Introduction to Linguistics

Introduction to Linguistics

Course Objectives:

Study of Language is an introduction to linguistics, the scientific study of human language.  This course will consider languages as structured systems of form and meaning, with attention also to the biological, psychological, cultural, and social aspects of language and language use. This section of Study of Language will focus on the relationship between language and education.

Course Requirements:

Attendance in class and at the school is MANDATORY. Your overall course grade will be lowered by 5 points for each unexcused absence. Please see professor Charity directly if you need an excused absence, as proper documentation is required (i.e. from the Dean of Students, or Health Services). Readings are due on the day that they are listed. Religious and spiritual related absences will be facilitated. Bring a computer to class if at all possible! If you do not have a laptop or it is hard to bring, please see me.

Assignments and Grading:

Assignments will be posted on the class wiki at least one week before they are due. Late assignments will not be graded without a medical excuse. If an assignment is unexcused and late, you will receive a zero for that assignment. All assignments must be completed to receive a grade in the class, so even if an assignment is late and receives a zero, you must turn it in.

Turning in Assignments:

Most assignments will be due by email Fridays at 10 AM as a .pdf and/or files. The title of the document should be your last name. Linguistics SEE 10 8-11 THURSDAY

(ex: POLILLO.DANNI.ENG.LING SEE 8-11 THURSDAY.doc). Typed portions of assignments should be double spaced in 12 point Times New Roman font with 1-inch margins on all sides. I will expect you to bring an electronic or paper copy of the assignment to class on the following Tuesday. You must turn in the electronic copy and the corrected paper or electronic copy to receive credit for your work. You may work with other people on the assignments, but you must list everyone that you worked with at the top of your assignment or in the accompanying email.

Note on Sustainability:

                I support sustainability initiatives on the WM campus. To reduce paper use, most of your course documents (including the syllabus, readings, and most assignments) will be provided on the course Wiki. Please try to save paper by reading these documents online, if possible. If you must print out documents, please consider printing double-sided and/or with two sheets per page. I also encourage you to turn in your assignments electronically when at all possible. For more information, please see the Sustainability at W&M website:www.wm.edu/sustainability

The course textbook and workbook are required. Please bring textbooks to class at each meeting unless otherwise indicated. You may purchase the paper or online edition of the texts. If you use the texts online, please bring a laptop to class at each meeting.

Textbook:

Finegan, E.  2008  Fifth Edition.  Language: Its Structure and Use. Harcourt Brace

Textbook Website:

http://www.cengage.com:80/cengage/instructor.do?product_isbn=9781413030556&disciplinenumber=300&codeid=7592&courseid=EN09

Frommer, E. and Finegan, E.  2004. Looking at Languages (Workbook) Fourth Edition.

Workbook website:

http://www.coursesmart.com/9781413030853

Free text supplementary materials:

http://www.heinle.com/cgi-heinle/course_products_hl.pl?fid=M20b&product_isbn_issn=9781413030556&discipline_number=300

O’Grady, William. 2005. Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction, Chapters from Various Editions: Natural Sign Languages, Language and the Brain

Rayner, K., Foorman, B.R., Perfetti, C.A., Pesetsky, D. & Seidenberg, M.S. (2001). How psychological science informs the teaching of reading. Psychological science in the public interest, 2(2), 31-74. A supplement to Psychological Science.

http://www.pitt.edu/~perfetti/PDF/How%20psych%20sci%20informs%20teaching%20of%20reading-%20Rayner%20et%20al..pdf

Winford, Donald. 2001. Chapter 1. Introduction to Contact Languages. Blackwell.

Grading:

Class (and elsewhere) Participation 15%

 Homework Assignments 45%

Midterm Exam 15%

Final Exam 25%

Topics and assignments are subject to change at the discretion of your Professor.  Readings are due on the day that they are listed.

1.       What is Linguistics? What is grammar? Language Myths & Prescriptive vs. descriptive accounts of language

Reading:

Familiarize yourself with the textbook and the course website.

Labov, William. 1987. How I got into linguistics, and what I got out of it. Ms.,

University of Pennsylvania. http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~wlabov/HowIgot.html

2.       Last Week of July:  What is a language?

                Overview of language, animal communication & human language, the human brain & language development, go over linguistic autobiographies

Reading: Finegan Chapter 1: Languages and Linguistics

Last week of July  : Morphology: The Dictionary in your head

3.       What does it mean to know a word?

                Parts of speech, parts of meaning, & vocabulary; morphological systems

Reading: Finegan Chapter 2: Words and Their Parts: Lexicon and Morphology

4.       August 2: Morphology II: Bordering on the unpossible morphological organization and analysis

 Assignment 1: Intro to Linguistics & Morphology assignment due Thursday second week of August, at 10 AM.

5.       Third week of August : Phonetics I: How do you spell that again?

 Phonology I: How are sounds classified in the mind?

                Phonetic Features, phonemes, allophones, syllable structure

                Reading: Finegan Chapter 4: Sound Systems of Language: Phonology

6.       Phonology II Phonological patterns & structures,  Phonology III: Morphophonology and Visual Phonology: Sign Language

Reading:

O’Grady Chapter 10: Natural Sign Languages &

http://commtechlab.msu.edu/Sites/aslweb/browser.htm

Assignment 3: Phonology assignment due Friday on Syntax: How is language structured? Constituent structure, structural rules and relations, phrase structure rules, & grammatical relations

Reading: Finegan Chapter 5: The Structure and Function of Phrases and Sentences: Syntax,: Syntax II: The regenerative nature of language structure ,Transformations and language variation

Assignment 4: Syntax assignment due Friday .Syntax III and Semantics: Sounds to Meaning

Reading: Finegan Chapters 6 &8: The Study of Meaning: Semantics & Information Structure and Pragmatics

7.       Semantics, Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis; How does sound translate to meaning?

                Speech acts, Narrative structure,, Speech Acts and Conversation

Assignment 5: Semantics/Pragmatics assignment due Friday .Semantics/Pragmatics will NOT be on the midterm but will be tested on the final**

8.        Language Variation and Change: Historical and Socio linguistics, Language classification & language groupings, Language Variation and Change: Language Reconstruction,Wherefore art thou English?Comparative method and types of linguistic change

Assignment 5: Historical Linguistics assignment due Friday October 23 at 10 AM

9.        Language Variation and Change: Language and its Social Correlates ,What do YOU call bubbly drinks?Dialectology, Regional variation

10.    Language Contact,Interaction of social and acquisition , Pidgins and Creoles: The Language You Cry in , Reading: http://newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0053

11.    Acquiring First and Second Languages, How children acquire language                , Learning a second language,Reading: Finegan Chapter 15: Acquiring First and Second Languages

12.    Reading and Writing,Types of writing systems,                Relationships between speech, reading, and writing;Reading: Finegan Chapter 12: Reading & Writing  Rayner, K., Foorman, B.R., Perfetti, C.A., Pesetsky, D. & Seidenberg, M.S. (2001). How psychological science informs the teaching of reading. Psychological science in the public interest, 2(2), 31-74. A supplement to Psychological Science.