OVERVIEW

This course content is borrowed from Russian Linguistics (code: 52961) of Translation and Interpreting (LM-94) MA program. Hence, the corse is structured with three different profiles, depending on studied languages and previous knowledge of Slavic Philology:  

Profile A

Students who had not taken Slavic Philology during their MA will be required to follow lectures on Slavic Philology I (together with 72868 - BA in Modern languages and cultures).

Profile B

Students with a knowledge of Russian at an intermediate level who have taken 6 credits in Slavic Philology, will attend Russian linguistics (together with 55961 - MA in Translation and Interpreting). For those who already attend these classes as a proxy for Russian Language II LM, see Profile C.

Profile C

Students of Polish already familiar with the basics of Slavic Philology (at least 6 credits taken during BA), but with no knowledge of Russian, will follow an independent reading course with guidance from the instructor. 

AIMS AND CONTENT

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

Profile A

Slavic Philology I (72868)  provides basic knowledge about the linguistic and cultural development of the Slavic peoples, from Proto-Slavic to contemporary Slavic languages and cultures. In view of this, it offers an introduction to Old Church Slavonic, as well as an overview of the culture(s) of the Slavs in the early stages of their spread across Eastern and Central Europe. 

At the end of the course the student will be able to:

• define the main lines of historical and linguistic development of the Slavic world;
• make a morphological analysis of short excerpts of Old Slavonic texts (using dictionaries and grammars), correctly identify parts of speech and morphological features, highlight phonetic changes in single words;
• relate the structure and the lexicon of the Slavic language s/he studies to Old Slavonic, providing diachrony-based explanations for facts about the structure of the language and for specific phenomena.

Profile B

Russian linguistics (55961) offers an in-depth description of some morphosyntactic structures of contemporary standard Russian, highlighting their distinctive features.

Starting from this descriptive level, we will proceed to an analisys of the structural properties of Russian and to a discussion of the theoretical problems connected to some of its syntactic peculiarities, within the the framework of generative grammar, for which the course provides an elementary introduction.

At the end of the course, the student will be able to:

• identify and describe the syntactic categories of Russian, within the proposed framework;
• describe and analyze the syntactic structure of a sentence in Russan and its structural properties;
• describe the aspectual features of the Russian verb in connection with actionality;
• employ the theoretical concepts learned for the purpose of a more effective learning of Russian at an advanced level.

Profile C

The aim of the readings that will be assigned is to deepen the student's knowledge about the Slavic languages and cultures and to understand the steps which brought to the their formation. In agreeing readings with the instructor, the students are encouraged to choose topics they are particularly interested in.

PREREQUISITES

Profile A

Knowledge of a Slavic language at least at the level required for passing the first-year exam of BA program.

Profile B

A basic knowledge of the morphosyntactic structures of Russian. Familiarity with the basics of linguistic analysis (parts of speech, predicate, agreement, case, etc ...; being able to distinguish between the phonological, morphological, syntactic levels).

Profile C

Knowledge of a Slavic language at least at the level required for passing the first-year exam of BA program.

TEACHING METHODS

Profile A

The course content will be delivered via classroom lectures (36 hours) with the support of Aulaweb. The last part of the course will be devoted to the analysis and linguistic comment of Old Church Slavonic texts, which will be held in the form of classroom exercises .

Profile B

The course content will be delivered via classroom lectures (36 hours), with the support of Aulaweb. Along with the presentation of the theory by the teacher, students are requested to participate in the discussion by thinking and "experimenting" on linguistic examples that are relevant for the topic.

Profile C

Independent learning based on readings assigned by the instructor. During the academic year, seminars on specific topics may be organized based on availability and interests.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Profile A

1. The ethnogenesis of the Slavs: from the Indo-European unity to Early Slavic; the homeland of the Slavs and their expansion; migrations and subsequent ethnical and linguistic split.
2. Old Church Slavonic: phonology and basic grammar (in comparison with modern Slavic languages).
3. Cyril and Methodius and their mission, the Christianization of the Slavs, the alphabets.

The program for both attending and non-attending students is the same.

Profile B

Linguistics: what is language? Natural languages, the Faculty of Language and the architecture of grammar. 
Contemporary Standard Russian: its position within Slavic, diachronic overview, typology.
Russian syntax. The verb and its arguments, thematic structure. The VP and the basic clausal structure. The noun phrase, its arguments and its extended structure, the DP. The clause, types of clauses. Non-nominative subjects. Information structure: Topic-Comment relations and syntactic structures. Case: case government and case alternations. The typological features of Russian and related theoretical issues. 
The aspectual system of Russian: actional classes, telicity and verb semantics.

