CLAS 196, Indo-European, 3 Credit Hours

Spring 2020 Semester

Meeting Time and Place : Lafayette 111

Instructor Name: Jacques Bailly

Contact Information: email is best (jacques.bailly@uvm.edu)

Office Hours: M 11-1, T 11:30-1, and by appointment:

my office is at 481 Main St., third floor first door

Don't hesitate to request an appointment: email me with a few suggestions for times.

Pre-requisites:

None, but any foreign language, any linguistics (particularly comparative linguistics, or phonology) will help.

Course Description

This course covers the field of Indo-European comparative linguistics, a discipline that began around 1800 and has burgeoned since. Special attention will be paid to Greek, Latin, and English, but we will be discussing languages from Hittite (the earliest) to Celtic and Sanskrit (roughly western-most and eastern-most) to Tocharian and Gothic--all the members of a family of languages whose ancestor language, called Proto-Indo-European, we can reconstruct to a great extent. Although the focus will be on languages and linguistics, aspects of culture, including the use and abuse of the field of Indo-European studies, will be covered as well.

While it is not required, students will be at some advantage if they have some good knowledge of linguistics or an individual Indo-European language other than English. Interest in details about how languages evolve and change is a must: this course is perforce detail-oriented rather than big-picture oriented. We will cover at least one chapter in our textbook per week. If you have little to no knowledge of a foreign language and have not taken any relevant linguistics class, this class will be much harder for you than it will be for others.

We will read Fortson's textbook introduction to Indo-European as well as Pereltsvaig's book on Indo-europeans.

Evaluation will be done via presentations, tests (final and midterm), and quizzes as well as short writing assignments or visual-aid assignments (charts, tables, etc.) that accompany the presentations.

Course Learning Objectives

To acquire basic knowledge of the structure of Indo-European languages, mostly morphological, but some syntactical, as well as aspects of Indo-European culture, including aspects of literature, geography, and history.

Understanding how to analyze and describe morphology, kinship among languages, explain and apply sound change laws, and reconstruct proto-forms.
 
In terms of applications later on: this course is good for anyone who wants to continue on in linguistics, particularly historical linguistics, as well as for anyone who is learning a foreign language, particularly an Indo-European language.

In terms of transferable skills acquired, this course will work to improve certain skills by exercising them, including pattern-recognition, memory, applications of rules to data, and, in particular, taking far flung bits and pieces and applying them to very specific situations. These are basic, fundamental skills which help anyone in almost any employment.

Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.
(John Dewey, UVM 1879)        

Pedagogy:

We will read chapters in the textbook, make presentations about it (some by Prof. Bailly or Colton Lavalette, some by other students), do the exercises from the textbook, discuss our answers, specify knowledge we want to make permanent in our brains, and test ourselves on our newly acquired knowledge.

Required Course Materials:

Benjamin W. Fortson, Indo-European Language and Culture: an Introduction, second edition, Wiley-Blackwell 2010.
Asya Pereltzvaig, The Indoeuropean Controversy, Cambridge University Press.

Buy these books wherever you find them.

Course website:

http://www.uvm.edu/~jbailly/courses/Indo-European/

Blackboard is not used in this course thus far.

Attendance Policy:

Every day of class, you will hand in a "daily question or comment" about material in the course. At the end of the semester, these will be counted, one per class session, which will serve as a record of attendance. Attendance will not harm your grade, but it may help it: if you are getting an A already, it has no effect. If you are getting a B a C a D or an F, it can bump your grade up as much as 2%, 4%, 6% or 8% respectively. Such things will be calculated as follows: student(s) with the most daily question/comments will receive full grade bumps: if you have one fewer than the most, you will receive 95% of the bump: if you have 2 fewer, you will get 90% of the bump: if you have 3 fewer, you will get 85% of the bump. In practice, this means that one or two absences has little or no effect.  

Grading Criteria/Policies:

Course Evaluation:

All students are expected to complete an evaluation of the course at its conclusion. The evaluations will be anonymous and confidential, and the information gained, including constructive criticisms, will be used to improve the course.

Credit Hours: official UVM policy:

·       Our course is designed with the following in mind: count on spending at least 2 hours on this class outside of class for every hour in class, which adds up to at least 3 hours in class per week plus 6 hours outside of class per week.

·       This policy applies to every UVM course for credit.

o   1. One hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction and a minimum of two hours of out-of-class student work each week for approximately fifteen weeks for one semester hour of credit or the equivalent amount of work over a different amount of time; or 

o   2. At least an equivalent amount of work as required in paragraph (1) of this definition for other academic activities as established by the institution including laboratory work, internships, practica, studio work, and other academic work leading to the award of credit hours. 

o   3. “Direct faculty instruction” must include regular and substantive faculty/student contact regardless of delivery mode (for example, face-to-face, hybrid, distance/online). 

o   All courses should span the full term (15 weeks in fall and spring) of the semester in which they are offered. 

