Courses

This course focuses on the relationship, in theory and in practice, between language, gender, and sexuality. We begin with a brief overview of the field and some of its major theoretical developments. Then we expand on themes of desire and identity; binaries and normativities; embodiment; “interstices”; and performativity. The practical component of the course includes critical analysis of language used to construct gender and sexuality (e.g. in drag shows, communities you belong to personally, social media, and current events). We also consider binary language reform, abolition of linguistic gender systems, and emergence of identity categories as practices of everyday relationality that contest hegemonic systems. Readings are interdisciplinary and draw from fields including Linguistics, Anthropology, Performance Studies, Literary Studies, and Queer Studies.

This course will focus on the Deaf community that uses American Sign Language (ASL) as a lens into the disciplines of linguistics, psychology, and cultural studies, and how the use of ASL contributes to individual identity and identity within society. In addition to these disciplinary foci, topics of Deaf literature and art forms will figure in the discussion and readings, which come from a variety of sources and include seminal works in the field from historical and contemporary perspectives.

TTH, 2:00-3:20

This is an advanced introduction to the field of psycholinguistics. We will do an in-depth overview of both the empirical findings and the methodologies used on various topics in language comprehension/production, including areas of speech perception, lexical processing, syntactic parsing, and semantic/pragmatic processing. Models at both the computational and the mechanistic levels will also be examined.

TTH, 12:30-1:50

Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form.

This course offers a brief survey of how linguists analyze the structure and the use of language. Looking at the structure of language means understanding what phonemes, words, and sentences are, and how each language establishes principles for the combinations of these things and for their use; looking at the use of language means understanding the ways in which individuals and groups use language to declare their social identity and the ways in which languages can change over time. The overarching theme is understanding what varieties of language structure and use are found across the world's languages and cultures, and what limitations on this variety exist.

TTH, 3:30-4:50

This course is an introduction to basic goals and methods of current syntactic theory through a detailed analysis of a range of phenomena, with emphasis on argumentation and empirical justification. Major topics include phrase structure and constituency, selection and subcategorization, argument structure, case, voice, expletives, and raising and control structures.

MW, 1:30-2:50

This course familiarizes students with what it means to study meaning and use in natural language. By “meaning” we refer to the (for the most part, logical) content of words, constituents, and sentences (semantics), and by “use” we intend to capture how this content is implemented in discourse and what kinds of additional dimensions of meaning may then arise (pragmatics). Some of the core empirical phenomena that have to do with meaning are introduced: lexical (i.e., word) meaning, reference, quantification, logical inferencing, presupposition, implicature, context sensitivity, cross-linguistic variation, speech acts. Main course goals are not only to familiarize students with the basic topics in semantics and pragmatics but also to help them develop basic skills in semantic analysis and argumentation.

This course expands on the material presented in MOGK 20100, enabling students to speak about topics related to employment, current events and issues of public and community interest.

MWF, 1:30-2:20

This course expands on the material presented in MOGK 20100, enabling students to speak about topics related to employment, current events and issues of public and community interest.

American Sign Language is the language of the deaf in the United States and much of Canada. It is a full-fledged autonomous language, unrelated to English or other spoken languages. This introductory course teaches the student basic vocabulary and grammatical structure, as well as aspects of deaf culture.

MWF, 9:30 – 10:20 am, 10:30 – 11:20 am

This course continues to increase grammatical structure, receptive and expressive skills, conversational skills, basic linguistic convergence, and knowledge of idioms. Field trip required

MWF, 11:30-12:20

This course is an advanced survey of topics in graduate syntax examining current syntactic theory through detailed analysis of a range of phenomena and readings from the primary research literature.

MW, 3:00-4:20

This is an advanced introduction to the field of psycholinguistics. We will do an in-depth overview of both the empirical findings and the methodologies used on various topics in language comprehension/production, including areas of speech perception, lexical processing, syntactic parsing, and semantic/pragmatic processing. Models at both the computational and the mechanistic levels will also be examined.

