Department of Linguistics

How do we go from looking at symbols on a page or screen to understanding the writer's message? How do children learn to read, and what ways of teaching reading best promote success for all students? We will explore these questions through analysis of language and writing structure and discussion of research data. Your final project will address a real-world question about reading, literacy, or reading education from the perspective of language and cognition.

The linguistic landscape of the United States in historical and contemporary perspective: American English dialects, language maintenance and shift among Native American and immigrant groups, language politics and policy.

Special topics course. Content will vary each semester. Honors version available.

Introduction to the formal analysis of human language, including sounds, words, sentences, and language meaning, plus child language acquisition, language change over time, social attitudes toward language, and similarities and differences among languages. Other topics may include writing systems, animal communication, and language analysis by computers. Honors version available.

An introduction to linguistic anthropology and anthropological linguistics. The course approaches the complex interconnections between language, culture, and cognition; theoretical approaches employed during the past century (structuralism, functionalism, ethnoscience, universalism, linguistic relativity); common case studies (spatial language, colors, classifiers, deixis); verbal art (orality, literacy), linguistic ideology; and ethnolinguistic vitality.

An examination of the differences between natural human languages and other communication systems. Includes a philosophical inquiry into how languages relate to the world and the mind. Honors version available.

Students develop an understanding of and appreciation for the diverse range of human languages across the planet, as well as the uniformity that underlies them. Topics include history, classification, and linguistic properties of the world's languages.

Description and analysis of sound systems of languages around the world. Introduction to formal phonological models, argumentation, and hypothesis testing. Students may not receive credit for both LING 200 and LING 523.

Introduction to the representational units and computational principles that underlie word order patterns in language. The course covers key discoveries and theories of generative approaches to syntax, in which grammars consist of formally defined rules and operations that generate grammatical sentences. Students may not receive credit for both LING 201 and LING 530.

Introduction to the analysis and description of language change, relationships among languages, and types of linguistic structure. Students may not receive credit for both LING 202 and LING 525.

Provides an introduction to first-language acquisition, focusing on the acquisition of phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics, as well as on the social context of language acquisition and issues of atypical language development. Students may not receive credit for both LING 203 and LING 528.

"Women talk more than men! Texting means the end of literacy! The language you speak limits the thoughts you can think!" We often hear claims like these, but are they true? And what kind of information would show us the answer? This course examines current debates about language while developing skills in reading and interpreting research results, media reports, basic statistics, and data graphics.

This course explores linguistic properties of constructed languages (conlangs). The course examines philosophical and creative motivations behind existing conlangs, and how their grammatical properties relate to those of natural languages. Students will explore and apply creative and analytical procedures used to create constructed language grammars.

This course surveys languages spoken in Southeast Asia, an area rich in linguistic diversity, which is home to more than five distinct language families and well over 1,000 individual languages. Students will investigate the languages--in situ and in the diaspora--through the lens of descriptive linguistics, and will explore the social, cultural, and political aspects of languages in the region. This course is appropriate for students with an interest in linguistics or in Southeast Asia.

In-depth treatment of a selected issue or topic in linguistics. Topic will vary with the instructor. Course may be taken more than once when the topic varies.

This course provides an overview of language and power studies. Issues: sexist and sex-neutral language; languages of subcultures defined by gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity; hate speech; "politically correct" language.

This course is an introduction to languages indigenous to the Americas. The course touches on the linguistic structure and classification of Native American languages as well as on social issues. This version requires that the student learn intensively about the structure of a specific language, as well as its social and cultural context. Students may not receive credit for LING 561 after completing LING 303.

Focuses on the use of linguistic forms to express communicative intentions. How language is used for the purposes of persuasion, manipulation, irony, humor, poetry, propaganda, and attitudes.

Students are introduced to the causes and contexts of language endangerment and the complex process of language revitalization. Topics to be covered include assessment of endangerment level, language and thought, language attitudes, bilingual education, and language planning. We will also consider a number of case studies of endangered languages.

Comparative study of human language alongside selected non-human communication systems. Anatomy, acoustics, combinatorial structure, innateness and acquisition, evolution. Sizable lab and field component.

This course treats the structural properties of African American English. Students will learn to use sentence data to test hypotheses about language structure by investigating the phonology, syntax and semantics of African American English.

Introduction to the linguistic study of sound, meaning, grammatical form, dialectal and sociolinguistic variation, with a particular focus on modern Spanish and the languages of Spain and Latin America. Previously offered as SPAN/LING 377.

Introduction to the description of sound systems with a focus on Spanish. Includes the study of the historical development of Spanish and its areal and social variation in Spain, Latin America, and the United States.

