work presented by the students at the end of the course.

Faculty or entity

> ELAL