MW, 1:30-2:50

In this course we will explore methods of research used in the disciplines of linguistics and psychology to investigate sign language and gesture. We will choose a set of canonical topics from the gesture and sign literature such as pointing, use of the body in quotation, and the use of non-manuals, in order to understand the value of various effective methods in current use and the types of research questions they are best equipped to handle.

M, 1:30-4:20

What is the relationship between physical processes in the brain and body and the processes of thought and consciousness that constitute our mental life? Philosophers and others have puzzled over this question for millenia. Many have concluded it to be intractable. In recent decades, the field of cognitive science--encompassing philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, computer science, linguistics and other disciplines--has proposed a new form of answer. The driving idea is that the interaction of the mental and the physical may be understood via a third level of analysis: that of the computational. This course offers a critical introduction to the elements of this approach, and surveys some of the alternatives models and theories that fall within it. Readings are drawn from a range of historical and contemporary sources in philosophy, psychology, linguistics and computer science. (B) (II)

TTH, 9:30-10:50

TTH, 5:00 – 6:30

This course will cover the basic methods for experimental studies, including experimental design, data collection and statistical analysis. To demonstrate different design and analysis tools, we will look at data set from different types of studies, including self-paced reading, acceptability judgment, eye tracking, ERP, etc. Students will also gain hands-on experience on different paradigms.

TH, 2:00-3:20

TH, 3:30-4:50

This course is an independent study under the guidance of a faculty advisor, indicated by the section number. Please consult with the faculty member in question before enrolling.

This course is an advanced survey of topics in morphology examining current morphological theory through detailed analysis of a range of phenomena and readings from the primary research literature. The topics covered include blocking, inflectional features, syncretism, allomorphy and suppletion, and morpheme order.

MW, 3:00-4:20

TTH, 2:00-3:20

Undergraduates who have taken both may petition the instructor for admission. This course is an advanced graduate seminar in syntax. Through readings from the primary research literature, we will investigate the nature, properties, and precise formulation of some of the elementary (and perhaps some not-so-elementary) operations that build the syntactic structures of human language.

M, 2:30-5:20

The course aims to guide students on their research in a structured way and to present professionalization information crucial to success in the field. The course is organized largely around working on the research paper, with the goal of making it a conference-presentable and journal-publishable work. Topics covered include abstracts, publishing, handouts, presentation skills, course design, creating and maintaining a CV, cover letters, webpages, and in general everything that is required for you to successfully compete for jobs in linguistics.

W, 1:30-3:20

This course aims to develop elementary proficiency in spoken and written Modern Greek and to introduce elements of cultural knowledge. The course will familiarize the students with the Greek alphabet, Modern Greek pronunciation rules and the basic morphology and syntax, with an emphasis on reading and conversational skills. The students will be able to communicate minimally with formulaic and rote utterances and produce words, phrases and lists.

MWF, 3:30-4:20

Swahili is the most popular language of Sub-Saharan Africa, spoken in most countries of Eastern and Central Africa by more than 50 million people.  Swahili is characterized by the typical complex Bantu structure.  However, it is particularly easy to pronounce and fast learned.

The Elementary Swahili series is designed to help students acquire communicative competence in Swahili and a basic understanding of its structures. The course presents basic phonological, grammatical, and syntactic patterns of Kiswahili. Through a variety of exercises, students develop communicative functionality in listening, speaking, reading and writing.  Emphasis is put on dialogues and role-plays, individual and group presentations, and the use of audiovisual and web-based resources.  Swahili culture and African culture in general are an important component of the course.

At the end of the elementary course series, the students are able to communicate efficiently in everyday life situations, write and present short descriptive notes about elementary pieces of verbal creation (documentaries and video series in Swahili)

TTH, 11:00-12:20

Students focus on broadening their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in this course.

TTH, 2:00-3:20

This course offers a brief survey of how linguists analyze the structure and the use of language. Looking at the structure of language means understanding what phonemes, words, and sentences are, and how each language establishes principles for the combinations of these things and for their use; looking at the use of language means understanding the ways in which individuals and groups use language to declare their social identities and the ways in which languages can change over time. The overarching theme is understanding what varieties of language structure and use are found across the world's languages and cultures, and what limitations on this variety exist.

