Linguistics (B.A.)

Introductory Courses

Courses in this group do not require previous study of linguistics.

* LING 077a, Mapping the Dialects of American English  Jim Wood

We all know that languages have different regional dialects, and American English is no exception. But what are the dialects of American English, and how are they determined? Does every town have its own dialect, or are there broader patterns across larger regions? Are the patterns different for different demographic categories? Are there different dialect regions depending on gender? Race? How do we know where one dialect region stops and another begins? It turns out that there is no one answer to these questions. Moreover, the answers we find depend greatly on what aspect of language we are looking at. This hands-on seminar explores different ways of visualizing how language varies across geographical space, with a focus on dialect variation. Students study recent research discussing new techniques for analyzing geographic patterns of linguistic variation, and apply those techniques to survey data collected in recent years by the Yale Grammatical Diversity Project. Students develop their own mapping projects based on these data, and discover novel ways to visualize and analyze regional dialect variation. The course involves an introduction to some basic concepts in linguistics, as well as an introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software.  SO
MW 2:30pm-3:45pm

LING 110a, Language: Introduction to Linguistics  Jason Shaw

The goals and methods of linguistics. Basic concepts in phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. Techniques of linguistic analysis and construction of linguistic models. Trends in modern linguistics. The relation of linguistics to psychology, logic, and other disciplines.  SO
MW 1pm-2:15pm

LING 112b, Historical Linguistics  Staff

Introduction to language change and language history. Types of change that a language undergoes over time: sound change, analogy, syntactic and semantic change, borrowing. Techniques for recovering earlier linguistic stages: philology, internal reconstruction, the comparative method. The role of language contact in language change. Evidence from language in prehistory.  WR, HU
TTh 4pm-5:15pm

* LING 115a / SKRT 110a, Introductory Sanskrit I  Aleksandar Uskokov

An introduction to Sanskrit language and grammar. Focus on learning to read and translate basic Sanskrit sentences in Devanagari script. No prior background in Sanskrit assumed.  L1  1½ Course cr
MTWThF 9:25am-10:15am

LING 116b / CGSC 216b / PSYC 116b, Cognitive Science of Language  Robert Frank

The study of language from the perspective of cognitive science. Exploration of mental structures that underlie the human ability to learn and process language, drawing on studies of normal and atypical language development and processing, brain imaging, neuropsychology, and computational modeling. Innate linguistic structure vs. determination by experience and culture; the relation between linguistic and nonlinguistic cognition in the domains of decision making, social cognition, and musical cognition; the degree to which language shapes perceptions of color, number, space, and gender.  SO
MW 2:30pm-3:45pm

LING 125b / SKRT 120b, Introductory Sanskrit II  Aleksandar Uskokov

Continuation of SKRT 110. Focus on the basics of Sanskrit grammar; readings from classical Sanskrit texts written in Devanagari script. After SKRT 110.  L2  1½ Course cr
MTWThF 9:25am-10:15am

LING 138a / SKRT 130a, Intermediate Sanskrit I  Aleksandar Uskokov

The first half of a two-term sequence aimed at helping students develop the skills necessary to read texts written in Sanskrit. Readings include selections from the Hitopadesa, Kathasaritsagara, Mahabharata, and Bhagavadgita. After SKRT 120 or equivalent.  L3
MWF 10:30am-11:20am

LING 146b / PSYC 329b, Language, Sex, and Gender  Natalie Weber and Claire Bowern

Sex-based asymmetries in language structure and language use. Role of language in encoding, reflecting, or reinforcing social attititudes and behavior. The "he/man" lexicon: sex-marking, reform, and resistance. Gender and sexual diversity as linguistic variables. Genderlects: differences (real and perceived) between male and female speech, conversational styles, and linguistic communities.  SO  RP
TTh 2:30pm-3:45pm

LING 148b / SKRT 140b, Intermediate Sanskrit II  Aleksandar Uskokov

Continuation of SKRT 130, focusing on Sanskrit literature from the kavya genre. Readings include selections from the Jatakamala of Aryasura and the opening verses of Kalidasa's Kumarasambhava. After SKRT 130 or equivalent.  L4
MWF 8:20am-9:10am

* LING 150a / ENGL 150a, Old English  Alexandra Reider

An introduction to the language, literature, and culture of earliest England. A selection of prose and verse, including riddles, heroic poetry, meditations on loss, a dream vision, and excerpts from Beowulf, which are read in the original Old English.  HU
HTBA

ASL 110a, American Sign Language I  Staff

An introduction to American Sign Language (ASL), with emphasis on vocabulary, ASL grammar, Deaf Culture and Conversational skills. Use of visual material (DVD), communicative activities, grammar drills, classifiers and Deaf Culture study. ASL 120 is not required to earn credit for ASL 110  L1  1½ Course cr
HTBA

