Fundamentals Syllabus

Course Outline

Linguistics 522

The table below gives an approximate schedule of classes, assignments, and lectures for this course. On days that are shaded gray, class does not meet. Days shaded gray before the last day of classes are holidays.

Day

Reading

Assignment

Lecture

Background
Thu Jan 19 Chapter 1, O'Grady. Prerequisites. Syllabus. Expectations.   Conceptions/misconceptions From the reading for this week. Subfields of linguistics Lecture 1: Four tiers of grammar: Morphology, Phonetics, Phonology, Syntax. Developing a tolerance for imperfect understanding.  
Tue Jan 24   The role of assignments in this course. Indonesian morphology problem    
Thu Jan 26 Chapter 4, Morphology, the analysis of word structure. Words and parts of speech. Morphemes as atomic/minimal units of meaning. Prefixes and suffixes. Bound and free morphemes.      
Tue Jan 31   Assignment. Morphology problems in other languages. Tuvaluan morphology, Latin problem, Lakota problem, Russian morphology, Homework, part II, English. Morphology lecture.  
Thu Feb 02        
Tue Feb 07 Chapter 2, Phonetics, classifying sounds, meaningful distinctions, cross-linguistic variety of sound systems. Assignment O'Grady, Chapter 2, Ex. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Assignment 2: Transcription.
Downloading your own Phonetic transcription fonts for Windows.
Solution to Morphological structure Problem. Solution to Persian Problem. 		Sounds and how to count them. Acoustics  
Thu Feb 09        
Tue Feb 14 Chapter 3, Phonology, Patterning and functioning of sounds in combination Assignment. Phonology problems in other languages. Introductory allophony problems O'Grady, Chapter 3, Ex. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Generalizations about sounds  
Thu Feb 16        
Tue Feb 21 Chapter 3, Phonology, ctd. Patterning and functioning of sounds in combination Assignment. Phonology problems in other languages. Finnish Greek Hebrew Japanese Generalizations about sounds Acoustics  
Thu Feb 23        
Tue Feb 28 Chapter 5, Syntax Assignment. O'Grady. Intro to syntax Phrase-structure rules  
Thu Mar 01        
Tue Mar 06 Chapter 5, Syntax ctd. Assignment. Study for inclass midterm.    
Thu Mar 08 Chapter 2-5 Review. Assignment. Model answer to syntax assignment.    
Tue Mar 13 Chapter 5, Syntax, ctd. The language faculty reconsidered. Readings:
  1. Fitch, Hauser and Chomsky on the language faculty (2002) [Blackboard]
  2. Jackendoff and Pinker: Reply to Fitch, Hauser, Chomsky (2005) II [Blackboard]
  3. Everett: Cultural constraints on grammar ["Lack of embedding" section] (2005)
Assignment: Inclass midterm TODAY Mar 13. Recursion writing assignment due Tues. Mar 27 Recursion Everett on Piraha (Pi-da-HAN) :
  1. New Yorker article on Everett
  2. Mark Liberman on the Everett controversy (I)
  3. Mark Liberman on the Everett controversy (II)
Thu Mar 15        
Tue Mar 20 Chapter 6, Semantics. Entailment, Extension-intension, Features and prototypes, Thematic roles and syntax, Implicature vs. entailment Assignment. Meaning and structure. O'Grady, Chapter 6, Ex. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 17,18    
Thu Mar 22        
Tue Mar 27 H'day H'day H'day H'day
Thu Mar 29 H'day H'day H'day H'day
Tue Apr 03 Chapter 7, Historical Linguistics. Language change, language families, reconstruction.   Intro to historical linguistics Intro to reconstruction  
Thu Apr 05        
Tue Apr 10 Chapter 7, Historical Linguistics, ctd. Comparative method. Natural and unnatural sound change. A closer look at reconstruction. Assignment. Historical linguistics. O'Grady, Chapter 7, Ex. 1, 2, 8. Do the problems in Sections 2 and 3 of Examples of reconstruction Intro to comparative method Examples of reconstruction Weakening Identify your "accent".  
Thu Apr 12        
Tue Apr 17 Chapter 7, Historical Linguistics, ctd. Comparative method. Natural and unnatural sound change. A closer look at reconstruction. Assignment. Historical linguistics. O'Grady, Chapter 7, Ex. 11, 12, 13. Weakening  
Thu Apr 19        
Tue Apr 24 Chapter 8, Typology. Classifiying languages. Chapter 9. Indigenous languages of North America Assignment. Identifying types. Types of languages  
Thu Apr 26        
Tue May 01 Chapter 10. Language Acquisition      
Thu May 03        
Tue May 08 Chapter 1-10. Review Review. Outline of final material.  
Last class day 		 
Thu May 10