TTH 11:00 am – 12:20 pm

This course expands on the material presented in MOGK 20100, enabling students to speak about topics related to employment, current events and issues of public and community interest.

MWF 1:30 – 2:20 pm

Why is the plural of child in English children and not *childs? Why is undoable ambiguous ((i) 'unable to be done', (ii) 'able to be undone'), while unkillable isn't (only 'unable to be killed')? Unhappier is intuitively composed of several, smaller pieces: un-, happy, and -er; but what about unkempt? These questions are the purview of MORPHOLOGY, the field of linguistics devoted to studying the internal structure of words and how they are formed. Consequently, in this course we will investigate the nature of morphemes, in all their cross-linguistic shapes and guises. Key concepts which will frame our discussion include inflection, syncretism, allomorphy, and blocking. The only prerequisite for this course is LING 20001: Introduction to Linguistics.

TTH 9:30 – 10:50 am

In this course we will examine the language of deception and humor from a variety of perspectives: historical, developmental, neurological, and cross-cultural, and in a variety of contexts: fiction, advertising, politics, courtship, and everyday conversation. We will focus on the (linguistic) knowledge and skills that underlie the use of humor and deception and on what sorts of things they are used to communicate.

MW 1:30 – 2:50 pm

TTH 3:30 – 4:50 pm

This introductory course aims to foster an appreciation for the Potawatomi
(Bodw ́ewadmimwen) language, history, and culture as understood through a
linguistic and culturally relevant mode. We will become familiar with the rich
structures of the language through exposure to traditional stories (yadsokanen)
and personal narratives (yathmownen). This will be achieved through an engag-
ing mix of readings, linguistic analyses, classroom discussion, and instruction.
In particular, course texts focus on the histories of displacement, sovereignty,
and governmental relations as well as the use of humor to cope with tragedy
and a shifting cultural identity.

Potawatomi, or Bodw ́ewadmik, are one of the original inhabitants of the land
on which the University of Chicago occupies, and we (the exclusive we, unless
students in the class are also Potawatomi) now have tribal governmental centers
and reservations in Kansas, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan as a
result of Indian removal. As an Algonquian language, Potawatomi is under-
studied and endangered, but this course offers students the ability to familiarize
themselves with the language of this land. Students will not be fluent following
this course, but will possess a newfound appreciation for the diversity of lin-
guistic expression and this community of the Great Lakes region. By the end of
this course, students will understand the foundations of Potawatomi phonology,
morphosyntax, pragmatics, and discourse and will be prepared to develop new
analyses of Potawatomi. This course fulfills the non-Indo-European language re-
quirement for linguistics majors. No previous courses in linguistics are required
though the introductory course is recommended

Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form.

The Iberian Peninsula is host to a number of languages. These include not only Spanish and European Portuguese, the dominant languages in Spain and Portugal, respectively, but also minoritized languages such as Galician, Basque, Catalan, and others. This class will investigate the morphosyntax of minoritized Iberian languages, drawing comparisons with the dominant languages in the area (Spanish, Portuguese, and French), which have exerted enormous influence on the minoritized languages due to centuries of contact. The focus will be the morphosyntax of these languages, but we also aim to better understand the complex social, historical, and political forces that have shaped them, as well as the way they continue to be affected by these forces and their long and sometimes fraught relationship with the dominant languages.

This course develops advanced American Sign Language skills through the study of ASL Literature and Storytelling. Using several different genres of video-based ASL texts, we will study native signers use of stories in the Deaf American community. We will work towards comprehending, discussing, analyzing, and producing ASL stories. A high-intermediate to advanced knowledge of ASL is required.

TTH 11:00 am – 12:20 pm

This course introduces cross-linguistic phonological phenomena and methods of analysis through an indepth examination of fundamental notions that transcend differences between theoretical approaches: contrast, neutralization, natural classes, distinctive features, and basic non-linear phonological processes (e.g., assimilation, harmony, dissimilation).

