LING 645: The Comparative Method

Overview

This course is a hands-on introduction to the theory and practice of historical linguistics. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be comfortable with the core principles of the comparative method and the skills necessary to develop a reconstruction of novel data. Much of the course will be devoted to working with data sets in order to gain experience working with the comparative method.

Course Objectives and Student Learning Outcomes

This course aims to provide an introduction to the basic concepts of historical linguistics. At the end of this course students will having familiarity with the following techniques:

• the establishment of genetic relationship
• phonological reconstruction
• types of sound change
• theories of sound change
• causes of irregularity in sound change
• semantic change
• morphological and syntactic change
• subgrouping
• linguistic evidence for determining homelands
• linguistic approaches to culture-history
• computational approaches to historical linguistics

Prerequisite

LING 410 or equivalent course in articulatory phonetics or phonology

Materials

• Historical Linguistics: An Introduction, 4th ed. by Lyle Campbell
• Additional Readings, as assigned