Studying at the University of Verona

Here you can find information on the organisational aspects of the Programme, lecture timetables, learning activities and useful contact details for your time at the University, from enrolment to graduation.

Study Plan

Queste informazioni sono destinate esclusivamente agli studenti e alle studentesse già iscritti a questo corso.
Se sei un nuovo studente interessato all'immatricolazione, trovi le informazioni sul percorso di studi alla pagina del corso:

Laurea magistrale in Linguistics - Immatricolazione dal 2025/2026.

The Study Plan includes all modules, teaching and learning activities that each student will need to undertake during their time at the University.
Please select your Study Plan based on your enrollment year.

1° Year

ModulesCreditsTAFSSD
6
B
L-LIN/01
6
B
L-LIN/01
12
B
L-LIN/02
6
B
L-LIN/01
One module to be chosen among the following
9
B
L-LIN/12
9
B
L-LIN/04
9
B
L-LIN/14
9
B
L-LIN/21
9
B
L-LIN/07
One module to be chosen between the following
6
B
INF/01
6
B
SECS-S/01
One module to be chosen among the following
6
C
L-FIL-LET/12
6
C
M-FIL/05
6
C
L-FIL-LET/13
6
C
M-FIL/01
One module to be chosen among the following
6
C
L-FIL-LET/15
6
C
L-FIL-LET/09
6
C
L-LIN/21
Further language skills
3
F
-

2° Year  activated in the A.Y. 2020/2021

ModulesCreditsTAFSSD
6
B
L-LIN/01
One module to be chosen among the following
9
B
L-LIN/12
9
B
L-LIN/04
9
B
L-LIN/14
9
B
L-LIN/21
9
B
L-LIN/07
One module to be chosen between the following
6
B
M-FIL/02
6
B
M-PSI/01
Final exam
24
E
-
ModulesCreditsTAFSSD
6
B
L-LIN/01
6
B
L-LIN/01
12
B
L-LIN/02
6
B
L-LIN/01
One module to be chosen among the following
9
B
L-LIN/12
9
B
L-LIN/04
9
B
L-LIN/14
9
B
L-LIN/21
9
B
L-LIN/07
One module to be chosen between the following
6
B
INF/01
6
B
SECS-S/01
One module to be chosen among the following
6
C
L-FIL-LET/12
6
C
M-FIL/05
6
C
L-FIL-LET/13
6
C
M-FIL/01
One module to be chosen among the following
6
C
L-FIL-LET/15
6
C
L-FIL-LET/09
6
C
L-LIN/21
Further language skills
3
F
-
activated in the A.Y. 2020/2021
ModulesCreditsTAFSSD
6
B
L-LIN/01
One module to be chosen among the following
9
B
L-LIN/12
9
B
L-LIN/04
9
B
L-LIN/14
9
B
L-LIN/21
9
B
L-LIN/07
One module to be chosen between the following
6
B
M-FIL/02
6
B
M-PSI/01
Final exam
24
E
-
Modules Credits TAF SSD
Between the years: 1°- 2°
12
D
-
Between the years: 1°- 2°
Other activities
3
F
-

Legend | Type of training activity (TTA)

TAF (Type of Educational Activity) All courses and activities are classified into different types of educational activities, indicated by a letter.

A Basic activities
B Characterizing activities
C Related or complementary activities
D Activities to be chosen by the student
E Final examination
F Other training activities
S Placements in companies, public or private institutions and professional associations
iIntroductory
padvanced
mMasterful

Russian linguistics LM (2019/2020)

Teaching code

4S004048

Credits

9

Coordinator

Marco Magnani

Language

English en

MoodleMoodle Seminars 0

The teaching is organized as follows:

часть I (PARTE I) en

Credits

6

Period

Sem 1A

Academic staff

Marco Magnani

Lessons timetable
часть II (PARTE II) en

Credits

3

Period

Sem 1B

Academic staff

Giorgia Pomarolli

Lessons timetable

Learning outcomes

The course aims at reinforcing the morphological and syntactical knowledge that students have learnt in their previous language courses and at increasing linguistic reflection on the varieties of Russian language. The course is aimed as well at giving students the practical possibility to read, analyze and translate Russian texts representing different varieties of speech. During the course various translation techniques and strategies will be illustrated and used.