TTH 2:00 – 3:20 pm

American Sign Language is the language of the deaf in the United States and much of Canada. It is a full-fledged autonomous language, unrelated to English or other spoken languages. This introductory course teaches the student basic vocabulary and grammatical structure, as well as aspects of deaf culture.

MWF 9:30 – 10:20 am, 10:30 – 11:20 am

This course offers a rapid review of the basic patterns of the language and expands the material presented in MOGK 10100/30100.

MWF 3:30 – 4:20 pm

This course continues to increase grammatical structure, receptive and expressive skills, conversational skills, basic linguistic convergence, and knowledge of idioms. Field trip required.

MWF 11:30 am – 12:20 pm

This course deals with the issue of variation and change in language. Topics include types, rates, and explanations of change; the differentiation of dialects and languages over time; determination and classification of historical relationships among languages, and reconstruction of ancestral stages; parallels with cultural and genetic evolutionary theory; and implications for the description and explanation of language in general.

TTH 3:30 – 4:50 pm

Swahili is the most popular language of Sub-Saharan Africa, spoken in most countries of Eastern and Central Africa by more than 50 million people. Swahili is characterized by the typical complex Bantu structure. However, it is particularly easy to pronounce and fast learned.

The Elementary Swahili series is designed to help students acquire communicative competence in Swahili and a basic understanding of its structures. The course presents basic phonological, grammatical, and syntactic patterns of Kiswahili.

Through a variety of exercises, students develop communicative functionality in listening, speaking, reading and writing. Emphasis is put on dialogues and role-plays, individual and group presentations, and the use of audiovisual and web-based resources. Swahili culture and African culture in general are an important component of the course.

At the end of the elementary course series, the students are able to communicate efficiently in everyday life situations, write and present short descriptive notes about elementary pieces of verbal creation (documentaries and video series in Swahili). This course allows fulfilling the non-Indo-European language requirement.

TTH 11:00 am – 12:20 pm

Spoken in ten countries of Eastern and Central Africa, Swahili has more speakers than any other language in the Bantu family, a group of more than 400 languages most prevalent in sub-equatorial Africa. Based on Swahili Grammar and Workbook, this course helps the students master key areas of the Swahili language in a fast yet enjoyable pace. Topics include sound and intonation patterns, noun class agreements, verb moods, and sentence structures. Additionally, this course provides important listening and expressive reading skills. For advanced students, historical interpretations are offered for exceptional patterns observed in Swahili, in relation with other Bantu languages. This is a general introduction course with no specific prerequisites.

This course is a graduate-level introduction to topics at the intersection of computation and language. We will study computational linguistics from both scientific and engineering angles: the use of computational modeling to address scientific questions in linguistics and cognitive science, as well as the design of computational systems to solve engineering problems in natural language processing (NLP). The course will combine analysis and discussion of these approaches with training in the programming and mathematical foundations necessary to put these methods into practice. The course is designed to accommodate students both with and without prior programming experience. Our goal is for all students to leave the course able to engage with and critically evaluate research in cognitive/linguistic modeling and NLP, and to be able to implement intermediate-level computational models for novel computational linguistics research.

TTH 11:00 am – 12:20 pm

How do languages get into contact? How long do they stay in contact? What is contact-induced language change, and which are the mechanisms that govern it? What do arachnophobia, myalgia, geology, heterophagy mean?
In this course we will study language contact and its outcomes, as well as the social and linguistic factors that regulate contact-induced changes. We will examine a wide range of language contact phenomena from both general linguistic and sociolinguistic perspectives, and survey current approaches to all of the major types of contact-induced change (e.g. borrowing). Having Greek (but also other languages) as an example, we will consider linguistic and social aspects of the contact context as well as look into how the particular language has shaped the savant vocabulary of science, philosophy, arts, etc.

More precisely, we will offer a brief overview of the history of the Greek language with special emphasis on the Greek vocabulary that Greek language landed or borrowed at different stages of its history as a result of its linguistic contact with other nations and languages. We will start with the Pre-Hellenic phase of Greek and then we focus in Proto-Hellenic, Ancient Greek, Koine, Medieval Greek and finally Modern Greek.

