Linguistics 211 or 411 or permission of the instructor is required to take this course. This course complements last year's introduction to semantics and pragmatics course, which covered the semantics and pragmatics of sentences and discourse. Students who took last year's course may take this course for credit. Principles and Methods of Historical Linguistics. 411 or equivalent.
All human languages change with the passage of time.
In this course we shall examine the ways in which languages change and how linguists study and analyse this universal phenomenon. Class sessions will consist of lectures and discussions of problem sets. In addition to the textbook, students will read key articles on historical linguistics. The final grade will be determined by a midterm exam, a final exam, and by homework assignments. Discourse is language as it is actually used in a variety of contexts, e.g., in conversation, in novels, in business reports, in advertising, in scientific journals, etc.