Winter

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.

 Mon Wed : 04:30 PM-05:50 PM

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.

T Th 12:30pm-1:50pm

This course is intended for students with a strong background in phonology. We will explore the major themes of phonological theory from 1870 to today, focusing on such questions as the distinction between phonology and morphophonology, the nature of phonological representations, and the character of hard and soft contraints on phonological representations.

T Th 9:30am-10:50am

Languages change in a variety of ways over time: pronunciations shift, new words are borrowed and old words stop being used, etc. In this course, we explore a particular type of language change-grammaticalization-from a cross-linguistic perspective. Grammaticalization refers to a lexical item such as a verb or noun coming to serve a grammatical function. For example, the English future 'going to/gonna' is an instance of grammaticalization from the verb 'go' to a future marker, a change we also find in Spanish, French, Irish, Arabic, etc. In this class, we focus on how this type of change happens across languages: What its steps are, how they are ordered, etc. We begin with an introduction to the phenomenon of language change in general and learn about the mechanisms behind grammaticalization. Then, we look at how change usually proceeds (unidirectionally and in a cyclical fashion). The rest of the class is dedicated to case studies showing how grammaticalization operates with regards to specific phenomena. We will talk about negation, copulas, tense/aspect changes as well as grammaticalization from pronouns to agreement markers. The students will become familiar with the most studied grammaticalization clines as well as how linguists have modeled them.

T Th 12:30pm-1:50pm

This class examines the history and methodology behind the creation of constructed languages or "conlangs". We will explore how and why languages are constructed, critically assess the design of existing conlangs (e.g. Klingon, Esperanto), and discuss conlanging both as an art form and as a tool to study the properties of natural human language, connecting this to the field of linguistic typology. Throughout the course, students will each build their own conlang, combining knowledge across various linguistic subfields to produce a workable grammar. They will explore the patterns seen in natural languages, developing a deeper understanding of how phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics interact and applying this towards language construction.

T Th 2:00pm-3:20pm

T Th 2:00pm-3:20pm

The general public has long been alarmed about the number of languages that disappear from use and are no longer spoken in the world. Their speakers shift to other languages. Linguists have long have long explored these situations of shift. At the same time, social groups have mobilized to document, revitalize and archive their resources of communication. That is one kind of language politics and dialectic we will explore. Others include: the choice of pronouns by youthful speakers; the standardization of languages that are indigenous or with small population of speakers; the reform of sexist and racist language; and the analysis of political speech designed to persuade in democratic and authoritarian regimes.

T Th 2:00pm-3:20pm

T Th 3:30pm-4:50pm

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.

T Th 9:30am-10:50am