The course aims to guide students on their research in a structured way and to present professionalization information crucial to success in the field. The course is organized largely around working on the research paper, with the goal of making it a conference-presentable and journal-publishable work. Topics covered include abstracts, publishing, handouts, presentation skills, course design, creating and maintaining a CV, cover letters, webpages, and in general everything that is required for you to successfully compete for jobs in linguistics.

W 12:00 – 1:50 pm

This course deals with a variety of topics specific to Linguistic Pedagogy.

TH 3:30 – 4:50 pm

This course is an independent study under the guidance of a faculty advisor, indicated by the section number. Please consult with the faculty member in question before enrolling.

This course offers a brief survey of how linguists analyze the structure and the use of language. Looking at the structure of language means understanding what phonemes, words, and sentences are, and how each language establishes principles for the combinations of these things and for their use; looking at the use of language means understanding the ways in which individuals and groups use language to declare their social identities and the ways in which languages can change over time. The overarching theme is understanding what varieties of language structure and use are found across the world's languages and cultures, and what limitations on this variety exist.

This course will introduce students to the different types of basic classifiers used in American Sign Language as well as how to use them to express various concepts in ASL. The course will help students to develop and improve their conversational, receptive, and expressive skills in American Sign Language. Upon completion students will be able to grasp the rules of grammar for basic ASL classifiers as well as how to apply this knowledge in more sophisticated dialogues.

This course is an introduction to the study of speech sounds and their patterning in the world's languages. The first half of the course focuses on how speech sounds are described with respect to their articulatory, acoustic, and perceptual structures. There are lab exercises both in phonetic transcription and in the acoustic analysis of speech sounds. The second half focuses on fundamental notions that have always been central to phonological analysis and that transcend differences between theoretical approaches: contrast, neutralization, natural classes, distinctive features, and basic phonological processes (e.g., assimilation).

This course is a continuation of Introduction to Syntax (LING 20201).

This course familiarizes students with what it means to study meaning and use in natural language. By “meaning” we refer to the (for the most part, logical) content of words, constituents, and sentences (semantics), and by “use” we intend to capture how this content is implemented in discourse and what kinds of additional dimensions of meaning may then arise (pragmatics). Some of the core empirical phenomena that have to do with meaning are introduced: lexical (i.e., word) meaning, reference, quantification, logical inferencing, presupposition, implicature, context sensitivity, cross-linguistic variation, speech acts. Main course goals are not only to familiarize students with the basic topics in semantics and pragmatics but also to help them develop basic skills in semantic analysis and argumentation.

This is a survey course in the psychology of language. We will focus on issues related to language comprehension, language production, and language acquisition. The course will also train students on how to read primary literature and conduct original research studies.

TBA.

TBA.

Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form.

This course is a continuation of Syntax I. The emphasis will be on A'-movement and ellipsis operations within the framework of Principles and Parameters and the Minimalist Program. Although we will examine different types of movement and ellipsis constructions, as well as their interactions, the objective will be to understand to what extent we can develop a general theory of syntax. The course will have a strong cross-linguistic aspect to it, examining data from Irish, Austronesian languages, Mayan languages, Wolof, Russian, Romance, Germanic, and others. The topics will include wh-movement in questions, relative clauses, and other constructions, islands and other constraints on movement, sentence fragments (sluicing, split questions), VP-ellipsis, and gapping.

This course expands on the material presented in MOGK 10200/30200, reviewing and elaborating the basic patterns of the language.

American Sign Language is the language of the deaf in the United States and much of Canada. It is a full-fledged autonomous language, unrelated to English or other spoken languages. This introductory course teaches the student basic vocabulary and grammatical structure, as well as aspects of deaf culture.

This is the second in a two-course sequence designed to provide a foundation in the scientific study of all aspects of linguistic meaning. The second quarter focuses on the syntax-semantics interface and cross-linguistic semantics. The class will introduce in detail a theory of the way in which the meaning of complex linguistic expressions is formed compositionally from the meaning of constituent parts, and the interaction of semantic and syntactic composition. This theory will form the basis for exploring some empirical questions about the systematicity of cross-linguistic variation in the encoding of meaning.

