Delivered at:: Department of History

Course type:: Compulsory course

When:: 4 year, 1, 2 module

Instructor

Kasatkina, Aleksandra

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Abstract

The aim of this course designed specifically for historians in their senior BA-years is to show how different disciplines within the humanities use methods based on the ideas borrowed from linguistics and literary studies. The main focus is on the particular ways of understanding the key notions of language, text and communication. Practical exercises should help students to master different techniques of oral and written communication analysis and choose what is most suitable for their own research projects. Such basic topics as language and thought, semiotics are covered as well as particular approaches and frameworks such as ethnography of speaking, speech act theory, conversation analysis, narrative and discourse analysis, Bakhtinian polyphonic theory of text, etc. A unique feature of this course is its specific focus on contemporary scholarly ideas on oral speech and their impact in our understanding of human communication in general.

Learning Objectives

To introduce students to the key concepts and notions of linguistics and literary studies that form the basis for a range of methods applied in other areas of humanities
- To familiarize students with different approaches to oral and written interaction
To teach students to apply some practical methods of oral and written communication analysis

Expected Learning Outcomes

Students know the key notions and ideas of language, text and communication studies
Students are familiar with various methods of analysis of oral and written communication
Students are able to select and apply a method of analysis of oral and written communication suitable for their particular goals

Course Contents

General notions
Language as social activity
Oral and written
Discourse, narrative, ideology

Assessment Elements

Seminar activity
Exam research essay
.) Research essay written at home: take any source of your choice, either oral or written, and apply any method and theory from our course to analyze it (if you took additional assignment on CA, do not take this method for the final essay). You are expected to show: (1) the ability to apply the selected method rightly (2) the ability to get new knowledge from the source with the help of the selected method. Aim to the text between 1500 and 2000 words (the source itself must be included into the essay but not included in the word count). Later submissions are downgraded: 1 point per day after the deadline
Conversation analysis
Take-home assignment: Take any 3 minute long piece of oral interaction, transcribe it in the Jefferson system and indicate as many features of oral communication as you can. Comment your findings in a small essay (1000 words): comment the turn-taking and anything else that caught your eye. What are the aims of the participants and how they accomplish them? How does CA help you to understand what happens in the interaction? Using the terms of conversation analysis is compulsory.

Interim Assessment

2025/2026 2nd module
0.7 * Exam research essay + 0.3 * Seminar activity

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

Analysing discourse : textual analysis for social research, Fairclough, N., 2010
Hall, S. (2012). This Means This, This Means That : A User’s Guide to Semiotics (Vol. 2nd ed). London: Laurence King Publishing. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=926138
Johansen, J. D., & Larsen, S. E. (2002). Signs in Use : An Introduction to Semiotics. London: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=136373
Living language : an introduction to linguistic anthropology, Ahearn, L. M., 2012
Lotman, I. M., Tamm, M., & Baer, B. C. (2019). Juri Lotman - Culture, Memory and History : Essays in Cultural Semiotics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=2270629
The anthropology of language : an introduction to linguistic anthropology, Ottenheimer, H. J., 2013
The Cambridge handbook of linguistic anthropology, , 2021

Recommended Additional Bibliography

Edward Sapir : linguist, anthropologist, humanist, Darnell, R., 2010

Authors

Kasatkina Aleksandra Konstantinovna
Dzhafarova Alina Tagirovna
LYUBAVINA SVETLANA VYACHESLAVOVNA

Bachelor’s Programme 'History'

Contacts

Linguistic Methods in Humanities