Program

PART I: THE FALSE MYTHS ABOUT RUSSIAN GRAMMAR
(Dr Marco Magnani)

*1st lecture: Monday, 30th September*

It is untrue that in Russian...

– word order is free
1. Information structure: canonical order and marked word orders
2. Constructions with unaccusative and ditransitive verbs, and with pronominal objects
3. Types of topic in Russian and their syntactic encoding
4. Types of focus in Russian and their syntactic encoding
5. Definiteness effects on word order

– subject pronouns can be freely dropped
6. Russian as a partial pro-drop language

– participial constructions can replace all relative clauses
7. Restrictive and appositive relative clauses
8. Some syntactic analyses: the Head Raising Analysis and the Matching Analysis

– two negations exclude one another
9. Negative concord

– verbs ending in '-sja' are all reflexives (vozvratnye)
10. Anticausative, antipassive and intrinsically reflexive constructions

– reflexive pronouns always refer to the grammatical subject of the sentence
11. Simple and complex anaphors
12. Anaphorical co-reference in constructions with control verbs, genitive DPs and possessive PPs

– Uni- and multidirectional motion verbs become aspectual pairs when prefixed
13. Aspect and Aktionsart
14. Prefixation and perfectivization
15. Secondary imperfectivization


PART II: LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND MENTALITY
(Dr Giorgia Pomarolli)

1. Language as “the spirit of a people”: some insights into Wilhelm von Humboldt’s linguistics of character
2. Linguistic relativity and linguistic determinism: Franz Boas and the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
3. Universalism and relativism in Anna Wierzbicka’s cultural semantics: from semantic primitives to key words of culture; the Russian language: key words and semantic themes
4. Main scholarly fields in contemporary Russian linguistics (the “lingvo- chain”): Lingvostranovedenie, Lingvokul’turologija, Lingvokognitivistika, Lingvokonceptologija, Lingvopersonologija, Etnolingvokul’turologija;
5. Lingvokul’turologija (“Cultural linguistics”): main concepts, subjects of study, approaches and research schools;
6. The notions of (russkaja) jazykovaja kartina mira and konceptosfera;
7. Contrastive lingvokul’turologija and Mežkul’turnaja kommunikacija (“Cross-cultural communication”): a comparison between Russian and English languages;
8. Language and identity: discussion

Bibliography

Reference texts
Author Title Publishing house Year ISBN Notes
Dyakonova, M. A phase-based approach to Russian free word order Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics 2009 Only the parts indicated by the lecturer
Malchukov, A., Siewierska, A. Impersonal constructions: a cross-linguistic perspective John Benjamins Publishing 2011 pp. 26-42, and pp. 61-74
Casalicchio, J., Cognola F. Null subjects in generative grammar: a synchronic and diachronic perspective OUP 2018 pp. 171-198
Whorf B.L. Language, Thought and Reality. Selected Writings MIT Press 1956 selected excerpts indicated by the lecturer
Wierzbicka A. Semantics, Culture and Cognition. Universal Human Concepts in Culture Specific Configurations Oxford University Press 1992 pp. 395-441
Wierzbicka A. Understanding Cultures Through Their Key Words (English, Russian, Polish, German, and Japanese) Oxford University Press 1997 pp. 1-31
Зализняк А.А.; Левонтина И.Б.; Шмелев А.Д. Константы и переменные русской языковой картины мира Языки славянской культуры 2012 selected papers indicated by the lecturer
Тер-Минасова С.Г. Межкультурная коммуникация Изд-во МГУ 2008 selected excerpts indicated by the lecturer

Examination Methods

Oral exam (see the pages of Part I and Part II for further details on contents as well as assessment methods and criteria).
The final mark is the weighted average between the mark of Part I and that of Part II.

Students with disabilities or specific learning disorders (SLD), who intend to request the adaptation of the exam, must follow the instructions given HERE