SLL 512: The History of the Russian
Language
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Class info: |
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2-5 pm, Monday |
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THH 221 |
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Instructor: |
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Prof.
Roumyana Pancheva |
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Office: GFS 301S |
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Office hours: by appointment |
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Tel: (213)
821-1221 |
Manuscript in Russian Church Slavonic on paper, Russia,
1550-1560 |
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E-mail: pancheva@usc.edu |
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Goals:
This course is an overview of the historical
development of the Russian language, from its origins in Proto-Slavic, to the
Modern Russian of the 20th C. It is also an introduction to the
science of historical change in language.
By the end of this course, you will develop working knowledge of the
grammar of Old Church Slavonic and the East recensions of Church Slavonic; you
will become proficient in the old Cyrillic alphabet; you will be able to
distinguish stylistic elements in Modern Russian based on the historical
developments in the language, and you will learn about the movements and
reforms that have shaped the literary language.
Requirements:
•
Class participation (10%)
You will be expected to complete the
assigned readings on time and to participate
actively in class discussion.
• Presentation of readings (50%):
You will present selected
readings (schedule to be decided in class) and lead the class discussion.
Presentations have to be accompanied by a detailed handout, distributed to all
participants.
• Corpus creation (40%):
You
will be responsible for the translation and linguistic analysis of primary
texts from different periods in the history of Russian. (Individual texts will
be assigned in class.) Work on the corpus is to be done continuously throughout
the semester, and will be checked periodically.
Readings:
(A copy of the readings will be made available in class or
put on reserve in the Slavic Department.)
Campbell,
L. 2004. Historical Linguistics: An Introduction. MIT Press
Cubberley,
P. 1993. “Alphabets and Transliteration” in B. Comrie
and G. Corbett (eds.) The
Slavonic Languages.
20-59. Routledge. London and New York.
Huntley,
D. 1993. “Old Church Slavonic” in B. Comrie and G.
Corbett (eds.) The Slavonic
Languages.
125-187. Routledge. London and New York.
Lightfoot, D. 1999. The Development of Language: Acquisition,
Change, and Evolution. Blackwell.
Schenker, A.M. 1995. The Dawn of Slavic: An Introduction to
Slavic Philology. Yale University
Press.
New Haven and London.
Vinogradov, V.V. 1969. The History of the
Russian Literary Language from the Seventeenth Century to
the Nineteenth. (A
condensed adaptation into English with an introduction by Lawrence L.
Thomas). The University
of Wisconsin Press. Madison, Milwaukee, and London.
Vlasto, A.P. 1988. A Linguistic History of Russia to the End of the 18th
Century. Clarendon Press.
Oxford.
Reference works:
De Bray, R.G.A. 1980. Guide to the Slavonic Languages. Part 3:
Guide to the East Slavonic Languages.
3rd
ed. Slavica Publishers.
Lysaght,
T.A. 1995. Old Church Slavonic-English dictionary. Victoria University Press. Wellington.
Lunt,
H.G., 1970. Kratkii slovar'
drevnerusskogo iazyka (XI-XVII vekov). W. Fink. München.
Lunt, H.G. 1968. Old Church Slavonic Grammar. Mouton. The Hague.
Matthews,
W.K. 1967. Russian Historical Grammar. The Athlone Press, University of
London. London.
Riasanovsky, N. V. 2000. A History of Russia. 6th ed. Oxford University Press.
Shevelov, G. and F. Holling. 1958. A Reader in the
History of the East Slavic Languages. Columbia
University Press, NY.
Срезневский,
И.И. 1958 (1893). Материалы
для словаря
древнерусского
языка. т. I, II, III.
Государственное
издательство
иностранных
и
национальных
словарей. Москва.
Townsend, C. and L. Janda. (1996). Common and Comparative Slavic: Phonology and
Inflection.
Slavica
Publishers.
Fonts:
Old Church Slavonic fonts can be downloaded at http://chslav.hypermart.net/fonts.html.
Course Outline:
(This will likely undergo
some changes, which will be announced in class. Level of difficulty of each reading is marked by a J K L.)
