This course presents long-standing questions about the idea of linguistic kinship and the origin of Indo-European languages. The main topics of the course include the description of the reconstructed mother tongue of the Indo-European family, which is the result of the comparison of the structure of the different Indo-European languages. We will evaluate scientific approaches to the history/ prehistory of languages and peoples. We will also discuss the main characteristics of Indo-European subfamilies in ancient Europe. The course will provide exemplification of comparative approaches on Indo-European morphosyntax with an emphasis on Voice/ Diathesis (and Argument Structure).
Topics
- Genetic affinity: how are languages shown to be related to one another? The principals and methods of genetic comparison
- How some languages were shown to belong to Indo-European: Classification and subgrouping
- How realistic are reconstructed Proto-languages?
- Case Studies: A Diachronic Typology of Voice/ Diathesis
- Case studies: A Diachronic Typology of Argument Structure
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