The program for both attending and non-attending students is the same.

Profile C

The ancient Slavic civilization, insights into the ethnogenesis of the Slavs; the material, social and spiritual culture of the proto-Slavs; the expansion of the Slavs and their first contacts with the the Roman-Germanic West and Byzantium. The work of Cyril and Methodius and the formation of Old Slavic. The concepts of Slavia Orthodoxa and Slavia Latina.
The modern Slavic languages: convergent and divergent features.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Profile A

Any handbook on Old Church Slavonic among Bartula (2003), Ivanova (1977), Krivčik & Možejko (1985), Lunt (1955), Marcialis (2005), Moszyński (2006), Skomorochova Venturini (2000). Anyway, classroom lessons will be based mainly on Skomorochova Venturini (2000). For the Indo-European>Proto-Slavic diachrony, see Andersen (1997).

• Andersen, Henning. 1997. Le lingue slave. In Anna Giacalone Ramat & Paolo Ramat (eds.), Le lingue indoeuropee, 441–479. Nuova ed. (Strumenti Linguistica e critica letteraria). Bologna: Il Mulino. [English version available in Giacalone Ramat, Anna & Paolo Ramat. 1998. The Indo-European Languages, 415–453. London–New York: Routledge.]
• Bartula,Czesław. 2003. Podstawowe wiadomości z gramatyki staro-cerkiewno-słowiańskiej na tle porónawczym. 6, dodruk ed. Warszawa: Wydawn. Naukowe PWN.
• Ivanova, Tatʹjana Apollonovna. 1977. Staroslavjanskij jazyk. Moskva: Vysšaja škola.
• Krivčik, Varvara Fedorovna & Nadežda Semenovna Možejko. 1985. Staroslavjanskij jazyk : učebnoe posobie dlja filologičeskich fakul’tetov vysšych učebnych zavedenij. Minsk: Vyšejšaja škola. [Available at  http://en.booksee.org/book/353302].
• Lunt, Horace Gray. 1955. Old church Slavonic grammar. (Slavistische Drukken En Herdrukken 3). The Hague: Mouton. [Available at http://ksana-k.ru/?p=274].
• Marcialis, Nicoletta. 2005. Introduzione alla lingua paleoslava. (Biblioteca di Studi slavistici / Associazione italiana degli slavisti). Firenze : Firenze University Press. [Digital lending available for UniGe users on MLOL at https://unige.medialibrary.it/media/scheda.aspx?id=150266413]
• Moszyński, Leszek. 2006. Wstęp do filologii słowiańskiej. 2. Wydanie zmienione. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
• Skomorochova Venturini, Lilia. 2000. Corso di lingua paleoslava: grammatica. Pisa: ETS.

Toscano (2014) serves as a general introduction to the topics dealt with in this part of the course. Some chapters from Garzaniti et al. (2013) and/or Conte (2006) will be assigned as supplementary readings. Saronne & Alberti (2002) is recommended, too, as an overview of all the questions related to this part of the program.

• Conte, Francis. 2006. Gli slavi : le civiltà dell’Europa centrale e orientale. Torino: Einaudi. [Original 1986 edition in French: Les Slaves: aux origines des civilisations d’Europe centrale et orientale (Vle-Xllle siècles). Paris: A. Michel. English edition (1995): The Slavs. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.]
• Garzaniti, Marcello, Alberto Alberti & Francesca Romoli. 2013. Gli Slavi : storia, culture e lingue dalle origini ai nostri giorni. Roma: Carocci.
• Saronne, Edgardo Tito & Alberto Alberti. 2002. Chi sono gli slavi? (Heuresis 26). Bologna: CLUEB.
• Toscano, Silvia. 2014. Introduzione alla Filologia Slava. Roma: Università La Sapienza. [An updated edition, courtesy of prof. Toscano, will be made available on the Aulaweb course page]

Profile B

The course will be taught on the basis of Bailyn (2012) and Fici Giusti, Gebert & Signorini (1991).
Additional books that will be of use for reference are Donati (2008), D'Alessandro (2020), Graffi (1994), Graffi & Scalise (2008), Jackendoff (1998) (see references below).
Readings: research articles on specific topics will be distributed in class or made available in Aulaweb course page.

