Overview
It is a long-standing tradition dating to at least the 1970s that the philologists—both students and staff—meet every Tuesday in term time for the Comparative Philology Graduate Seminar. Each term, the seminar has a different overarching topic; there are, however, certain trends.
In Michaelmas, the philologists consider a general linguistic topic and its applicability to (largely) ancient Indo-European languages; in the past, these topics included: accent; the reconstructability of syntax; moods; metre; language contact; and many more.
In Hilary Term, the structure and history of a language or language family is dealt with. Contributions come from specialists in the field as well as those who have only recently taken it up. In the past, the languages studied have included: Hieroglyphic Luwian; Old English; Faliscan; Old Irish; Tocharian; and many others.
In Trinity Term, students and staff present their Work in Progress; this usually involves MPhil and DPhil students sharing the findings of their dissertations.
The seminar takes place every Tuesday, 2.15–4pm in the Faculty of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics (Clarendon Institute, Walton St). For more information and in the case of any queries, please get in touch with the convenors of the seminar as specified in the announcements below.
Current Seminar: The Future in Indo-European
| Date | Week | Speaker & Title |
|---|---|---|
| 17 October | 2 |
Future tense(s): an introduction |
| 24 October | 3 | The future in Anatolian (Philomen Probert) |
| 31 October | 4 | The future in Greek (Michele Bianconi) |
| 7 November | 5 |
The future in Indo-Iranian |
| 14 November | 6 |
The future in Latin |
| 21 November | 7 |
The future in Germanic |
| 28 November | 8 | The future in Tocharian (Tim Barnes) |
Past Seminars
| Year | Michaelmas | Hilary | Trinity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023–24 | The Future in Indo-European | ||
| 2022–23 | Alphabetic Writing in the Indo-European World | Old High German | Work in Progress |
| 2021–22 | Periphrasis in Indo-European | Hittite | Work in Progress |
| 2020–21 | Accent and Rhythm | Phrygian | Work in Progress |
| 2019–20 | The Language and Linguistics of Ancient Humour | Hieroglyphic Luwian | Work in Progress |
| 2018–19 | Ancient Grammar and Linguistics | Armenian | Work in Progress |
| 2017–18 | Reconstructing the Syntax of Proto-Indo-European | Old English | Work in Progress |
| 2016–17 | Why languages are similar: contact, drift, inheritance | Tocharian | Work in Progress |
| 2015–16 | Origins of the Greek Verb | Old Persian | Work in Progress |
| 2014–15 | Participles | Old Irish | Work in Progress |
| 2013–14 | Moods | Gothic | Work in Progress |
| 2012–13 | Towards a synchronic Grammar of Proto-Indo-European | Faliscan | Work in Progress |
| 2011–12 | Metre in Indo-European | Middle Iranian | Work in Progress |
| 2010–11 | Indo-European dialects and subgrouping | Work in Progress | |
| 2009–10 | Definiteness | Etruscan | Work in Progress |
| 2008–9 | Ergativity and Indo-European | Lydian | Work in Progress |
| 2007–8 | Aspect | Armenian | Work in Progress |
| 2006–7 | Approaches to Indo-European myth and religion | Tocharian | Work in Progress |
| 2005–6 | Grammatical gender in Indo-European | Lithuanian | Work in Progress |
| 2004–5 | Relative clauses | Celtiberian | Work in Progress |
| 2003–4 | Indo-European Accentuation: Problems in accentuation | Gothic | Work in Progress |
| 2002–3 | Imperatives | Venetic | Work in Progress |
| 2001–2 | Analogy | The Languages of Lycia | Work in Progress |
| 2000–1 | Reconstruction of Indo-European Phonology | Work in Progress | |
| 1999–2000 | Writing and Literacy | Tocharian | Work in Progress |
| 1998–99 | Names and Naming in Indo-European Languages | Language and History | Work in Progress |
| 1997–98 | Etymology | Old Persian | Work in Progress |
| 1996–97 | “Particles” in the Indo-European Languages | Laryngeals | Work in Progress |
| 1995–96 | The Infinitive in the Indo-European Languages | Middle and Passive in the Indo-European Languages | Lycian |
| 1994–95 | Prepositions, Postpositions, and Preverbs in the Indo-European Languages | Introduction to Avestan | Work in Progress |
| 1993–94 | Reconstruction of Indo-European Culture: the Bestiary | Writing and scripts | Greek and non Greek in Asia Minor |
| 1992–93 | Lydian | Hieroglyphic Luwian | Work in Progress |
| 1991–92 | The Reconstruction of Indo-European Morphology: Ablaut and Nominal Inflection | The Relative Clause in Indo-European and in the Indo-European Languages | Work in Progress |
| 1990–91 | Archaism and Innovation in the Indo-European Languages | Indo-European Reconstruction and Development: the case of the Laryngeals | Tocharian |
