99927 - Linguistic Diversity (LM)

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to illustrate the diversity of the world's languages and the implications of this diversity for a general theory of language and its use, discussing the main methods and results of the typological-functionalist approach and of the approaches developed in the pragmatic field. Through the comparison of different languages, belonging to the various families attested in the world, the theoretical and methodological bases for the analysis of structural, semantic and pragmatic diversity of human languages are discussed in detail, also in relation to cultural diversity. At the end of the course, students will be able to trace different languages back to different 'linguistic types' and will have an up-to-date knowledge of threatened and endangered languages; they will have a thorough knowledge of the notions of linguistic and pragmatic universals; they will be able to set up and carry out autonomously an interlinguistic comparison with respect to single linguistic and pragmatic phenomena; they will be familiar with the main techniques of data collection and linguistic documentation; they will be able to orient themselves within the descriptive grammars of different languages.

Course contents

The course will be organized in five parts. For each part, the issues and questions that will be addressed are provided below. The details could be slightly adapted along the way, to meet the specific interests of the enrolled students. For each question, different perspectives and theoretical proposals will be compared, in the light of the most recent scientific debate.

1. Introduction to linguistic diversity

• Linguistic diversity in the contemporary world: definitions and reflections
• Measuring linguistic diversity: what does it mean to say that some languages are 'more diverse' and others 'more similar'? is it possible to measure diversity?
• Linguistic complexity: are there more complex languages and simpler languages? Comparing theoretical proposals

2. The world's languages and their health status.

• The number of speakers and the social characteristics of communities
• The health of a language: Ethnologue and the World Language Diversity Observatory
• Threatened and endangered languages: how come the language count changes every year? As of July 2022 there are 7,151: how many will there be in spring 2023? What does it mean to say that 'a language dies'? Definitions and reflections
• Major language families and unrelated languages (isolated languages)

3. Analyzing linguistic diversity: data collection and methods of analysis

• Description of a language that has never been described before: language documentation and its ethical implications
• Elicitation and data collection techniques: images, videos, questionnaires, interviews, map tasks
• Descriptive grammars, a fundamental tool for the study of linguistic diversity
• Online resources and typological databases: WALS (World Atlas of Languages Structures), APiCS (Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Structures), Unesco World Atlas of Languages, Corpora for typological analysis

4. Linguistic typology: seeking order in chaos

• Aims and methods of linguistic typology
• Comparing languages: tertium comparationis and comparative concepts
• Constructing a language sample that can be representative of the world's diversity: variety sample and probability sample
• Language universals: absolute and implicational universals, semantic maps
• Language typology and pragmatics
• Variation across languages and within languages: language varieties, spoken languages and written languages
• Explaining language universals: why do languages not vary randomly? Language change, discourse, language contact and cognitive processing

5. Explorations of linguistic diversity

The topics that will be addressed in the second part of the course are listed below. The list may be subject to change depending on the specific interests of the attending students.

• Different languages construct words differently: morphological types
• Subject and object in world’s languages: syntactic types
• The categorization of time and reality: languages without time markers, time and reality of nouns and adjectives
• Noun categories: genders (how many?) and number (beyond singular and plural...)
• Parts of speech: how are people, things, and events categorized? Are there languages without adjectives?
• The expression of gratitude in the world's languages: is saying 'thank you' a universal phenomenon or does it depend on education and culture?
• How to communicate misunderstanding? The expression of error and its repair in world languages
• Languages without AND and languages without OR: connectives beyond logical distinctions

A basic knowledge of general linguistics is required. Those who have never taken a basic linguistics exam will have to recover independently, by studying a basic manual (Berruto & Cerruti 2011 is suggested).

Readings/Bibliography

Manuals

Mandatory reading of the following two manuals (in their entirety):

• G.F Arcodia, C. Mauri (2016).La diversità linguistica. Roma: Carocci.
• N. Grandi, C. Mauri (a cura di, 2022). La tipologia linguistica. Unità e diversità nelle lingue del mondo. Roma: Carocci. The first part is obligatory, the second part is optional.

