Historical Linguistics

Objective

This elective module imparts knowledge of the regularities and principles of language change and the methods of their study to students. The module is especially related to the specialization in Indo-European Linguistics, whose contents it deepens through general theoretical and methodological considerations. The module also relates to the phenomena of linguistic change in more recent language stages of languages taught in the Master's program. For the individual focus on diachronic or diatopic aspects of the respective language, the combination of this module with the specializations in English, German, Romance or Dutch Linguistics is recommended. Complementary content is offered in particular by the elective modules “Language Typology,” “Language and Culture,” “Linguistic Variation,” and “Language in Interaction.”

Course content

This module aims to impart basic scientific knowledge and the most important methods and working techniques of historical linguistics to students. It deals with the basic principles, concepts, and the historical development of a language or language family. The module is devoted to the main topics in the field of language change (change in the sound system, morphology and syntax, lexical change, historical semantics and pragmatics, etc.), and introduces the relevant theories of language change. Building on a basic knowledge of diachronic linguistics and the principles of language history acquired in the lecture, the practical and the seminar will work on individual phenomena of language change, combining modern linguistic methods with philological text work and corpus linguistics.

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of the module, students will be able to name, distinguish, and apply technical terms from the field of historical linguistics. In addition, students will have a broad knowledge of issues in historical linguistics, master the basic principles of historical linguistic analysis, and be able to apply these to selected examples.