Comparative Philology

The course aims to provide students with the tools for the synchronic and diachronic analysis of ancient and modern languages, also with reference to the history of linguistic thought within which the various theoretical and methodological achievements of the discipline are placed.

Knowledge
At the end of the course, the students will know the main orientations in the history of linguistic thought and of linguistic science in Western cultures; they will also know the properties of historical-natural languages with particular reference to the functional and historical dimension. The students will be aware of the relationship between general reflection on language and empirical investigation of individual linguistic facts and will know the boundaries within which heuristic processes such as comparison, reconstruction and etymology are placed; they will also know the technical terminology specific to the discipline with reference to the areas and sectors examined, as well as a series of essential bibliographic tools.

Skills
With reference to more technical and methodological aspects, the students will be able to distinguish between phonetic and graphic data, particularly in the case of the analysis of ancient linguistic forms, and they will be able to recognise and analyse specific synchronic and diachronic facts related to ancient and modern languages, applying rules and categories elaborated by general linguistic reflection; the student will also be able to distinguish the observation and description of empirical data from their interpretation and will use the appropriate metalinguistic terminology in the description of phenomena; finally, the students will be able to apply the historical-comparative method in the comparison of ancient Indo-European languages' forms and in the etymological investigation.