Classroom conduct expectations: Respect and grace and love for each other

There are many resources outlined below that you should use if you or anyone in your community needs them. We all need to look out for each other and stand up for each other.

Once in a while, the material in this course may upset one or more of us, or it may be deemed offensive to and by one or more of us. When that happens, if it is relevant to course material and possible, we need to work through the upset and offense in productive ways. Education is not always comfortable: it includes challenging ourselves in many ways and it includes exploring ideas. Whether I, the professor, am the cause of the upset or offensiveness, or a guest or a student or something we are examining is, we need to work through it. Why? Because the issues that cause upset or offense are very important. How will we do it? By taking a deep breath, thinking before speaking, and charitably and cautiously approaching the issues. Such things are usually highly dependent on specific circumstances, and so there is no one approach that will work, but exercising honesty, grace and charitable respect always help.
 
Part of what I am talking about is the fact that I am a "cis-gendered," "white," "male," "heterosexual," "of a certain age" person, among other things, and that carries with it much history. Each of us can produce a list of the identities we wear or have put on us, and those affect how we view the world and how it views and treats us. Approaches to these things have been in a wonderful exciting state of flux for the past few decades, which I call progress even as I struggle to keep up, but which inevitably causes confusion, friction, and the need to be respectful, careful, thoughtful, and sympathetic, but also interested and curious and honest and constantly examining things.
 
Every one of us is responsible for these matters, not just me, and not just the person who is negatively affected. If the matter strays too far from the class material, it may be necessary to figure out a way to keep the class on track rather than forego the class material.

Student Learning Accommodations:

In keeping with University policy, any student with a documented disability interested in utilizing accommodations should contact SAS, the office of Disability Services on campus.  SAS works with students and faculty in an interactive process to explore reasonable and appropriate accommodations, which are communicated to faculty in an accommodation letter.   All students are strongly encouraged to meet with their faculty to discuss the accommodations they plan to use in each course. A student's accommodation letter lists those accommodations that will not be implemented until the student meets with their faculty to create a plan.

Contact SAS:

A170 Living/Learning Center;

802-656-7753;

access@uvm.edu 

www.uvm.edu/access

Religious Holidays:

Students have the right to practice the religion of their choice. If you need to miss class to observe a religious holiday, please submit the dates of your absence to me in writing by the end of the second full week of classes.   You will be permitted to make up work within a mutually agreed-upon time. https://www.uvm.edu/registrar/religious-holidays

UVM Academic Integrity policies: 

The UVM policy governing plagiarism, fabrication, collusion, and cheating will be upheld in this class. https://www.uvm.edu/policies/student/acadintegrity.pdf

UVM Grade Appeal policies:

If you would like to contest a grade, please follow the procedures outlined in this policy: https://www.uvm.edu/policies/student/gradeappeals.pdf

UVM Grading policies:

For information on grading and GPA calculation, go to https://www.uvm.edu/registrar/grades

Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities:

http://catalogue.uvm.edu/undergraduate/academicinfo/rightsandresponsibilities/

FERPA Rights Disclosure:

The purpose of this policy is to communicate the rights of students regarding access to, and privacy of their student educational records as provided for in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974.

http://catalogue.uvm.edu/undergraduate/academicinfo/ferparightsdisclosure/

Promoting Health & Safety: 

It is a basic priority of The University of Vermont to support a healthy and safe community:

·      Center for Health and Wellbeing:

o    https://www.uvm.edu/health

·      Counseling & Psychiatry Services (CAPS)

o   Phone: (802) 656-3340

·      C.A.R.E. : If you are concerned about a UVM community member or are concerned about a specific event, we encourage you to contact the Dean of Students Office (802-656-3380).   If you would like to remain anonymous, you can report your concerns online by visiting the Dean of Students website at https://www.uvm.edu/studentaffairs

Final Exam Policy:

The University final exam policy outlines expectations during final exams and explains timing and process of examination period. https://www.uvm.edu/registrar/final-exams

Statement on Alcohol and Cannabis in the Academic Environment

Alcohol and cannabis have no place in an academic environment. They can seriously impair your ability to learn and retain information not only in the moment you may be using, but up to 48 hours or more afterwards. In addition, alcohol and cannabis can:

·      Cause issues with attention, memory and concentration

·      Negatively impact the quality of how information is processed and ultimately stored

·      Affect sleep patterns, which interferes with long-term memory formation

Do everything you can to optimize your own and others' learning and to fully participate in this course.