ASL 120b, American Sign Language II  Staff

A continuation to American Sign Language (ASL) I, with emphasis on ASL grammar, expressive and receptive skills in storytelling and dialogues. Use of visual materials (DVD), grammar drills, proper use of non-manual markers and body language. Emphasis on character development, role shifting and story cohesion. Prerequisite: ASL 110.  L2  1½ Course cr
HTBA

* ASL 130a, American Sign Language III  Staff

Building on ASL 120, this course covers in depth the structure of ASL grammar, fingerspelling, narratives, and visual communication. Students develop expressive and receptive skills in storytelling and dialogue. Prerequisites: ASL 120 or a placement evaluation by professor.  L3  1½ Course cr
MTWThF 10:30am-11:20am

* ASL 140b, American Sign Language IV  Jessica Tanner

Building on ASL 130, this course increases the emphasis on more abstract and challenging conversational and narrative range; cultural values and behavioral rules of the deaf community in the U.S; receptive and expressive activities, including vocabulary, grammatical structures, and aspects of the Deaf Culture in debate format. Prerequisite: ASL 130; or as evaluated by professor.  L4  1½ Course cr
MTWThF 1:30pm-2:20pm

Some courses in this group have prerequisites; others do not, and may be taken as a student's first course in linguistics.

* LING 202a, The Mystery of the Voynich Manuscript  Claire Bowern

Introduction to basic ideas of linguistics and cryptography through the study of the Voynich Manuscript (MS 408), a mysterious medieval manuscript held in the Beinecke Library. Review of major hypotheses about the manuscript, ranging from the fake, to code, to undeciphered language.  SO
MW 2:30pm-3:45pm

* LING 212a, Linguistic Change  Claire Bowern

How languages change, how we study change, and how language relates to other areas of society. This seminar is taught through readings chosen by instructor and students, on topics of interest. Prerequisite: LING 112 or equivalent.  SO
MW 11:35am-12:50pm

LING 217a / EDST 237a / PSYC 317a, Language and Mind  Maria Piñango

The structure of linguistic knowledge and how it is used during communication. The principles that guide the acquisition of this system by children learning their first language, by children learning language in unusual circumstances (heritage speakers, sign languages) and adults learning a second language, bilingual speakers. The processing of language in real-time. Psychological traits that impact language learning and language use.  SO  RP
TTh 2:30pm-3:45pm

* LING 232a, Introduction to Phonological Analysis  Natalie Weber

The structure of sound systems in particular languages. Phonemic and morphophonemic analysis, distinctive-feature theory, formulation of rules, and problems of rule interpretation. Emphasis on problem solving. Prerequisite: LING 220, or a grade of B or above in LING 110.  SO
TTh 1pm-2:15pm

* LING 235b, Phonological Theory  Natalie Weber

Topics in the architecture of a theory of sound structure. Motivations for replacing a system of ordered rules with a system of ranked constraints. Optimality theory: universals, violability, constraint types and their interactions. Interaction of phonology and morphology, as well as the relationship of phonological theory to language acquisition and learnability. Opacity, lexical phonology, and serial versions of optimality theory. Prerequisite: LING 232 or permission of instructor.  SO  RP
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

* LING 236a, Articulatory Phonology  Jason Shaw

Study of experimental methods to record articulatory movements using electromagnetic articulography and/or ultrasound technologies and analytical approaches for relating articulatory movements to phonological structure. Hands-on training in laboratory techniques are paired with discussion of related experimental and theoretical research. Prerequisites: LING 220 and LING 232 or permission of instructor.  SO
W 3:30pm-5:20pm

* LING 241b, Field Methods  Staff

Principles of phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics applied to the collection and interpretation of novel linguistic data. Data are collected and analyzed by the class as a group, working directly with a speaker of a relatively undocumented language. Open to majors and graduate students in Linguistics, and to others with permission of instructor. Students should have taken LING 232 or LING 220 and one other linguistics class.  SO
MW 1pm-2:15pm

LING 253a, Syntax I  Raffaella Zanuttini

If you knew all the words of a language, would you be able to speak that language? No, because you’d still need to know how to put the words together to form all and only the grammatical sentences of that language. This course focuses on the principles of our mental grammar that determine how words are put together to form sentences. Some of these principles are shared by all languages, some differ from language to language. The interplay of the principles that are shared and those that are distinct allows us to understand how languages can be very similar and yet also very different at the same time. This course is mainly an introduction to syntactic theory: it introduces the questions that the field asks, the methodology it employs, some of the main generalizations that have been drawn and results that have been achieved. Secondarily, this course is also an introduction to scientific theorizing: what it means to construct a scientific theory, how to test it, and how to choose among competing theories.  SO
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

