Schedule
How this page works: New things go on top. Links to handouts, readings, etc. will usually give you a pdf file. If you have trouble reading anything (messed up fonts, missing files, etc.), please let me know!
[Week 16, Tu] Presentations 2010-05-04
Dan: Computational reconstruction.
Jeremy: Aspect to tense in Hebrew.
Wrap-up.
[Week 15, Th] Presentations 2010-04-29
Stefan: Linguistics paleontology and the IE homeland.
Stephen: Tonogenesis.
Kathline: Change in sign language.
[Week 15, Tu] Change in action 2010-04-27
The origin and propagation of change.
Mass comparison. Background reading, pp. 469-476.
Solutions to Assignments 4&5.
Presentations: Eva, Josh.
[Week 14, Th] More on internal reconstruction 2010-04-22
More practice with internal reconstruction: Ancient Greek.
Laryngeal Theory and the discovery and decipherment of Hittite.
Pre-history.
Lecture notes.
Kali on the study of written records.
[Week 14, Tu] Internal Reconstruction 2010-04-20
Internal reconstruction.
Lecture notes.
[Week 13, Th] Proto-Indo-European 2010-04-15
Proto-Indo-European.
Lecture notes.
[Week 12, Th] Linguistic classification 2010-04-08
Linguistic classification. Subgrouping, language families.
Lecture notes.
[Week 12, Tu] Comparative reconstruction 2010-04-06
More practice with reconstruction.
[Week 11, Th] Comparative reconstruction 2010-04-01
Practice with reconstruction.
Assignment 4: Paamese, Lencan (Exercise 5.5, from the book.)
Datasets handout.
[Week 11, Tu] Comparative reconstruction 2010-03-30
Comparative reconstruction and the comparative method.
Lecture notes.
Reading: Crowley/Bowern 2010.
[Week 10, Th] Semantic change 2010-03-25
Lexical semantic change.
Lecture notes.
Reading (for Tuesday): Comparative Method.
[Week 10, Tu] Syntactic change, cont'd 2010-03-23
Change in word order type (e.g., OV to VO).
Change in case type (e.g., accusative to ergative.)
Lecture notes.
[Week 8, Th] Exam 1 2010-03-11
Exam 1!
Reading: Syntactic change.
[Week 8, Tu] Syntactic change 2010-03-09
Borrowing, reanalysis, extension. Grammaticalization.
Lecture notes.
[Week 7, Th] Borrowing, cont'd 2010-03-04
Adoption vs. adaptation. Social attitudes, prestige, and borrowing.
Lecture notes.
[Week 7, Tu] Borrowing, cont'd 2010-03-02
Nativization.
Lecture notes.
[Week 6, Th] Borrowing 2010-02-25
Borrowing.
Lecture notes.
Assignment 3: Exercises 3.1, 3.2, 3.5.
[Week 6, Tu] Change in morph type 2010-02-23
Change in morphological type.
Assignment 2 review.
[Week 5, Th] No class 2010-02-18
No class today.
Reading for next week: Chapter 3, "Borrowing", from Campbell (2004); "Lexical and semantic change", up to Section 2.4, from Trask/Miller (2007); and (optional) "Lexical borrowing", from Hock & Joseph (2009).
[Week 5, Tu] Tendencies in analogical change 2010-02-16
Tendencies in analogical change.
Lecture notes.
Reading: Finish Morphological Change chapter.
[Week 4, Th] Analogy 2010-02-11
Analogy and types of morphological change.
Lecture notes.
Assignment 2: Exercises 2.7 and 4.2.
[Week 4, Tu] Changes in rule systems 2010-02-09
Adding/losing rules. Reordering rules.
Lecture notes.
Solution to Assignment 1.
[Week 3, Th] Chain shifts 2010-02-04
Chain shifts.
Spanish, Balto-Finnic.
Lecture notes.
[Week 3, Tu] More sound change 2010-02-02
More problem sets: Canadian French, Hawaiian, Rotuman, Bononi.
[Week 2, Th] Identifying sound changes 2010-01-28
Problem sets 2.1-2.4. Rule-ordering.
Assignment 1: Exercises 2.5 and 2.6.
[Week 2, Tu] Types of sound change 2010-01-26
Types of sounds change.
Lecture notes.
Reading: (i) Chain shifts; (ii) "Why Sound Change?" (handed out).
[Week 1, Th] Sound change, review 2010-01-21
Start on kinds of sound change.
Merger and split. Review of phonetics and phonology.
Lecture notes.
Reading: Chapter 2: Sound Change.
[Week 1, Tu] Course Overview 2010-01-19
Rules of the course.
What is historical linguistics?