SLAVIC LINGUISTICS

This course explores the historical development and structural diversity of Slavic languages. Through a comparative approach, students will analyze phonological, morphological, and syntactic patterns across East, West, and South Slavic languages. Topics include Proto-Slavic reconstruction, language contact, case systems, aspect, word order, and modern variation.

1. Knowledge and understanding
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
-describe the genealogical classification of Slavic languages and explain their relationship to Indo-European;
-recognize the main phonological and morphological features of Proto-Slavic and illustrate its fragmentation;
-identify the key phonetic changes in the development of modern Slavic languages and distinguish them across Eastern, Western, and Southern branches;
-explain the case system in Slavic languages, also in relation to nominative-accusative and ergative alignment patterns;
-distinguish between perfective and imperfective aspect in Slavic and describe its historical development;
-describe key syntactic phenomena (word order, negation, polarity) and lexical contact processes in Slavic languages;
-identify the main resources and tools for Slavic linguistics (corpora, dictionaries, grammars).

2. Applying knowledge and understanding
Students will be able to:
-analyze Slavic linguistic data using methods from historical, typological, and theoretical linguistics;
-apply appropriate linguistic terminology to the analysis of phonological, morphosyntactic, and lexical phenomena;
-compare linguistic structures across Slavic varieties and between Slavic and non-Slavic languages;
-use digital resources (e.g. corpora) for the study of Slavic languages;
-present structured comparative analyses based on empirical data.

3. Making judgements
Students will be able to:
-critically evaluate linguistic analyses in light of historical and typological evidence;
-reflect on the role of social, cultural, and political factors in processes of standardization and linguistic variation;
-formulate independent observations on processes of language change and convergence.

4. Communication skills
Students will be able to:
-clearly and coherently present complex linguistic topics, using appropriate specialist terminology;
-actively participate in seminar discussions and deliver oral presentations of linguistic research;
-write short analytical or comparative texts on relevant issues in Slavic linguistics.

5. Learning skills
Students will be able to:
-develop independent learning strategies for deepening their understanding of the course topics;
-navigate bibliographic resources, digital tools, and specialist materials in Slavic linguistics;
-demonstrate curiosity and interest in recent developments in the field, including interdisciplinary perspectives.

There are no prerequisites for ths course

Unit 1: Introduction to Slavic Linguistics
Week 1: The Slavic Language Family – Unity and Diversity

Classification: East, West, and South Slavic
Genetic relationship with Indo-European

Key sources for Slavic linguistics (corpora, dictionaries, grammars)
Week 2: Proto-Slavic and Its Development

Common Slavic phonology and morphology. The breakup of Proto-Slavic.

Unit 2: Phonology and Morphology
Week 3: Sound Changes from Proto-Slavic to Modern Slavic Languages. Palatalization, vowel shifts, liquid metathesis. East vs. West vs. South Slavic phonological innovations
Week 4: The Case System in Slavic Languages. Nominative-accusative vs. ergative tendencies.
Week 5: Verbal Aspect in Slavic. Perfective vs. imperfective verb aspect. Historical development of aspect. Comparison with non-Slavic languages
Unit 3: Syntax and Lexicon
Week 6: Word Order and Information Structure. SVO, SOV, and free word order in Slavic.
Week 7: Negation and Polarity in Slavic. Negative concord in Russian, Polish, Czech.
Week 8: Slavic Loanwords and Contact LinguisticsGermanic, Romance, and Turkic borrowings. Lexical influence from Russian in post-Soviet states
Unit 4: Historical and Computational Perspectives.
Week 9: Diachronic Syntax and Historical Change. Changes in clitic positioning.
Week 10: Slavic Languages in the Digital Age. Corpus linguistics and digital tools for Slavic linguistics. Computational approaches to morphological analysis

Unit 5: Final Discussions and Student Research
Week 11: Case Studies in Comparative Slavic Linguistics
Student presentations on phonetic/morphological comparisons
Discussion of ongoing research topics