Jan 10
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Introduction
1. Goals,
contents, and structure of the course 2. Brief
introduction to theoretical and methodological considerations of diachronic
linguistics 3. Overview
of the history of Russian a) The
Slavic language family b) Periodization of Russian c) Diglossia in the history of Russian |
Jan 17
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University Holiday - Martin Luther King day; no
class |
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Jan 24 |
Studying
Language Change. The Origins of Slavic. Historical Background 1. Language
change – theoretical explanations, methods of investigation a) why
and how do languages change? b) the
historical comparative method c) reconstruction d) working
with historical texts 2. Brief
characterization of Proto-Indo-European 3. Historical
setting prior to the christianization of the Eastern Slavs Required
reading: ·
Lightfoot 1999, ch. 1 “Introduction”, J ch. 2 “The
Nineteenth: Century of History” J ·
Schenker 1995, ch. 2 “Language”: 2.1 to 2.15 J ·
Schenker 1995, ch. 1 “Historical Setting” J |
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Jan 31 |
Proto-Slavic 1.
From Proto-Indo-European to early
Proto-Slavic 2.
Major phonological changes in Proto-Slavic 3.
Morphology and syntax of Proto-Slavic Required
reading: ·
Schenker 1995, ch. 2 “Language”:
2.16-2.69 L |
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Feb 7 |
Alphabets. Early Texts. Orthographic Reforms 1. The
beginnings of literacy 2.
Alphabets a) Glagolithic b) Cyrillic 3. Recensions of (Old) Church Slavonic 4.
Major East Slavic documents 5.
Orthographic reforms Required
reading: ·
Cubberley 1993 “Alphabets and Transliteration” K ·
Schenker 1995, ch. 3 “Early Writing” J ·
Vlasto 1988, ch. 1: section II “Early East
Slav Documents” J ·
Vlasto 1988, ch. 1: III “Alphabet and
Orthography” $41-44 J |
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Feb 14 |
Old Church Slavonic. Models of
Language Change Required
reading: ·
Huntley 1993 “Old Church
Slavonic” L ·
Campbell
2004, ch. 7 “Models of Linguistic Change” J |
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Feb 21 |
University Holiday -
President’s day; no class |
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Feb 28 |
Church Slavonic and East Slavic. The
Role of Acquisition in Language Change Required
reading: ·
Vlasto 1988, ch. 1: section I “Prehistory
of Russian: East Slav in Relation to Common Slavonic
and Old Church Slavonic” I. §1-13 and §14-32 L ·
Vlasto 1988, ch. 1: section II. §38
“Periodization” J ·
Lightfoot 1999, ch. 3 “Grammars and
Language Acquisition” K |
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March 7 |
Phonology
and Morphology in the History of Russian Required
reading: ·
Vlasto 1988, ch. 2 “Phonology” L ·
Vlasto 1988, ch. 3 “Morphology” L |
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March 14 |
Spring
recess; no class |
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March 21 |
Syntax in the History of Russian Required
reading: ·
Vlasto 1988, ch. 4 “Syntax” K ·
Campbell 2004, ch. 10 “Syntactic Change” J |
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March 28 |
Vocabulary in the History of Russian. Required
reading: ·
Vlasto 1988, ch. 5 “Vocabulary” K ·
Campbell 2004, ch. 11 “Explaining Linguistic
Change” J |
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April 4 |
The Development of the Russian
Literary Language up to the 17th C The Problem of Gradualism in
Linguistic Change Required
reading: ·
Vlasto 1988, ch. 7 “Spoken Language and
Written Languages” J ·
Vinogradov 1969, ch. 1 “The Seventeenth
Century: the Old and the New” J ·
Lightfoot 1999, ch. 4 “Gradualism and
Catastrophes”, K |
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April 11 |
Russian Literary Language in the 18th
C. A Generative Model of Language Change Required
reading: ·
Vinogradov 1969, ch. 2 “The First Half of the 18th C:
The Mixing of Styles”; J ch.
3 “The mid-18th C: Normalization and Disintegration of the Three
Styles”, J ch. 4 “The Second Half of the 18th
C: The Salon Literary Styles” J · Lightfoot
1999, ch. 6 “Cue-Based Acquisition and Change in Grammars”K
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April 18 |
Russian Literary Language in the Early
19th C Concluding Remarks on the Theory of
Language Change. Required
reading: ·
Vinogradov 1969, ch. 5 “The Early 19th
Century: Stylistic Contradictions”, J ch. 6 “The Language of Pushkin”, J ch. 7 “The Language of Lermontov”, J · Lightfoot 1999, ch. 8 “Historicism: The Use and Abuse of Clio”, J ch. 10 “A Science of History” J |