Knowledge of the conceptual apparatus and the relevant terminology used in linguistics to describe the fundamental phenomena characterising human languages at the phonetic-phonological, morpho-syntactic and pragmatic levels.

Understanding the general mechanisms that regulate language change in time and space and the properties that differentiate human speech and language from other human and animal communication systems.

1. General characteristics of human speech and language. General principles of linguistic analysis. Recent theories and discoveries about the origin of language (outline).

2. The structure of texts: speech acts, conversational implicatures, presuppositions and inferences, discourse information structure.

3. The structure of sentences: constituents, phrases, predicate argument structure, intonation structure of sentences, syntactic typology.

4. The structure of words: notion of word, morpheme and types of morphemes, types of morphologically complex words, word formation processes, quantitative variables (productivity, transparency, morphological family etc), morphological typology.

5. The structure of sounds: the speech chain; basic organs and principles of speech production; source-filter theory and voicing; vowels vs consonants; outline of phonetic transcription; phonological contrast and types of allophony; syllable, quantity, accent, tone.

Knowledge and understanding: Dealing with data of known and unknown languages and using the descriptive and explanatory tools of the language sciences to provide an interpretation.

Applying knowledge and understanding: Problem solving skills: extracting simple generalizations from a group of heterogeneous linguistic data; making explanatory hypotheses in relation to a given linguistic phenomenon and identifying the scientifically correct procedure to verify them. Ability to reflect on one's own linguistic experience (dialectal, plurilingual etc.) according to the analytic categories of the language sciences.

Making judgments: knowing how to critically reflect and question commonplaces about language and determining whether or not they have scientific validity.

Communication: Mastery of the expressive means of the language sciences for the understanding of linguistic textbooks and the elaboration of short argumentative texts on linguistic topics.

Lifelong learning skills: In the field of humanities, the study of linguistics provides a wealth of technical disciplinary information and capacities of formal reasoning that favor the development of transversal skills in the domain of historical heritage (literatures, languages, cultures in the widest sense) as well as in the domains of socio-pedagogical and psychological analysis of learning processes. It also provides critical tools for analyzing the dynamics of communication and for identifying and managing the many faces of human difference (e.g. cultural, linguistic, social). Knowledge of general linguistics finds a direct application in the most innovative professional sectors dealing with big data in the language and society domains and with artificial intelligence.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

Teaching

Lectures; classroom exercises.

Attendance

No special obligations. A detailed knowledge of the grammar of contemporary Italian is required. Attendance is strongly recommended. Given the technicality of many of the covered topics, the lessons will be structured in a phase of public discussion of linguistic examples from Italian and other languages followed by a phase of systematic treatment of the main theoretical and empirical points. For the same reasons, group exercises will be performed during the lessons with the purpose, first and foremost, of bringing out any doubts or problems in need of further explanation (and as an alternative, with the purpose of simulating the final exam). Non-attending students will have to proceed autonomously to identify the focal points of the argumentation; to that aim, they will want to make use of the suplementary material provided by the teacher as well as of the reference books.

Course books

The following texts are to be considered as further instrument of individual reflection and systematization of the notions and problems that are addressed during the classes. Therefore, non-attending students are particularly recommeded to rely on those texts. However, the texts do not replace the study of the specific topics that are covered during the classes and should therefore be integrated by the supplementary materials that will be provided through the Moodle platform.

1) Graffi & Scalise (2003) Le lingue e il linguaggio. Introduzione alla linguistica, 2a edizione, Il Mulino: Capitolo 1 (Che cos'è il linguaggio) + Capitolo 2 (Che cos'è una lingua) with the exception of Sections 2, 5, 8, 9, 10

2) Lombardi Vallauri (2013) La linguistica. In pratica, 3a edizione, Il Mulino: pag. 38-44 (atti linguistici e implicature), 78-89 (presupposizioni e inferenze), 144-153 (intonazione), 187-208 at the exclusion of Quadro 8.1 (funzioni sintattiche, struttura sintattica, come si costruisce il diagramma ad albero, testa del sintagma, ordine basico e tipologia sintattica, struttura argomentale e valenza, ruoli tematici e struttura profonda, ergatività), 232-237 (struttura informativa dell'enunciato), 245-248 (focalizzazione).

