www.pustakalaya.org E-Pustakalaya : Linguistics Syllabus

[mariammal]

General Linguistics

Unit I: Language and Linguistics (15 Teaching hrs)
1.1 Why study language?
1.2 Definiton of language
1.3 Characteristics of human language and animal communication
1.4 Levels of language: phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic

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http://www.pustakalaya.org/eserv.php...Curriculum.pdf

1.5. Definition of Linguistics: the scientific study of language
1.6 Branches of Linguistics
1.6.1 Theoretical Linguistics
1.6.2 Applied Linguistics
1.6.3 Synchronic and diachronic linguistics
1.6.4 Psycholinguistics
1.6.5 Sociolinguists
1.7 Basic assumptions about language and modern linguistics
1.7.1 All languages have a grammar
1.7.2 All languages and grammars are equal
1.7.3 Grammars are alike in basic ways
1.7.4 Speech is primary and writing secondary
1.7.5 Linguistics is descriptive, not prescriptive
1.7.6 Change is natural for a language

Unit II: Phonetics and Phonology (25 Teaching hrs)
2.1 Definition of phonetics
2.2 Branches of phonetics
2.2.1 Articulatory phonetics
2.2.2 Auditory phoentics
2.2.3 Acoustic phonetics
2.3 Production of speech
2.4 Description and classification of sounds: vowels, consonants,
semi-vowels and diphthongs
2.5 Syllable and syllable structure
2.6 Stress
2.7 Tone and intonation
2.8 Definiton of Phonology, Phonology versus phonetics
2.9 Phones, phonemes and allophones
2.10 General introduction to IPA chart

Unit III: Morphology (25 Teaching hrs )
3.1 Definition of word
3.2 Morphology: the study of word
3.3 Word structure: root, stem and affix
3.4 Morphs, morpheme and allomorph
3.5 Types of morphemes: free and bound
3.6 Types of affix: (a) Prefix, infix, suffix and suprafix
3.7 Types of affix: (b) Inflectional and derivational
3.8 Major processes of word formation: (a) Affixation
(b) Reduplication (c) Compounding (d) Shortening
(e) Blending (f) Borrowing (g) Acronymy (h) Coinage (i) Back formation
3.9 Major morphophonemic processes

Unit IV: Syntax (25 Teaching hrs)
4.1 Syntax: the study of sentence structure
4.2 Syntactic categories
4.2.1 Criteria for identifying syntactic categories: meaning, inflection and distribution
4.2.2 Types of syntactic categories
(i) Word-level categories such as lexical categories: noun, verb,adjective, adposition, adverb and non-lexical categories such as determiner, degree word, qualifier, auxiliary and conjunction.
(ii) Phrase-level categories: noun phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase, adpositional phrase, adverbial phrase.
4.3 Basic sentence patterns and transformations (question, passive,
negation)
4.4 Subordination and transformations (complementation, relativization, adverbial clauses).
4.5. Coordination
4.6 Grammatical functions: subject, object (direct and indirect), complement, adjunct (manner, time, place)

Unit V: Semantics and Pragmatics ( 25 Teaching hrs)
5.1 Definition of semantics
5.2 Semantic relations among words
5.2.1 Synonymy
5.2.2 Antonymy
5.2.3 Hyponymy
5.2.4 Homonymy, homography and homophony
5.2.5 Polysemy
5.3 Semantic relation involving sentences
5.3.1 Paraphrase
5.3.2 Entailment
5.3.3 Contradiction
5.4 Types of meaning
5.4.1 Lexical
5.4.2 Grammatical
5.4.3 Contextual
5.5 Thematic roles; agent, instrument, experiencer, source, location, possessor, patient/object, benefactive
5.6 Pragmatics: the study of meaning in context
5.7. Presupposition
5.8. Context
5.8.1 Setting (physical context)
5.8.2. Discourse
(a) Old and new information
(b) Topic and comment
5.9. Meaning and discourse
5.9.1. Cohesion
5.9.2 Coherence
5.9.3 Discourse strategies

Unit VI: Historical Linguisitics: The study of language change (15 Teaching hrs)
6.1 Historical linguistics: The study of language change
6.2 The nature of language change
6.3 Different types of language change
6.3.1 Sound change
6.3.2 Morphological change
6.3.3 Syntactic change
6.3.4 Lexical and semantic change
6.4 Introduction to the classification of languages
6.4.1 Genetic classification
6.4.2 Typological classification
6.4.3 Areal classification

Unit VII: History of Linguistics (20 Teaching hrs)
7.1 Sanskrit Tradition and Contribution of Sanskrit Grammarians:
Pratishakhya, Yaska, Panini, and Bhartrihari
7.2 Contribution of Greeks and Romans
7.3 19th Ccentury Historical-Comparative Linguistics
7.4 Modern Linguistics: contribution of Saussure, Bloomfield, Halliday and Chomsky
7.5 Development of Linguistics in Nepal: Contribution of native and foreign linguists.

6. Textbook (to be prepared by a team of linguists)
7. Reference Books
Bandu, C.M. 2053 VS. Bhasha Vijnan. Kathmandu: Sajha Prakashan.
Kansakar, T.R. 1998. A Course in English Phonetics. Delhi: Macmillan.
Pokharel, M.P. 2064. Nepali Dhoni Vijana ra Nepal ko Bhasa ka Dhoni
Parichaya. Kathmandu: Bhuripuran Prakashan.
Syal, P. & D.V. Jindal. 1998. An Introduction to Linguistics: Language,
Grammar and Semantics. New Delhi: Prentice Hall of India.
Yadava, Y.P. 2000. Linguistics: A Basic Cours. Kirtipur: New Hira Books.
Yadava, Y.P. and B.N. Regmi. 2004. Bhasha Vijnan.Kathmandu: New Heera
Books. Yule, G. 1996. The Study of Language. Cambridge University Press.

8. Evaluation Scheme
8.2.8.1 There will be a quetions paper carrying 100 marks for 3-hour duration to evaluate the knowledge of the students.
8.2. Questions will be structured as follows:
(a) Long answer to 4 questions;
(b) Short answer to 2 out of 3 questions;
(c) Short notes to 4 out of 6 questions; and
(d) Question number 7 is compulsory. Students are required to attempt other 4 questions.
8.3.Questions can be set from all the units of the course as follows: