Linguistics

Courses

LING 500a / ENGL 500a, Old English I  Emily Thornbury

The essentials of the language, some prose readings, and close study of several celebrated Old English poems.
Th 9:25am-11:15am

LING 510a, 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 relations of linguistics to psychology, logic, and other disciplines.
TTh 1pm-2:15pm

LING 512a, Historical Linguistics  Claire Bowern and Rikker Dockum

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.
MW 2:30pm-3:45pm

LING 515a, Introductory Sanskrit I  Aleksandar Uskokov

An introduction to Sanskrit language and grammar. Focus on learning to read and translate basic Sanskrit sentences in the Indian Devanagari script. No prior background in Sanskrit assumed. Credit only on completion of LING 525/SKRT 520.
MTWThF 9:25am-10:15am

LING 525b, Introductory Sanskrit II  Aleksandar Uskokov

Continuation of LING 515/SKRT 510. Focus on the basics of Sanskrit grammar; readings from classical Sanskrit texts written in the Indian Devanagari script. Prerequisite: LING 515/SKRT 510.
MTWThF 9:25am-10:15am

LING 538a, 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. Prerequisite: LING 525 or equivalent.
MWF 8:20am-9:10am

LING 548b / SKRT 540b, Intermediate Sanskrit II  Aleksandar Uskokov

Continuation of LING 538, focusing on Sanskrit literature from the kavya genre. Readings include selections from the Jatakamala of Aryasura and the opening verses of Kalidasa’s Kumarasambhava. Prerequisite: LING 538/SKRT 530 or equivalent.
MWF 8:20am-9:10am

LING 564a, Principles of Language Teaching and Learning  Petronella Van Deusen-Scholl

Introduction to the basic principles of second-language acquisition theory, focusing on current perspectives from applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, and psycholinguistics. Topics include language teaching methodology, communicative and task-based approaches, learner variables, intercultural competence, and models of assessment.
W 3:30pm-5:20pm

LING 600b, Experimentation in Linguistics  Maria Piñango and Jason Shaw

Principles and techniques of experimental design and research in linguistics. Linguistic theory as the basis for framing experimental questions. The development of theoretically informed hypotheses, notions of control and confounds, human subject research, statistical analysis, data reporting, and dissemination.
Th 9:25am-11:15am

LING 611b, Grammatical Diversity in U.S. English  Raffaella Zanuttini

Language as a system of mental rules, governing the sound, form, and meaning system. The (impossible) distinction between language and dialect. The scientific study of standard and nonstandard varieties. Social attitudes toward prestige and other varieties; linguistic prejudice. Focus on morpho-syntactic variation in North American English: alternative passives (“The car needs washed”), personal datives (“I need me a new printer”), negative inversion (“Don’t nobody want to ride the bus”), “drama SO” (“I am SO not going to study tonight”).
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

LING 613b / AFST 613b, Hybrid Grammars: Dynamics of Language Contact, Language Acquisition, and Language Change  Enoch Aboh

Traditional approaches to language acquisition and change have typically assumed that children develop a mental grammar that replicates uniformly the linguistic knowledge of the current members of their monolingual speech communities. Therefore, language change must result from external factors: language contact involving a cohort of L2-learners. Likewise, multilingualism, thus language contact, is commonly assumed to hinder acquisition, and presupposed “intense” contact situations are regarded as propitious for creolization. This course proposes a shift of perspective, focusing on multiple-variety ecologies such as creole societies in which speakers-listeners can acquire, alternate between, and sometimes “mix” different languages, dialects, or registers. Two major questions are addressed: (1) How does acquisition proceed in such multiple-variety ecologies? (2) What does a theory of the multilingual mind tell us about acquisition of L1 and the emergence of grammars? The descriptive and theoretical framework adopted is that of hybrid grammars as developed in Aboh (2015). Prerequisite: familiarity with syntax and linguistic variation.
TTh 1pm-2:15pm

