Linguistics

The course aims at providing a basic training and learning in Linguistics, and it leads to further deepening either in the field of linguistic sciences, or in the reflection about the (phonological, morphosyntactic, lexical) structures of the languages of the world. The course aims at offering a deeper knowledge of the structural features (concerning the different levels of linguistic analysis) and of the main phenomena shown by natural languages, in such a way to observe and to describe them according to a synchronic and a diachronic approach, with regard to the perspectives and the approaches of the historical and comparative (mainly Indo-European), typological, and areal Linguistics. This should be done also taking into consideration the history of linguistic thought and the different theoretical models that have characterized the Western tradition.

Knowledge: At the end of the course, the student will be able to identify, describe and explain specific structural features and phenomena specifically exhibited by individual languages, following both a diachronic and synchronic approach, and she/he will have to link them to the general categories and to the topics of linguistic analysis and description, to classify them with regard to the different methods and hermeneutic approaches of linguistic disciplines.
Skills: At the end of the course, the student will be asked, and to describe the topics of the course with an adequate and precise metalanguage, in order to show a basic possession of the methodological instruments and the founding notions of linguistic sciences. The student should be able to identify and to explain clearly the specific empirical phenomena exhibited by the languages with her/his own words and within the theoretical and methodological coordinates suggested by the course.