Ateneo - UPO

Issues of contrastive linguistics: a comparison between German and Italian

Hanus, Anna/Szwed, Iwona (Hg.) (2023), Im Zeichen der Kontrastivität: Einblicke in die Dimension der Kontrastivität in der linguistischen Forschung anhand ausgewählter Studien, Göttingen: V&R unipress.

Klabunde, Ralf et al. (Hg.) (2022), Linguistik im Sprachvergleich: Germanistik, Romanistik, Anglistik, Berlin; [Heidelberg]: J.B. Metzler.

Schreiber, Michael (2023), Kontrastive Linguistik: Französisch - Italienisch - Spanisch - Deutsch : eine Einführung. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag.

Rössler, Paul et al. (2022), Vergleichende Interpunktion – comparative punctuation, Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter.

The module aims to reinforce and develop students' knowledge about comparing two different linguistic systems. Students should acquire knowledges and the proper terminology (both in German and in Italian) in order to recognize and describe the main analogies and differences between Italian and German, with regard to specific phonological, morpho-syntactic, lexical and pragmatic phenomena.

Good knowledge of German language (B1.2/B2) and good knowledge of General Linguistics and of German Linguistics.

Frontal lessons and seminar lessons (students should take active part in the lesson by deepening on their own different topics related to the main issue of the course).

Written exam divided into two main parts: open questions (5-7 questions) and analysis of different text samples or single sentences.
The skills in applying knowledge are tested through the exercises (second part of the written exam). Students should be able to identify and describe the linguistic phenomena which are relevant from a contrastive point of view.
The skills in expressing judges are tested through the analysis of the textual samples as well as through the answers to the open questions. Students should observe, comment and describe divergences and analogies between the two studied languages.
The communicative skills are tested through the answers to the open questions. Students should use the proper scientific terminology in describing the different contrastive phenomena.
The skills in studying are tested through the open questions as well as the exercises. Students should demonstrate to be able to use the theoretical concepts and the suggested bibliography in a proper way.

The course aims to give elements and basic knowledges in the field of contrastive linguistics with regard to Italian and German. Students should gain and develop knowledges in order to identify and examine differences and analogies between the two linguistic systems in the different linguistic fields of study (phonology, morphology, syntactics, lexicon, pragmatics). Furthermore, they should acquire the specific linguistic terminology useful to describe and compare properly the different linguistic phenomena.

Knowledge and understanding:
1) Knowledge of the recent theories in the field of contrastive linguistics. Knowledge of the proper scientific terminology used to describe the phenomena concerning the comparison between two linguistic and cultural systems.
Applying knowledge and understanding:
1) Identifying and describing the main differences and analogies between the two languages.
Making judgements:
1) Making judgements about how the two linguistic systems diverge or converge from a grammatical, lexical and pragmatic point of view.
2) Dealing with difficulties emerging from the language comparison
Communication:
1) Using the proper scientific terminology to describe relevant contrastive phenomena
Learning skills:
1) Joining abstract theories with their concrete application in comparing two languages. Learning and deepening the topics in the field of contrastive linguistics.