Ateneo - UPO

Morphosyntactic, Semantic, and Pragmatic Phenomena from a German-Italian Contrastive Perspective

Zülli, Florina et al. (eds.) (2026), Sprachgebrauch und Sprachidentitäten: variationslinguistische Perspektiven, Tübingen: Narr Francke. Balnat, Vincent et al. (eds.) (2025), Genus und Geschlecht in europäischen Sprachen: Geschichte und Gegenwart, Tübingen: Narr Francke. Lavric, Eva et al. (eds.), Text, Diskurs, Pragmatik kontrastiv, Berlin: Franck & Timme. Rössler, Paul et al. (eds.) (2022), Vergleichende Interpunktion, Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter.

This course, designed for students with advanced proficiency in German linguistics, has the following specific objectives: (1) Knowledge and understanding: The course provides a solid foundation of knowledge that enables students to compare the German linguistic system with the Italian one across various levels of linguistic analysis.(2) Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: The course provides the theoretical and practical tools necessary to compare the German and Italian linguistic systems and to identify similarities and differences between the two languages.(3) Formulation of judgments: The course provides the skills needed to identify and evaluate the grammatical and pragmatic characteristics of the two languages under study and to critically and appropriately address the challenges that arise from a comparison of different linguistic and cultural systems.(4) Communication skills: Through a comparison of the two linguistic systems from phonological, morphosyntactic, lexical, and pragmatic perspectives, the course aims to strengthen the skills necessary to interact with experts in the field of study. The course also provides the specific terminology needed to adequately describe various linguistic phenomena and compare them with one another.(5) Ability to explore topics in depth: The course aims to enhance students’ ability to study and reflect independently on topics in contrastive linguistics.The learning objectives can be assessed by evaluating the student’s ability to navigate the various fields of German linguistics independently, with critical awareness, and using appropriate terminology.

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).

Students with physical disabilities, Learning Disabilities or Special Education Needs can request specific services and tools via reference office consulting the University webpage: https://www.uniupo.it/en/services/services-students-physical-or-learning-disabilities. Students with disabilities, learning disabilities or special education needs, once they have contacted the University Staff, can refer to the tutor in charge of the course to define the examination modalities, concerning academic aspects.

Written Exam. The written exam consists of two main parts. The first part consists of a series of open-ended questions (generally 5–7 questions) that assess students’ understanding and ability to address the theoretical topics covered in depth during the course. This is followed by a set of exercises in which textual examples or individual sentences are presented, and students are asked to compare the two linguistic systems, identifying the most relevant phenomena from a contrastive perspective. The written exam lasts a total of 2 hours. The exam is considered passed if the student achieves or exceeds a total score of 18/30, obtained by adding the points assigned to each question. Honors are awarded based on an evaluation of the accuracy, depth, and elaboration of the response. The ability to apply knowledge related to the comparison of the two linguistic systems (objectives 1/2) is assessed through the completion of open-ended questions (first part of the written exam) and the completion of practical exercises (second part of the written exam). The ability to form judgments (Objective 3) is assessed primarily through the completion of exercises in which students are asked to observe, describe, and comment on similarities and differences between the two linguistic systems under study. Communication skills (Objective 4) are assessed through the commentary provided in the second part of the written exam and the answers to open-ended questions, in which students must demonstrate their ability to use appropriate scientific terminology. Learning ability (objective 5) is assessed through responses to open-ended questions and the completion of exercises, in which students must demonstrate their ability to apply theoretical knowledge to the analysis of concrete examples. Students must also demonstrate their ability to appropriately use the assigned and recommended readings and to have thoroughly explored the topics covered in class. The grading levels for the exam are defined as follows: Excellent (grade 30 with honors – 28): excellent knowledge of the course topics, use of appropriate linguistic terminology, and excellent ability to apply theoretical knowledge to complete the exercises. Good/Fair (grade 27–22): Good knowledge of the course topics, use of appropriate linguistic terminology, ability to apply theoretical knowledge to complete the exercises. Satisfactory (grade 21–18): Limited knowledge of the course topics, limited use of appropriate linguistic terminology, limited ability to apply theoretical knowledge to complete the exercises. Unsatisfactory (grade below 18): evident gaps in knowledge at both the theoretical and practical levels; inadequate use of specific terminology. Students with disabilities, specific learning disabilities (SLD), or special educational needs (SEN) will be permitted to use assistive devices during the exam.

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.