Week 12: Future Directions in Slavic Linguistics

Innovations in contemporary Slavic languages

Language policy and standardization debates
Reading: Sussex & Cubberley (2006), Ch. 12

Assessment & Activities
Comparative Analysis Paper (30%): Analyze a grammatical feature across three Slavic languages

Corpus-Based Assignment (20%): Use a digital corpus to compare word frequency or syntactic structures

Midterm Exam (20%): Short essays on historical and comparative topics

Final Presentation (30%): Case study of a phonetic, morphological, or syntactic phenomenon

Books
Sussex, R. & Cubberley, P. (2006). The Slavic Languages. Cambridge University Press.
Andersen, H. (1985). Typological Change in Slavic, Baltic, and Other Indo-European Languages. Mouton de Gruyter.
Lunt, H. (2001). Old Church Slavonic Grammar. Mouton de Gruyter.
Bailyn, J. (2012). The Syntax of Russian. Cambridge University Press.
Timberlake, A. (1978). Morphosyntax of Old Russian. Mouton.
Articles & Chapters
Comrie, B. (1987). Slavic Languages. In The World’s Major Languages.
Dickey, S. (2000). Parameters of Slavic Aspect: A Cognitive Approach.
Franks, S. & King, T. (2000). A Handbook of Slavic Clitics.
Digital Tools
Slavic Linguistic Corpora: Russian National Corpus, Aranea Corpus, NKJP (Polish)
Online Etymological Dictionaries: Vasmer’s Russian Etymological Dictionary
Morphological Parsers: UniMorph, UD Treebanks for Slavic Languages

The verification of knowledge combines traditional evaluation methods with interactive assignments

written and oral

Evaluation of activities
Tesina of comparatve analysis (30%)
Analysis of a grammatical phenomenon in three Slavic languages
Assignment based on use of corpora (20%)
Use of a digital corpus for identifying lessical frequency or syntactic structures
Short essay on a comparative and/or historical topic (20%)
Presentation (30%)
Case study of a linguistic phenomenon


The final grade will be determined based on the following criteria:
- Knowledge of theoretical topics (up to 12 points)
- Ability to critically analyze theoretical topics (up to 5 points)
- Clarity and confidence in oral presentation (up to 3 points)
- Command of specialized terminology and appropriate language use (up to 5 points)
- Ability to engage in autonomous and well-structured discussion (up to 5 points)

The maximum score is 30/30. Cum laude may be awarded in the case of an excellent performance across all evaluated criteria.

This course is blended and it allows for a mix of in-person discussions and online interactive elements.
1. Online Comparative Linguistic Challenges (Asynchronous)
Phonetic Shift Matching: Provide words in different Slavic languages and have students identify historical sound changes.
Cognate Hunt: Students use digital corpora (e.g., Aranea, Russian National Corpus) to find cognates and analyze their semantic shifts.
Case System Puzzle: Give sentences with missing case endings and let students reconstruct them based on their knowledge of Slavic morphology.

2. Synchronous Live Activities (Online & In-Person)
Morphosyntactic Speed Debates: Students will be assigned different Slavic languages and will have to argue which has the most “complex” case or aspect system, using examples.
Word Order Experiment: Analyzing sentences with scrambled word orders in different Slavic languages.
Linguistic Escape Room: Students solve linguistic puzzles (phonological, morphological, syntactic).

3. Corpus-Based Assignments (Online & Hybrid)
Frequency Analysis: Students will have to use a corpus to compare the frequency of specific grammatical structures (e.g., aspect usage in Russian vs. Polish).
Translation & Variation: Students will compare translations of the same text across Slavic languages, identifying key syntactic and lexical differences.
AI & Computational Linguistics Task: Students will be introduced to tools like UniMorph or Universal Dependencies to analyze cross-linguistic patterns.

4. Collaborative Projects (Online & In-Person)
Comparative Linguistic Wiki: Students contribute to a shared online document analyzing a specific linguistic phenomenon across Slavic languages.
Crowdsourced Etymology Map: Using Google MyMaps, students will trace the geographic spread of loanwords and sound shifts.