COMPARATIVE

LINGUISTICS

INSTRUCTOR: LE NGUYEN NHU ANH

WHAT IS
COMPARATIVE
LINGUISTICS?

3 approaches to studying
languages

General linguistics
Descriptive linguistics
Comparative linguistics

Comparative Linguistics
Languages of diff. speech communities
compared with each other.
3 branches:
Comparative Historical Linguistics
Typological Linguistics
Contrastive Linguistic

Contrastive Linguistics

Major concern: compare any two

or more languages to identify
similarities & differences (Language
typology & family not counted)

Learning Outcomes
Understand principles of CL: history,
objectives, methodology & applications

Develop sound knowledge of both target

and native language systems

Apply CL in different ESL areas: teaching,

testing, translating & course designing

Textbooks:
1. Contrastive Analysis* (Carl James)
2. Nghin cu i chiu cc ngn ng (L
Quang Thim)

3. Ngn ng hc i chiu (Bi Mnh Hng)

YOUR SCORE!
Assessment 1 (40%): Open-book test
covering contents from topic 1 to 7.

Test date: Week 13.

Assessment 2 (60%): Contrastive Linguistics
Essay

Assessment 2 (Details)

Topic of Essay: Compare and contrast one

linguistic aspect between Vietnamese and
English

Referencing: APA style.

Length: at least 2500-3000 words

Late Assessment
Students are expected to submit each
assessment on or before the due
deadline date. Failure to do so will
result in a 10% penalty per calendar
day. An assignment more than 7
days overdue will not be marked.

Schedule
Week 1: Course Orientation
Week 2: Research Instructions
Structure of a Research
APA Style
Research Methodology

Schedule
Week 3: TOPIC 1: HISTORY AND OVERVIEW OF CL
What is CL?
CL history
Readings: James (1992) Chapter 1; Krzeszowski (1990) Chapter 1; Thiem
(2004) Chapter 1,2,3

Week 4: TOPIC 2: CL CONTRIBUTIONS

Contribution to linguistics
Contribution to language teaching
Contribution to testing & translation
Readings: James (1992) Chapter 6; Krzeszowski (1990) Chapter 9, 12

Schedule
Week 5: TOPIC 3: CL PRINCIPLES AND METHODOLOGIES

Contrastive Principles
Analysis Steps
Two basic approaches

Readings: James (1992) Chapter 3 & 4; Krzeszowski (1990) Chapter 2, 3, 4;

Thiem (2004) Chapter 17

Week 6: TOPIC 4: CL LEVELS: PHONOLOGY

Segmental phenomena
Suprasegmental phenomena
Contrastivng sound systems

Readings: Odlin (2000) Chapter 7; James (1992) Chapter 4

 Week 7: TOPIC 5: CL LEVELS: LEXICAL CL

Types of Lexical CA
Six cases for formal & semantic similarity
Word field contrast

Week 8: TOPIC 6: CL LEVELS: GRAMMAR

Morpheme CA
Word CA (formation, transformation, part of speech)
Phrase CA
Sentence CA

Readings: Odlin (2000) Chapter 5 & 6; James (1992) Chapter 4

 Week 9: TOPIC 7: CL LEVELS: PRAGMATICS

History of Pragmatics CA
Pragmatic TC
Two directions for analysis

Steps in pragmatics CA (Ch. Fillmore) [3 steps]

Other area for analysis (Politeness, Conversation structures,
Cross-cultural differences)

Readings: Odlin (2000) Chapter 4; James (1992) Chapter 5

 Week 10:
TOPIC 8: ENGLISH & VIETNAMESE VOWELS
ESSAY TOPIC AND OUTLINE SUBMISSION

Week 11:
TOPIC 9: ENGLISH & VIETNAMESE CONSONANTS
DEADLINE FOR TOPIC AND OUTLINE
SUBMISSION
INSTRUCTOR'S FEEDBACK ON TOPIC AND
OUTLINE

Schedule

Week 12: OFF

Week 13: Assessment 1
Week 14: OFF
Week 15: END-OF-TERM ESSAY
SUBMISSION