LING 617a, Language and Mind  Maria Piñango

The course is an introduction to language structure and processing as a capacity of the human mind and brain. Its purpose is to bridge traditional domains in linguistics (phonetics, morphology, syntax) with cognition (developmental psychology, memory systems, inferential reasoning). The main topics covered are morphosyntax and lexical semantics, sentence composition and sentence processing, first- and second-language acquisition, acquisition under unusual circumstances, focal brain lesions, and language breakdown.
TTh 2:30pm-3:45pm

LING 619a, The Evolution of Language and Culture  Claire Bowern

Introduction to cultural and linguistic evolution. How diversity evolves; how innovations proceed through a community; who within a community drives change; how changes can be “undone” to reconstruct the past. Methods originally developed for studying evolutionary biology are applied to language and culture.
MW 1pm-2:15pm

LING 620b, General Phonetics  Jason Shaw

Investigation of possible ways of describing the speech sounds of human languages. Tools to be developed: acoustics and physiology of speech; computer synthesis of speech; practical exercises in producing and transcribing sounds.
TTh 2:30pm-3:45pm

LING 624a, Mathematics of Language  Robert Frank

Study of formal systems that play an important role in the scientific study of language. Exploration of a range of mathematical structures and techniques; demonstrations of their application in theories of grammatical competence and performance including set theory, graphs and discrete structures, algebras, formal language, and automata theory. Evaluation of strengths and weaknesses of existing formal theories of linguistic knowledge.
MW 2:30pm-3:45pm

LING 627a, Language and Computation I  Robert Frank

Design and analysis of computational models of language. Topics include finite state tools, computational morphology and phonology, grammar and parsing, lexical semantics, and the use of linguistic models in applied problems. Prerequisite: prior programming experience or permission of the instructor.
MW 11:35am-12:50pm

LING 631b, Neurolinguistics  Maria Piñango

The study of language as a cognitive neuroscience. The interaction between linguistic theory and neurological evidence from brain damage, degenerative diseases (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease), mental illness (e.g., schizophrenia), neuroimaging, and neurophysiology. The connection of language as a neurocognitive system to other systems such as memory and music.
MW 2:30pm-3:45pm

LING 632a, 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 510 or 620.
TTh 1pm-2:15pm

LING 633b, The Literate Brain and Mind  Kenneth Pugh

The neurobiological and cognitive foundations of reading and writing. Emerging research on gene-brain-behavior analyses of typically and atypically developing readers. The relationship between speech perception/production and individual differences in literacy learning; distributed brain circuits that support word reading, text comprehension, and second-language learning; the neurobiology of acquired and developmental reading and writing disorders.
MW 9am-10:15am

LING 635b, 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 relationship of phonological theory to language acquisition and learnability. Opacity, lexical phonology, and serial versions of optimality theory. Prerequisite: LING 632 or permission of the instructor.
MW 11:35am-12:50pm

LING 641b, Field Methods  Claire Bowern

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.
MW 1pm-2:15pm

LING 653a, Syntax I  Raffaella Zanuttini

An introduction to the syntax (sentence structure) of natural language. Introduction to generative syntactic theory and key theoretical concepts. Syntactic description and argumentation. Topics include phrase structure, transformations, and the role of the lexicon.
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

LING 654b, Syntax II  Hadas Kotek

Recent developments in syntactic theory: government and binding, principles and parameters, and minimalist frameworks. In-depth examination of the basic modules of grammar (lexicon, X-bar theory, theta-theory, case theory, movement theory). Comparison and critical evaluation of specific syntactic analyses. Prerequisite: LING 653.
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

LING 663a, Semantics I  Hadas Kotek

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.
MW 1pm-2:15pm

LING 681b / AFST 681b, Comparative Syntax: A View from Kwa (Niger-Congo)  Enoch Aboh

