prof. Monika Opalińska

This seminar offers a wide range of topics, focusing on various aspects of general and historical linguistics, phonology, and sociolinguistics. The discussion will also involve issues related to translation, such as the reception and interpretation of texts in the light of primary sources and editions. The approach adopted in this course involves the formulation and testing of hypotheses, on the one hand, and the collection and analysis of linguistic data, on the other. Students will have the opportunity to learn how to apply different analytical tools and methods to investigate different aspects of language.

The seminar is addressed to students who would like to develop their interests in formal analysis of language structures and language use, the history of English and linguistics, and the interface of the English language and culture. The following list of topics is intended as an invitation to students to carry out their own research and develop their interests in linguistics as part of their master’s thesis.

• selected linguistic theories and research methods in linguistics,
• chronology and typology of language change 
• diachrony and synchrony in language
• selected phonological processes in the history of the English 
• sociolinguistic aspects of (historical) linguistics
• the sources in language study (criteria of selection, analysis, reliability of sources)
• methods of data analysis (interpretation, reconstruction, generalization, and abstractness)
• linguistics and literature, poetry and language structures (verse forms, formal approaches to poetry, parallelism, coherence, opacity and transparency)
• translation in the light of primary sources and editions; translator’s and editor’s methodology; typographic, editorial, and translational errors, archaization, the role of translator and editor in the process of shaping the text

Note: you may find the following courses 2022/2023 helpful:

3301-JF2654 Research Methods in Linguistic

3301-JF2662 Linguistic Analysis of Shakespeare's Works and their Polish Translations

3301-J-KON002 The World in the Lens of Linguistics: Variety and Change