Articles

For articles it is advisable to use the following link, inserting the DOI provided next to each bibliographic reference: https://www.doi.org

Mandatory reading of two articles to choose from the following:

• C. Mauri (2020), Diversità tra le lingue e pragmatica. Italiano linguaDue 12/1: 459-468.

• G. F. Arcodia, C. Mauri, What is linguistic diversity?. Lingue e linguaggio, 2/2017, pp. 175-202, doi: 10.1418/88239

• S. Cristofaro (2017), Constraints on language diversity. Lingue e linguaggio 2/2017, pp. 203-226, doi: 10.1418/88240

• M. Miestamo (2017), Linguistic diversity and complexity. Lingue e linguaggio 2/2017, pp. 227-254, doi: 10.1418/88241

• C. Everett (2017), Linguistic diversity and cognition. Lingue e linguaggio 2/2017, pp. 255-278, doi: 10.1418/88242

• M. T. Guasti (2017), Comparison of two types of omission in child language: articles and third person direct object clitics. Lingue e linguaggio 2/2017, pp. 279-304, doi: 10.1418/88243

• Floyd S., Rossi G., Baranova J., Blythe J., Dingemanse M., Kendrick KH., Zinken J., Enfield NJ.(2018),“Universals and cultural diversity in the expression of gratitude”,R. Soc. open sci.5,180391:http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.180391

• Dingemanse M., Roberts S. G., Baranova J., Blythe J., Drew P., Floyd S.et al. (2015),“Universal Principles in the Repair of Communication Problems”,in PLoS ONE10, 9:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0136100

• Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (2011). Politeness: Some universals in language use [Reprint]. In D. Archer, & P. Grundy (Eds. ), The pragmatics reader (pp. 283-304). London: Routledge.

We also recommend reading the Capp. 1, 2 and 4 of the following manual:

• BALLARE', S., GORIA, E. E MAURI, C. 2022. Italiano parlato e variazione linguistica. Teoria e prassi nella costruzione del corpus KIParla. Bologna, Pàtron (Capp. 1,2,4)

In case of specific interests not covered by the readings indicated, it is possible to agree on the articles of your choice also on the basis of proposals from students.

 

Additional Resources

 The slides projected in class will be published weekly in the Virtual platform. It is strongly recommended to read it, both for attending and non-attending students.

Other bibliographic indications relating to specific parts of the course will be provided in class.

Teaching methods

All lessons will have a strong empirical component: descriptive grammars, digital tools and online resources for the analysis and collection of linguistic data will be presented and used.

Alongside the lectures, extensive use will be made of the Virtuale platform, which will be used both to make available insights and teaching materials, and to create a forum for discussion, beyond the classroom.

It is planned to go all together (teacher and students) to the department library to explore the section where the descriptive grammars are contained.

All lessons will be characterized by a high degree of interactivity and dialogicity. At the end of each week, the teacher will upload stimuli and ideas on the Virtuale platform, through videos, articles, links. The same will be done by students, who will contribute to enrich and personalize the path of reflection on linguistic diversity.

Assessment methods

The exam is aimed to assess the level achieved by the student in the understanding of the theoretical tools provided during the course and their application to real language data.

The evaluation will be based on:

• the number of correct responses
• formal and exhibition adequacy
• expressive clarity and the ability to organize the argumentation

An excellent rating will be given to those who show that they have a thorough knowledge of the program, expressive and expository mastery, precision in data analysis and in the use of specialist terminology, critical thinking skills.

Intermediate evaluations will be given to those who show that they have studied, but will restrict to a partial knowledge of the issues addressed, will use the terminology loosely, and will show themselves insecure in the data analysis.

Sufficiency will be given in the presence of a mnemonic studio, partially incomplete, that reveals a poor command of the terminology and basic concepts of the language, along with an imprecise and inaccurate analysis of data.

The assessment will be insufficient in the presence of significant deficiencies, inability to argue a theoretical discussion and / or properly analyze the data.

Teaching tools

During the classroom lessons the teacher will use slides, digital linguistic resources and printed material, in order to illustrate the topics discussed.

Extensive use will be made of the tools offered by Virtuale.

 

Office hours

See the website of Caterina Mauri