Permission of instructor. Students gain first-hand experience conducting research as part of a research group working together on a single project under the advisement of a faculty member. Topics will vary.

Seminar on a previously announced topic.

Uses simple linguistic problems to introduce students to the use of programming languages especially suited to analyze and process natural language on the computer. No prior programming knowledge is presupposed.

At least two courses in philosophy other than PHIL 155, including PHIL 345, strongly recommended. A study of important contemporary contributions in philosophy of language. Topics include meaning, reference, and truth.

Focuses on the practical skills required to carry out basic experiments in speech production or perception. Includes training in a general-purpose programming language (such as Perl) for automating repetitive tasks, experiment-control software, audio stimulus manufacture and editing, palatography, aerodynamic measurements, and other laboratory techniques relevant to student interests.

Cross-linguistic investigation of internal word structure: inflection and derivation, word formation rules versus affixation, autosegmental morphology, morpholexical and morphophonemic rules, and the interaction of morphology with phonology and syntax. Previously offered as LING 527.

This course covers theoretical issues in childhood simultaneous bilingualism, and child and adult second-language acquisition, under both naturalistic and classroom learning circumstances.

Recommended preparation, at least one higher-level core course in linguistics. Surveys current answers to such questions as, When and how did language first appear? What do other animal communication systems share with language? Do restricted linguistic systems (e. g., pidgins) preserve "fossils" of early human language?

At least two courses in philosophy other than PHIL 155, including PHIL 345, strongly recommended. A study of important contemporary contributions in philosophy of language. Topics include meaning, reference, and truth.

This course provides an introduction to the linguistic structure and historical development of the world's writing systems (e.g. Sumerian, Egyptian, Chinese, Greek, Semitic scripts, Indian abugidas, Olmec, Mayan, Incan), the methods for their decipherment and analysis, the cross-script generalizations that can be proposed through their comparative study, and the techniques for developing a new writing system for a previously unwritten language, as well as for inventing a language and writing system from scratch.

The course covers methods for working with textual data (corpora, databases, etc.) that include data cleaning techniques, graphing, statistical analysis, web-scraping, and categorization models. Students will complete their own data project by the end of the course.

Study of cultural variation in styles of speaking applied to collection of ethnographic data. Talk as responsive social action and its role in the constitution of ethnic and gender identities.

Directed readings on linguistic topics not covered in specific courses.

Permission of instructor. This course allows students to integrate theoretical knowledge with practice through an internship experience in the field of linguistics. Students may work with businesses or organizations in the areas of computational linguistics, language documentation, education, publishing, or other related fields. Activities must be approved by faculty and supervised by a mentor.

Permission of instructor. Students carry out a research project of their own design under the direct supervision of a faculty mentor. This course is intended for advanced, motivated students who would like to pursue an in-depth research project within a single semester.

LING 101 and additional coursework in linguistics strongly recommended. An intensive directed readings course or a mentored project; topic to be determined in consultation with the instructor. Permission of the director of undergraduate studies.

Introduces the linguistic structures of American Sign Language, including phonology, morphology, and syntax. Also covers gesture/homesign, sign language acquisition and language transfer.

Introduction to the general principles of linguistic phonetics; anatomy of vocal tract, physiology of speech production, universal phonetic theory. Practice in the recognition and transcription of speech sounds.

This course relates linguistic theory to experimental findings. Students design and carry out experiments to test theoretical issues of current theoretical importance.

Permission of the instructor for undergraduates. Introduction to the principles of modern generative phonology. Methods and theory of phonological analysis. Students may not receive credit for both LING 200 and LING 523.

Intermediate phonological theory and analysis.

Permission of the instructor for undergraduates. Theories and methods of historical and comparative linguistics, with emphasis upon the Indo-European family. Students may not receive credit for both LING 202 and LING 525.

Production, perception, and phonological patterns and processes in second-language learning and use. Effects of first-language transfer and universal linguistic factors. Seminar-style class based on primary literature.

Permission of the instructor for undergraduates. One course in phonology or syntax recommended. Child language from a theoretical perspective. Topics include segmentation problems, acquisition of phonology, morphology and syntax, lexical acquisition, and language development in blind and deaf children and in bilinguals. Students may not receive credit for both LING 203 and LING 528.

This course focuses on the development of syntax in first-language acquisition in children. Topics will include parameter setting, null subjects, root infinitives, aspect, A-movement, binding theory, and control.

Permission of the instructor for undergraduates. Methods and theory of grammatical analysis within the transformational generative framework. Special emphasis on analyzing syntactic and semantic structures of English. Students may not receive credit for both LING 201 and LING 530.

Methods and theory of grammatical analysis, with special reference to transformational grammar.

