Courses Offered
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Linguistics Courses We Offer
Linguistics is a Bachelor of Arts. In addition to the major, students must complete the general education and bachelor degree requirements, including the BA language requirement. In order to declare linguistics as a major or minor, you need to make an appointment with an advisor. You will work with your advisor to select electives that meet your needs and interests.
Below are course suggestions for the following interests:
Cognitive Science Computational Linguistics Phonology SyntaxPsycholinguistics Semantics Discourse Analysis or Pragmatics General Theoretical Overview TESOL / Language Teaching
Getting Started in Linguistics
Linguistics Foundation Course option for major, fulfills HF
This Foundation Course is an introduction to linguistic study through the lens of
taboo language, a pervasive part of all languages. Surveys topics in modern linguistics
by studying taboos in various languages. Students sensitive to obscene words are discouraged
from enrolling, as are students with only a prurient, non-scholarly interest in taboo
language.
[Typically offered fall, spring, and summer]
Linguistics Foundation Course option for major, Introductory course for minor, TESOL
Certificate course, fulfills BF
The Foundation Course is an introduction to the nature of human language from the
perspective of modern linguistics. Focuses on sounds, words, and sentences through
analysis of data from various languages. Additional topics may include: social and
geographic variation, language change through time, first- and second-language acquisition,
language and culture.
[Typically offered fall, spring, and summer]
Language Myths (Fulfills BF and QB)
This course investigates popular beliefs about language and discusses the perspective
of modern linguistics concerning those beliefs.
[Typically offered fall, spring, and summer]
Language, Culture, and Society
TESOL Certificate course, fulfills IR
The purpose of this course is to investigate the spread of English as an international
language: its historical development, socio-cultural diversity and linguistics variation.
In addition to numerous readings on native and non-narrative varieties of English,
which can be found throughout the world (e.g., Indian English, Singaporean English,
Chicano English, etc.), topics related to educational linguistics within a World Englishes
paradigm will also be addressed in order to better understand common pedagogical problems
and concerns related to the English language teaching in international contexts. [Typically
offered fall, spring, and summer]
Fulfills HF and IR
This course discusses ways a human language reflects the ways of life and beliefs
of its speakers, contrasted with extent of language's influence on culture. Wide variety
of cultures and languages examined.
[Typically offered fall, spring, and summer]
Fulfills DV and HF
Brings together native and non-native speakers of English to explore the theory and
practice of communication across languages and cultures.
[Typically offered fall, spring, and summer]
Meets with LING 6040
Theoretical principles governing social and linguistic variation, and the methodology
used to study it. How speech is affected by age, sex, socioeconomic class, ethnicity,
and regional background, and the political/educational implications, all with a focus
on the United States.
This course will present an overview of forensic linguistics with an emphasis on the areas where linguistics and the law intersect. We will especially focus on the nature of legal language, language and disadvantage before the law, the expression of defendants' rights, linguistic methods applied to statutory interpretation, and the role of language in the legal process.
The Sounds of Language
Required for Linguistics Major, required for Linguistics Minor, prerequisite: LING
foundation course
Analysis of speech sounds of the world's languages, with a focus on both their articulatory
and acoustic properties. An introduction to phonetic alphabets, including practice
in transcribing a variety of language samples. Analysis of the systematic organization
of speech sounds in the worlds languages, with reference to features and rule-based
explanations of phonological phenomena.
[Typically offered fall and spring]
Prerequisite: LING 4010
An introduction to subcomponents of nonlinear phonology: syllable phonology, prosodic
and metrical phonology, autosegmental phonology, and feature geometry. Also treated
are phonological interfaces with morphology and syntax, and preliminary comparisons
between rule-based and constraint-based models of phonology. Includes an exploration
of the phonetic bases for phonological generalizations, as well as the phonetic detail
of their expression.
The Structure and Meaning of Language
Required for Linguistics major, required for Linguistics minor, prerequisite: LING
foundation course
Introduction to the structure and organization of phrases and clauses in natural language.
A scientific approach to an empirically motivated theory of syntax. Students learn
terminology, problem-solving, logical argumentation, and its presentation.
[Typically offered fall and spring]
Prerequisite: LING 4020
Groundwork in a modular, constraint-based approach to syntactic competence. Focus
on case-assignment, thematic roles, movement, coreference, empty categories, and levels
of representation.
Prerequisite: LING 4020
Introduction to the study of meaning of phrases and clauses. Meets with LING 6030.
How Languages are Learned and Processed
This class familiarizes students with tools (e.g., regular expressions, NLTK) used to find, retrieve, identify, tag, manipulate and analyze data from primary/in-the-field sources and established corpora. Students are introduced to ideas fundamental to Natural Language Processing, including Finite State Automata, parsing techniques, token identification, and the incorporation of statistical information for automated token tagging and identification.
Prerequisite: LING foundation course Meets with LING 6024.
Nature and acquisition of child grammar, from experimental and theoretical perspectives.
Prerequisite: LING foundation course
This course surveys core issues in the field of psycholinguistics. Throughout the
course we will study how humans understand and produce language in real-time and how
these complex abilities develop in infants and adults second-language learners. Topics
may include, sounds (categories and speech perception), words (lexical access), sentences
(structural ambiguity; dependency resolution), and their development.
Prerequisite: LING foundation course or LING 4020 or co-requisite LING 4021. Meets
with LING 6300.
A survey of different subfields of computational linguistics. Topics include information
retrieval, natural language processing, machine translation, and computer-assisted
language learning. Students examine how linguistic concepts like syntax and morphology
are articulated in a computational environment for specific purposes, such as text
search. Basic programming knowledge helpful but not required.
The Structure and Meaning of Language
TESOL Certificate course
A descriptive overview of the forms and function of English grammar structures with
guidance in standard usage.
[Typically offered fall and spring]
Fulfills CW
Examines common grammatical and stylistic problems from a rhetorical and functional
perspective.
[Typically offered fall and spring]
Prerequisite: LING foundation course. Meets with LING 6233.
An analysis of a broad range of English phonetic and grammatical structures and models
for teaching this material in the ESL/EAS classroom.
TESOL Certificate course, prerequisite: LING foundation course.
Meets with WLC 5410.
An examination of approaches and methods in second-language teaching, as well as the
theories of language and language acquisition on which they are based. Discussion
and practice of current assessment procedures. Also a focus on educators' implicit
theories of L2 learning and teaching. Includes critiqued peer teaching. This course
is restricted to students in the TESOL certificate and Foreign Language majors and
minors.
[Typically offered fall and spring]
TESOL Certificate course, prerequisite: LING 5810 or LANG 5400
LING 5813 focuses on the development of second and foreign language teaching skills,
particularly skills for lesson planning and delivery for different levels of language
proficiency and different contexts. To this end, the course is designed to give preservice
teachers opportunities to do the following: (1) identify indicators of effective language
instruction, (2) develop skills in observing second language (L2) classes, (3) select
and/or develop instructional activities appropriate for different levels of language
proficiency and contexts, (4) develop skills in planning lessons for L2 learners,
(5) practice teaching skills using a variety of instructional strategies, (6) incorporate
constructive criticism into lesson planning and micro-teaching demonstrations. The
course has either a 30-hour field experience requirement for LING 5813 or a 45-hour
field experience requirement for LING 6813. LING 6813 also requires that students
develop a professional e-portfolio.
[Typically offered fall and spring]
Prerequisite: LING 5810 or LANG 5400, and LING 1200
An overview of the conceptual bases of language testing and procedures for designing
and developing useful language tests.