• Bailyn, J.F., 2012. The syntax of Russian, Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.
• D’Alessandro, Roberta. 2020. Syntax made easy : how to read (and draw) syntactic trees. Utrecht: Utrecht University, UiL-OTS. Italian translation (2021). Sintassi Semplice : come leggere (e disegnare) i diagrammi ad albero. [Both books are available in open access  at  www.robertadalessandro.it].   
• Donati, C., 2008. La sintassi : regole e strutture, Bologna: Il Mulino.
• Fici Giusti, F., Gebert, L. & Signorini, S., 1991. La lingua russa, Roma: Nuova Italia Scientifica.
• Graffi, G., 1994. Sintassi, Bologna: Il mulino.
• Graffi, G. & Scalise, S., 2008. Le lingue e il linguaggio: introduzione alla linguistica, 2° ed., Bologna: Il Mulino.
• Jackendoff, R., 1998. Linguaggio e natura umana, Bologna: Il mulino.

Profile C

The following reading list can be agreed with the instructor as an exam program:

• Garzaniti, Marcello, Gli slavi: storia, culture e lingue dalle origini ai nostri giorni, a cura di Francesca Romoli. Nuova ed. Roma : Carocci, 2019
• Francesca Fici , Le lingue slave moderne. Padova : Unipress, 2001

From Gazaniti & Romoli (2019): first part (the first 5 chapters), second part (all), one chapter of the third part and one of the fourth part. From Fici (2001): all the general part, plus three chapters to choose from, each on a Slavic language.

Based on the student's personal interests, a different program can be agreed for this profile.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

LESSONS

LESSONS START

Percorso A

Slavic Philology I: 2nd semester, february 2023.  

Percorso B

Russian Linguistics: 1st semester, Thursday, October 6th 4:00 p.m., Aula B (Polo Didattico)

Percorso C

This profile has no classroom lectures. Any seminar meetings will be agreed upon during the academic year.

Class schedule

SLAVIC PHILOLOGY LM

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Profile A

The exam is oral. In the first part of the exam the student will be required an analysis of a short excerpt from a text in Old Church Slavonic. a time slot of about 20 minutes will be provided for completing the analysis before presenting it to the instructor. During this part of the exam, the handbook, as well as the dictionary, can be used to prepare the required analysis. An example of the analysis required at the exam (morphological analysis of the text word by word and comment on the phenomena of phonetic change, e.g. palatalizations, reflexes of apophonic alternations in flexion , etc.)  will be provided in the final classes of the course. In the second part of the exam the student will be presented with a bilet containing 5 random questions to answer; a few minutes to prepare the answers will be allowed; no texbook or othe materials can be used during this part of the exam. A list of the random questions that will be contained in the bilety will be available beforehand.

Profile B

The final exam entails a co-operative discussion of the topics dealt with during the classes: every student will be assigned a sentence in Russian and will be requested to propose a syntactic analysis for it. 20-30 minutes will be given for analysing the sentence, thereafter everyone will present his/her own analysis and discuss it with the instructor and with his/her peers. The second part of the exam will consist of a question on the topics related to the aspect and meaning of the verb in Russian (for example: what is a causative predicate?) and finally a grade will be assigned by the instructor on the basis of the discussion of the analysis and of the answer to the question.

Profile C

The exam is oral. The student will be required to present one of the topics dealt with in the readings s/he has been assigned. The first part of the of the exam will be on the history of Early Slavs, the formation of the different Slavic cultures, the medieval and modern Slavic countries. The second part will mainly deal with the linguistics and will be about modern Slavic languages.

For all profiles: the exam may be taken in Italian, Russian, Polish or English.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Profile A

The instructor will require the student to assess the morpho-syntactic and phonetic phenomena in the analyzed text and to suggest possible links with other parts of the syllabus. Expository skills and clarity, as well as the ability to find appropriate information in the available materials will be evaluated. The student should be able to relate what s/he learned in the classes to her/his learning language (Russian or Polish).

Profile B

The instructur will assess the student's ability to carry out her/his own analysis on the basis of the topics presented in the course. Comparisons with other other languages, including the student's own intuitions about her/his native language(s) will be be positively evaluated. 

Profile C

The instructor will assess the student's ability to expose a topic from his/her readings. The ability to relate the topic to her/his learning language and culture (Russian or Polish).will be be positively evaluated. 

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

Students certified with SLD, disabilities or other special education needs are advised to contact the instructor at the beginning of the course, in order to agree on teaching and exam methods that, in compliance with the course learning outcomes, take into account individual learning methods and provide suitable compensatory tools.