3) Graffi & Scalise (2003) Le lingue e il linguaggio. Introduzione alla linguistica, 2a edizione, Il Mulino: Capitolo 5 (morphology).

4) Graffi & Scalise (2003) Le lingue e il linguaggio. Introduzione alla linguistica, 2a edizione, Il Mulino: Capitolo 4 (phonetics and phonology) with the exclusion of 4, 5.3, 5.5, 5.6, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13; OR, ALTERNATIVELY, Simone (2013) Nuovi fondamenti di linguistica, McGraw Hill Education: Capitolo 4 (the sounds of languages) with the exclusion of 4.11.3, 4.11.4, 4.12, 4.13.5, 4.15.

Assessment

There will be a written test lasting about half an hour (open and closed questions on the topics of the program). If requested by the student, an oral interview will also be possible (to be done on the date immediately following the one in which the written test was done) aimed at commenting on the results of the written test and possibly raising the final mark.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Teaching

Individual study.

Attendance

No special obligations. A detailed knowledge of the grammar of contemporary Italian is required. Attendance is strongly recommended. Given the technicality of many of the covered topics, the lessons will be structured in a phase of public discussion of linguistic examples from Italian and other languages followed by a phase of systematic treatment of the main theoretical and empirical points. For the same reasons, group exercises will be performed during the lessons with the purpose, first and foremost, of bringing out any doubts or problems in need of further explanation (and as an alternative, with the purpose of simulating the final exam). Non-attending students will have to proceed autonomously to identify the focal points of the argumentation; to that aim, they will want to make use of the suplementary material provided by the teacher as well as of the reference books.

Course books

The following texts are to be considered as further instrument of individual reflection and systematization of the notions and problems that are addressed during the classes. Therefore, non-attending students are particularly recommeded to rely on those texts. However, the texts do not replace the study of the specific topics that are covered during the classes and should therefore be integrated by the supplementary materials that will be provided through the Moodle platform.

1) Graffi & Scalise (2003) Le lingue e il linguaggio. Introduzione alla linguistica, 2a edizione, Il Mulino: Capitolo 1 (Che cos'è il linguaggio) + Capitolo 2 (Che cos'è una lingua) with the exception of Sections 2, 5, 8, 9, 10

2) Lombardi Vallauri (2013) La linguistica. In pratica, 3a edizione, Il Mulino: pag. 38-44 (atti linguistici e implicature), 78-89 (presupposizioni e inferenze), 144-153 (intonazione), 187-208 at the exclusion of Quadro 8.1 (funzioni sintattiche, struttura sintattica, come si costruisce il diagramma ad albero, testa del sintagma, ordine basico e tipologia sintattica, struttura argomentale e valenza, ruoli tematici e struttura profonda, ergatività), 232-237 (struttura informativa dell'enunciato), 245-248 (focalizzazione).

3) Graffi & Scalise (2003) Le lingue e il linguaggio. Introduzione alla linguistica, 2a edizione, Il Mulino: Capitolo 5 (morphology).

4) Graffi & Scalise (2003) Le lingue e il linguaggio. Introduzione alla linguistica, 2a edizione, Il Mulino: Capitolo 4 (phonetics and phonology) with the exclusion of 4, 5.3, 5.5, 5.6, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13; OR, ALTERNATIVELY, Simone (2013) Nuovi fondamenti di linguistica, McGraw Hill Education: Capitolo 4 (the sounds of languages) with the exclusion of 4.11.3, 4.11.4, 4.12, 4.13.5, 4.15.

Assessment

There will be a written test lasting about half an hour (open and closed questions on the topics of the program). If requested by the student, an oral interview will also be possible (to be done on the date immediately following the one in which the written test was done) aimed at commenting on the results of the written test and possibly raising the final mark.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.