LING 254b, Syntax II  Jim Wood

Recent developments in the principles and parameters approach to syntactic theory. In-depth exploration of theoretical and empirical issues in long-distance dependencies (island effects, dependency types, movement vs. binding), the character of syntactic structure (constituency, thematic mapping, functional categories), and the architecture of grammatical derivations (logical form, operations for structure building, anaphora). Prerequisite: LING 253.  SO
MW 2:30pm-3:45pm

LING 263a, Semantics I  Veneeta Dayal

Introduction to truth-conditional compositional semantics. Set theory, first- and higher-order logic, and the lambda calculus as they relate to the study of natural language meaning. Some attention to analyzing the meanings of tense/aspect markers, adverbs, and modals.  QR, SO
MW 1pm-2:15pm

* LING 266b, Cognitive Foundations of Meaning Change  Maria Piñango

Linguistic, cognitive, and communicative structure explored through phenomena involving systematic semantic change. Why evolution in the meanings of forms follows what seem to be constrained trajectorial paths. Whether such semantic change derives from the organizational properties of the human cognitive system or the dynamics of rational communication. Prerequisite or corequisite: LING 112, 231, 263, 275, or 361.  SO
TTh 2:30pm-3:45pm

LING 271b / PHIL 271b, Philosophy of Language  Jason Stanley

An introduction to contemporary philosophy of language, organized around four broad topics: meaning, reference, context, and communication. Introduction to the use of logical notation.  HU
MW 9am-10:15am

LING 275b, Pragmatics  Laurence Horn

Context-dependent aspects of meaning and inference. Speech act theory, presupposition, implicature. Role of pragmatics in the lexicon and in meaning change. The semantics-pragmatics distinction from different perspectives; the position of pragmatics in linguistic theory.  SO  RP
TTh 1pm-2:15pm

* LING 372a, Meaning, Concepts, and Words  Maria Piñango

A cognitive approach to the structure of meaning from the perspetive of the language system. The brain's finite collection of stored concepts, which are combined and recombined via predetermined principles. The system of associating combinations of concepts with combinations of words and sentences to produce an unlimited number of novel thoughts. Prerequisite: at least one course in linguistics, psychology, or cognitive science.  SO
W 9:25am-11:15am

* LING 380b, Topics in Computational Linguistics: Neural Network Models of Linguistic Structure  Robert Frank

An introduction to the computational methods associated with "deep learning" (neural network architectures, learning algorithms, network analysis). The application of such methods to the learning of linguistic patterns in the domains of syntax, phonology, and semantics. Exploration of hybrid architectures that incorporate linguistic representation into neural network learning. Prerequisites: Python programming, basic calculus and linear algebra, introduction to linguistic theory (LING 106, 110, 116, 217 or equivalent).  QR, SO
Th 9:25am-11:15am

* LING 381a / LING 379 / LING 781a, Argument Structure and Morphology  Jim Wood

The intersection of argument structure and morphology. We study the ways that different argument structure configurations are reflected in the morphological shape of verbs (passives, causatives, reflexives, etc.), and how argument structure interacts with derivation, especially nouns and adjectives formed from verbs. Prerequisite: LING 253 or permission of the instructor.  WR, SO
TTh 2:30pm-3:45pm

* LING 490a / PSYC 372a, Research Methods in Linguistics  Raffaella Zanuttini

Development of skills in linguistics research, writing, and presentation. Choosing a research area, identifying good research questions, developing hypotheses, and presenting ideas clearly and effectively, both orally and in writing; methodological issues; the balance between building on existing literature and making a novel contribution. Prepares for the writing of the senior essay.
W 4pm-5:50pm

* LING 491b, The Senior Essay  Jim Wood

Research and writing of the senior essay under the guidance of a faculty adviser. Students present research related to their essays in a weekly colloquium. Prerequisite: LING 490.
W 4pm-5:50pm

ANTH 205a / ANTH 368, Language, Culture, and Identity  J. Joseph Errington

Introduction to the role of language in the constitution of gendered, class, ethnic, and national identities. Ethnographic and linguistic case studies are combined with theoretical and comparative approaches. Enrollment limited to 40. (Formerly ANTH 120)  SO
HTBA

* ANTH 413a, Language, Culture, and Ideology  J. Joseph Errington

Review of influential anthropological theories of culture, with reference to theories of language that inspired or informed them. American and European structuralism; cognitivist and interpretivist approaches to cultural description; the work of Bakhtin, Bourdieu, and various critical theorists.  SO  RP
HTBA

* CHLD 128b / EDST 128b / PSYC 128b, Language, Literacy, and Play  Nancy Close and Carla Horwitz

. The course focuses on the complicated role play has in the development of language and literacy skills among preschool and kindergarten-aged children