History of Slavic Languages:
Russian, Polish, and Serbo-Croatian in Comparison
3 credit hours
Instructor
Danko Sipka, Ph.D.
Associate Professor Research
E-mail: danko.sipka@asu.edu
Web: http://www.public.asu.edu/~dsipka
Course Web Page
http://www.asu.edu/clas/reesc/asuhist
Schedule &
Location
Spring Semester 2003, schedule and location TBA
Prerequisites
Although
primarily intended for those with previous knowledge of a Slavic language,
there are no prerequisites for taking this course.
Objectives
This course has the following objectives: a) to familiarize its participants with the methodology and techniques of historical, comparative, and contrastive linguistics; b) to present the major lines of development (in both internal and external language history) from Proto Indo-European, through the Common Slavic language to present-day Slavic languages; c) to compare and contrast three Slavic languages (Russian, Polish, and Serbo-Croatian), each of them representing a different branch, and; d) to empower its participants with the mechanisms to draw upon their knowledge of one Slavic language to acquire the other two Slavic languages discussed here.
Description
This course represents a merger of a) traditional Slavic comparative and historical linguistics, b) a synchronic contrastive approach to three Slavic languages, and c) a survival course in these three Slavic languages. It is divided into the following topics:
Scope, Methodology and
Techniques
Internal and external linguistic history; Synchrony and diachrony; Reconstruction techniques; Source and reflex; Change vs. alternation; Area and isogloss, Comparative vs. contrastive approaches; Research tradition
HW: Selected readings listed on the Web page
Proto Indo-European,
Balto-Slavic, Common Slavic
Languages; Area; Centum and satem branch; The structure of Proto Indo-European; Common Balto-Slavic features; The Structure of Common Slavic
HW: Selected readings listed on the Web page
Quiz: Map quiz and multiple choice quiz
Eastern, Western, and Southern Slavic
Languages, their linguistic and sociolinguistic status; Common Eastern Slavic features; Common Western Slavic features; Common South Slavic Features; Further differentiation of the Western and Southern Slavic branches
HW: Recognizing the language of the assigned text and underlining the
common Slavic features that are typical for the branch to which that
text belongs
History I: Phonology
Prosody; Vowels; De-nasalisation; Development of the Semi-Vowels; The Yat’; Consonants; Palatalizations; Reductions; Metatheses
HW: Tracing the development of the phonemes from the assigned contrastive lexical lists
Quiz: Multiple choice quiz on phonological development
History II: Morphosyntax
Declension patterns; Conjugation patterns; Simplification mechanisms in inflectional morphology (loss of the dual number, gender vs. inflectional ending, time vs. tense); Word order; Selected syntactic forms (the absolute dative, accusative with the infinitive, etc.)
HW: Tracing the development of the endings from the assigned contrastive grammatical tables
Quiz: Multiple choice quiz on morphosyntactic
development
History II: The Lexicon
Common Indo-European and Slavic roots; Metaphorical mechanisms of semantic extensions; False cognates; Slavic etymological dictionaries
HW: Analyzing selected entries of core vocabulary from Slavic monolingual dictionaries
Russian, Polish, and Serbo-Croatian in Contrast
Sociolinguistic status; Phonology; Morphosyntax; the Lexicon
HW: Writing formal contrastive rules for selected phonological and morphosyntactic features
Quiz: Multiple choice quiz on contrastive features
Three Slavic Languages – a Survival Kit
Core vocabulary; Basic grammar; Basic intentional phrases; Sources and opportunities for further studying of Polish and Serbo-Croatian
Final exam
Course Materials
The principal book for this course will be The Slavonic Languages (edited by B.
Comrie and G. G. Corbett), Routledge, London-New York, 1993. Selected texts
from H. Leeming’s Historical and
Comparative Lexicology of the Slavonic Languages, PAN,
Grading Policy
Class work will contribute to the final grade in the
following manner:
Quizzes: 30%
Homework: 20%
Final Exam: 30%
Class Participation: 20%
Schedule
Weeks 1-2: Scope, Methodology and Techniques, Indo-European, Balto-Slavic, Common Slavic, Eastern, Western, and Southern Slavic
Weeks 3-6: History I: Phonology
Weeks 7-9: History II: Morphosyntax
Week 10: History III: The Lexicon
Weeks 11-12: Russian, Polish, and Serbo-Croatian in Contrast
Weeks 13-16: Three Slavic Languages – a Survival Kit