Semantics as a part of linguistic theory: co- and disjoint reference among nominals, "crossover" phenomena, quantifier scope, lexical semantics, Montague grammar and compositional semantics, and explanatory universals in semantic theory.

A continuation of LING 537 (Semantic Theory I), this course prepares the student to read the formal semantic literature and to do original research in the field.

The representation of time and temporal relations in natural languages. Cross-linguistic study of tense and aspect distinctions, modality, temporal adverbials, temporal anaphora, and sequences of tenses.

Introduction to topics in logic, set theory, and modern algebra with emphasis on linguistic application. Automata theory and the formal theory of grammar with special reference to transformational grammars. No previous mathematics assumed.

Introduction to the study of language in relation to society; variation as it correlates with socioeconomic status, region, gender; the social motivation of change; language and equality; language maintenance, planning, shift.

Examination of the social contexts of language contact and their linguistic outcomes, with particular emphasis on the formation of pidgins and creoles. The course investigates the structural properties of these new contact languages and evaluates the conflicting theories that explain their genesis.

Examines language as a political issue in the 19th and 20th centuries. Emphasis placed on American and British politics but attention to one other national context as well.

The course treats the relationship among linguistics, artificial intelligence, neurobiology, cognitive psychology, and the philosophies of mind, language, and science.

Survey of the linguistic properties associated with aphasia, autism, Williams syndrome, dyslexia, and schizophrenia. Emphasis on the implications of these conditions for theories of mind.

A survey of the phonological systems of the major Indo-European languages and their development from Proto-Indo-European.

Introduction to the major morphological categories in the Indo-European languages and their development from the proto-language.

This course is an introduction to the ancient scripts of pre-Columbian Mexico and Central America. It focuses on ancient Mayan hieroglyphs, describing their orthographic and linguistic structure, and highlighting methods for investigating the script using the Maya Hieroglyphic Database (5,000 inscriptions comprising 85,565 records). Students will write a research paper consisting of a linguistic and quantitative (descriptive, inferential statistical) analysis of a particular phenomenon of the script.

Surveys the basic characteristics that unify Mesoamerica as a cultural and linguistic area (e.g. sound systems, word order, color systems, diffused vocabulary, etc.), the basic sources of cultural and linguistic information available (e.g. ancient hieroglyphs, colonial manuscripts, contemporary documents, linguistic fieldwork), and the consequences of ancient and modern cross-cultural interaction.

This course explores the phonological and morphological structure of selected Amerindian languages indigenous to the Americas. Emphasis is on the linguistic analysis of original as well as published primary data.

Examines Russian from the perspective of linguistic analysis. How do sounds, words, and sentences pattern in Russian? How do these compare with patterns in other languages? Also considers the influence of evidence from Russian on the development of linguistic theory.

Introductory linguistic description of modern Japanese. For students of linguistics with no knowledge of Japanese and students of Japanese with no knowledge of linguistics.

The phonology, morphology, and syntax of French are traced from the Latin foundation to the present. Lectures, readings, discussions, and textual analysis. In English.

Study of the sound system and prosody features of standard French, emphasizing practical application in a variety of oral activities. Requires learning linguistic terminology and the phonetic alphabet. In English.

Introduction to phonology, morphology, and syntax of modern standard French. Application of modern linguistic theory to the teaching of French. In English.

LING 101 recommended for undergraduates. Introduction to formal analysis of German grammar (phonology, morphophonemics, prosodics, morphology, syntax) within the framework of generative grammar.

Analysis and description of a language unknown to the class from data solicited from a native-speaker consultant.

Continuation of LING 573.

The linguistic study of the evolution of Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian (and other Romance languages) from their common ancestor of Latin. Emphasis on phonological, morphological, syntactic, and lexical commonalities and divergences among the languages.

Linguistic theories from classical times to the present with special emphasis on the origins of contemporary theories.

Topics in Spanish phonology from a range of theoretical perspectives. Autosegmental theory, optimality theory (OT), syllable structure, stress and accent, and the interaction of phonology and morphology.

SPAN 376 desirable. A theoretical study of the evolution of Spanish from classical and spoken Latin, focusing on phonological, morphological, and syntactic phenomena. Intended for linguistics majors.

This course is an upper undergraduate/graduate-level introduction to the study of the meaning of words and sentences, with a focus on Spanish. It covers the following topics: truth-conditional theories of meaning, modality, quantification, reference, tense and aspect, Aktionsart. The course also addresses cross-linguistic data collection, e.g., field work and experimental methods.

See the program for honors in the College of Arts and Sciences and the department honors advisor.

See the program for honors in the College of Arts and Sciences and the department honors advisor.