DIACHRONY OF LINGUISTIC CHANGE

Academic Year 2024/2025 - Teacher: VALERIA DI CLEMENTE

Expected Learning Outcomes

The course aims to equip students with the skills, insights and appropriate theoretical approaches necessary to analyse and describe changes in the structure of English from the earliest written records to the Late Medieval/Early Modern period. Students will also be encouraged to explore historical linguistics within a framework of cultural analysis which will allow them to relate changes in the structure of English to the sociocultural contexts in which those changes occur.

Course Structure

Frontal lessons, seminars, laboratories

Required Prerequisites

Knowledge of basic notions of general linguistics, of European history of late antiquity and the Middle Ages and of European geography. This is knowledge acquired in the elementary and higher studies of first and second degree and in the three-year linguistic study course in preparation for enrollment in the master's degree course in Linguistic sciences for interculture and training. In case of need, tools and ideas will be provided for the acquisition / strengthening of knowledge useful for having access without difficulty to the course contents.

Attendance of Lessons

The exam programme is identical both for attending and non-attending students.

Students who are unable to attend classes are invited to contact the teacher at least one month before taking the exam.

Detailed Course Content

Angles, Saxons and Jutes in Britain. Germanic culture and classical-Christian culture. The Scandinavian influence. Old English and its written expressions. The Conquest and its consequences. From Old English to Middle English. Middle English and its written expressions. Late Middle English. Early Modern English.

Textbook Information

1) Nicoletta Francovich Onesti, L’inglese dalle origini ad oggi. Le vicende di una lingua, Roma 1988 (and more recent editions and reprints), chapters 1-7 (p. 1 to 165).

2) Philip Durkin, Borrowed Words. A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford 2014 (part I-V, pp. 3-297).

3) Passages from significant Old English and Middle English texts (see 6).

4) Reference dictionaries: J. Bosworth, T. N. Toller, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, available at https://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kurisuto/germanic/oe_bosworthtoller_about.html, or other electronic version; H. Kurath et al., Middle English Dictionary, electronic version https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary/dictionary

5) Reference grammar books: Gemma Manganella, L’anglosassone e il sassone antico, Napoli, 1960 (see 6); Joseph Wright and Mary Elizabeth Wright, An Elementary Middle English Grammar, London et al., 1921 (available at archive.org).

6) Supplementary materials (downloadable from the Studium web page dedicated to the course; registration required).

N.B. Grammar books and dictionaries are consultation works.

Learning Assessment

Learning Assessment Procedures

Two ongoing tests tests will be held, not compulsory and open to all attending and non-attending students, which will consist of closed questions, lasting c. 30 minutes each.

For the evaluation in the final oral exam, the mastery of the contents and skills acquired, the linguistic accuracy, the argumentative ability demonstrated by the candidate and the ability to apply what has been learned even in new tasks. The positive evaluation obtained in the tests will also be taken into account. Minimum requirenents are reached when one is able to place the facts exactly from a geographical and chronological point of view and when one is able to describe the topics in their essential characteristics.

The oral exam is evaluated through a special evaluation grid that will be adequately publicized.

Criteria of evaluation (oral exams)

Correctness and pertinence	Pertinent	30
	Pertinent with some uncorrectness	29 - 27
	Substantially pertinent	26 - 23
	Sufficiently pertinent, but not precise	22 - 18
Completeness	Complete	30
	Small details lacking	29 - 27
	One to two significant details lacking	26 - 23
	Partial, but the student is able to complete their answer thanks to suggestions	22 - 18
Appropriate language and use of technical terms	Uses the technical vocabulary easily and appropriately	30 - 28
	Has a good command of the technical vocabulary	27 - 25
	Substantially commands the technical vocabulary	24 - 21
	Has difficulties in using the technical vocabulary appropriately	20 - 18
Critical argumentation	Reflects on the proposed task and finds new comparisons and links easily	30 - 28
	Needs some suggestions	27 - 24
	Is able to make connections, but needs guiding	23 -18
Previous knowledge (spatial-temporal coordinates, knowledge of basic concepts of linguistics)	Commands all the spatial-temporal coordinates and the linguistic metalexicon easily and well	30 - 28
	Has a good command of the spatial-temporal coordinates and the linguistic metalexicon	27 - 25
	Has a substantial command of the spatial-temporal coordinates and the linguistic metalexicon	24 - 21
	Commands the spatial-temporal coordinates and the linguistic metalexicon roughly, makes mistakes and needs suggestions	20 - 18

Examples of frequently asked questions and / or exercises

Description of Old English: to which linguistic branch and sub-branch belongs Old English? How can we describe it typologically? Which are its main features from the phonetic-phonological and morphological point of view?

VERSIONE IN ITALIANO

Corso di laurea magistrale in

Scienze linguistiche per l'intercultura e la formazione