Course grades will be based on weekly assignments, midterm, and take-home final exam. Introduction to Sentence Analysis. In this course we will explore variety and regularity in the ways languages organize words into phrases and sentences. The requirements will include regular, short written assignments, and participants will submit a short paper analyzing an unfamiliar language. Language and History.
All languages evolve in the context of a society.
This course will focus on the ways in which the study of language history and political or social history can complement each other. The first part of the course will examine how the findings of linguistic reconstruction can aid the historian in describing the culture of earlier society or determining prehistoric migrations and homeland of different peoples. The second half of the course will examine how major events in social and political history affected the development of the languages which were the affected culture's vehicle of expression. Both halves will be illustrated with examples from various languages and cultures of Europe, Asia and other parts of the world. There will be two exams and a term paper.