- Docente: Stefano Celestino Canalis
- Credits: 9
- Language: Italian
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Foreign Languages and Literature (cod. 0979)
Learning outcomes
This course will provide students with an introduction to the fundamental levels of linguistic analysis, that is phonology, morphology syntax and semantics. They will also know how levels may interact, both sinchronically and diachronically. They will know the main theoretical paradigms in linguistics and their fundamental assumptions and methodologies, as well as elements of linguistic typology and universals of language. They will know that linguistics is organized into sub-fields such as psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, lexicology and computational linguistics. They will be able to analyse phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic aspects of texts.
Course contents
This course is an introduction to general linguistics: students
will become familiar with fundamental properties of language,
phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, as well as
the sub-fields of linguistic typology, pragmatics and historical
linguistics.
A part of the course will be devoted to a comparatively more
in-depth discussion of the parts of speech and their
classification.
Readings/Bibliography
Gaetano Berruto and Massimo Cerruti. 2011. La linguistica. Un
corso introduttivo. Torino: Utet.
Giampaolo Salvi. 2013. Le parti del discorso. Roma:
Carocci.
Teaching methods
The course is mainly based on class lectures. Examples and exercises will be discussed with students.
Assessment methods
The final exam is divided into a written and an oral examination.
The purpose of the written examination is to test the student's
knowledge and problem solving skills. The test includes open-ended
questions, cloed-ended questions and (mainly) exercises. The latter
usually ask the student to analyze linguistic phenomena from
different languages. Questions may concern any part of the program:
general properties of language, phonetics and phonology, mophology,
syntax, semantics, pragmatics, typology and language change. The
test consists in 7-10 questions/exercises, with varying length and
difficulty. Therefore each of them has a different weight in the
overall evaluation; there is no penalty for wrong answers. The test
generally is one hour long. Passing the written examination with at
least a 18/30 grade is a prerequisite for undertaking the oral
examination. A positive result in the written examination is valid
for 12 months.
The oral examination consists in a colloquium to evaluate the
student's critical ability and knowledge of methodology, discussing
with him/her linguistic phenomena or theoretical concepts. Not only
factual accuracy, but also clarity of exposition will be evaluated.
Therefore thorough understanding of the course program, mastery of
the terminology of the field, clarity of exposition and analytical
abilities are needed to receive an excellent evaluation.
Near-complete knowledge of the program, basically correct but
partially inaccurate exposition and light weaknesses in analytical
ability will receive a good evaluation. Only partial knowledge of
the program, unclear exposition and weak analytical ability will
receive a fair or poor evaluation. Serious deficencies will
inevitably cause a negative evaluation.
The final grade is not a mathematical average of the two
examinations. Usually the grade of the written examination is used
as a baseline, but a poor oral examination may cause a decrease in
the final grade.
Teaching tools
Class lectures, PowerPoint presentations.
Office hours
See the website of Stefano Celestino Canalis