This course adopts a microcomparative perspective by looking at closely related languages (i.e., Gbe and Kwa families of Niger-Congo) as well as a macrocomparative perspective that situates these languages in the larger context of typologically and genetically unrelated languages (e.g., Romance, Germanic). We set the stage by first looking at word formation, word classes, and the role of tones at the morphosyntactic level. Building on this, the first part of the course discusses topics such as Tense, Mood, Aspect (TMA) expressions, word order variation (e.g., VO vs. OV patterns), serial verb constructions, restructuring, and the notion of “light verb.” These topics allow us to establish a profile of the clause structure in these languages. With this knowledge at hand, the second part of the course addresses the question of information structure and the commonly assumed parallelism between the CP and DP domains. The descriptive framework adopted is the cartographic approach developed by Rizzi (1997), Cinque (1999), Aboh (2004), and much related work. Prerequisite: some background in syntax.
TTh 4pm-5:15pm

LING 725a, Topics in Phonology: Complexity  Jason Shaw

The seminar investigates complexity at different levels of phonological representation (features, segments, syllables) as well as the complexity of phonological patterns. Topics include approaches to formalizing complexity, including analytical tools from information theory, phonological processes that increase/decrease complexity, and the phonetic consequences of phonological complexity. Prerequisites: LING 620 and LING 635.
T 9:25am-11:15am

LING 744b, Topics in Phonology: Prosody, Syntax, Structure  Natalie Weber

Introduction to the analysis of prosodic structure, with a focus on the relation of prosodic structure to syntax. Survey of current theories of the correspondence between syntactic and prosodic structure. Particular emphasis on comparing theories and their predictions for language typology. Some empirical analysis of prosodic structure in individual languages. Prerequisites: LING 632 and LING 653, or permission of the instructor. LING 635 is recommended but not required.
T 9:25am-11:15am

LING 751b, Na-Dene languages  James Crippen

This course explores the Na-Dene (Dene-Eyak-Tlingit) family of indigenous languages of North America, which includes languages from Alaska (e.g., Tlingit), northern Canada (e.g., Dëne Sųłiné), western Canada (e.g., Dakelh), Oregon (e.g., Tolowa), California (e.g., Hupa), and the American southwest (e.g., Navajo). Topics addressed include historical and comparative research, phonology, morphology and syntax, and semantics, as well as the intersections between language and culture in the family. Students investigate and report on patterns and phenomena that are documented across multiple languages in the family, culminating in a final presentation and paper that summarize their research over the term. Prerequisites: LING 632 and LING 653, or permission of the instructor. LING 620 and LING 663 are suggested but not required.
F 9:25am-11:15am

LING 772a, Meaning, Concepts, and Words  Maria Piñango

The only way a finite brain can produce an unlimited number of novel thoughts is by storing a finite system. It is proposed that part of this system is a large collection of stored parts, which we call “concepts” and which are further combined and recombined via predetermined principles. In order to allow us to express our thoughts, our finite brain must also include a system of associating combinations of concepts with combinations of words and sentences. In this seminar we investigate proposals and empirical evidence from cognitive psychology, linguistics, and cognitive neuroscience, seeking to explain this connection between the ways we combine our concepts and the ways we combine our words and phrases.
W 9:25am-11:15am

LING 778a, The Syntax of Speech Events  Raffaella Zanuttini

How the notions of "speaker" and "hearer" of an utterance are incorporated into syntactic theory. A comparison of recent proposals to incorporate "speaker" and "hearer" into sentential syntax, generally in the left periphery of the clause. Topics include indexical shift, speaker-oriented discourse particles, vocatives, the category of "person," object drop, pronoun-antecedent relations, evidentials, and root clause phenomena.
TTh 4pm-5:15pm

LING 792b, From Morpho-syntax to Meaning: Definiteness, Indefiniteness, Genericity  Veneeta Dayal

This course explores how individual languages encode the notions of definiteness, indefiniteness, and genericity, and whether it is possible to predict such meanings when overt morpho-syntactic cues are absent. Languages with and without definite/indefinite articles provide critical test cases. Students read primary semantic literature on each of these three topics to gain a solid grounding in the theoretical issues. They also evaluate how empirical discoveries from different languages have shaped our understanding of the connection between morpho-syntax and semantics. The broader question considered here is the possibility of a restrictive theory of cross-linguistic variation in the interpretation of nominals. Prerequisite: LING 663 or permission of the instructor.
W 9:25am-11:15am