This is the third course in the Intermediate series. In this course we continue to increase grammatical structure, receptive and expressive skills, conversational skills, basic linguistic convergence, and knowledge of idioms. Field trip required.

This course is an introduction to the history of Southeastern Europe since the 1790s. Each week’s work will examine a key topic in Balkan affairs through a combination of lectures, readings, and discussion of associated issues. The course will not follow the history of any one Balkan country comprehensively. Instead, it will direct students’ attention to relevant developments that address questions like these: (1) How does Balkan history relate to European history? (2) What is a nation, a nationality, and an ethnic group? (3) What has nationalism meant in the Balkans? The course emphasizes the history of Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, and Yugoslavia, with some attention to events in the Ottoman Empire, the Habsburg Monarchy, and Hungary as appropriate. The course aims to offer a historical background that will enable students to better understand the recent history of Greece and the Balkans.

TBA.

Swahili is the most popular language of Sub-Saharan Africa, spoken in most countries of Eastern and Central Africa by more than 50 million people. Swahili is characterized by the typical complex Bantu structure. However, it is particularly easy to pronounce and fast learned.

The Elementary Swahili series is designed to help students acquire communicative competence in Swahili and a basic understanding of its structures. The course presents basic phonological, grammatical, and syntactic patterns of Kiswahili.

Through a variety of exercises, students develop communicative functionality in listening, speaking, reading and writing. Emphasis is put on dialogues and role-plays, individual and group presentations, and the use of audiovisual and web-based resources. Swahili culture and African culture in general are an important component of the course.

At the end of the elementary course series, the students are able to communicate efficiently in everyday life situations, write and present short descriptive notes about elementary pieces of verbal creation (documentaries and video series in Swahili). This course allows fulfilling the non-Indo-European language requirement.

This course is an introduction to sociolinguistics, the study of language in its social context. We will look at variation at all levels of language and how this variation constructs and is constructed by identity and culture, including relationships between language and social class, language and gender, and language and ethnicity. We will also discuss language attitudes and ideologies, as well as some of the educational, political, and social repercussions of language variation and standardization.

Based on Swahili Grammar and Workbook, this course is a continuation of Linguistic Introduction to Swahili I. It addresses complex issues related to grammatical agreement, verb moods, noun and verb derivation, non-typical adjectives and adverbs, double object constructions, subordinate / coordinated clause constructions, and dialectal variation. Additionally, this course provides important listening and expressive reading skills. For advanced students, historical interpretations are offered for exceptional patterns observed in Swahili, in relation with other Bantu languages. This course allows fulfilling the non-Indo-European language requirement.

Spoken by around 18 million in Central and Eastern Africa, Kinyarwanda / Kirundi is one of the most spoken Bantu languages and has the status of an official language in Rwanda and Burundi. Based on a conversation book and a grammar guide, this course integrates speaking practice and linguistic discussion. It will allow the students to understand fundamental structures of Kinyarwanda in various areas. Topics include sound and tonal patterns, noun class agreements, verb moods, and sentence structures. Additionally, this course provides important listening and expressive reading skills. It will allow the students to discover elements of the Rwandan culture and to participate in elementary conversation about everyday life in Kinyarwanda. This is a general introduction course with no specific prerequisites. It allows fulfilling the non-Indo-European language requirement.

This course focuses on current approaches to multilingualism and multilingual education from psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic, and educational perspectives. Topics to cover include multilingualism and minority languages, the effect of bilingualism on the acquisition of additional languages, definitions and typologies of multilingual education. The course includes different theoretical and research perspectives in the study of multilingual competence and evaluation of multilingual programs in education, such as translanguaging or the study of the linguistic landscape. The course pays specific attention to the analysis of different research methodologies and to the role of minority languages in education and in society.

TBA.

TBA.

TBA.

This course deals with a variety of topics specific to Linguistic Pedagogy.

This course is an independent study under the guidance of a faculty advisor, indicated by the section number. Please consult with the faculty member in question before enrolling.