MLL331: Topics in Linguistics
Spring 2005

Syllabus Course Description Assessment/Grading Research Guide
Class Calendar Reading Collection Recommended Reading Useful Links

Instructor:
Dr. Jianhua Bai (427-5530) (Bai@kenyon.edu)
Office: 112 Ascension Hall
Office Hours:  Monday and Wedn: 11-12 and 1-2 and by appointment

Schedule:
T.R.13:10-14:30 RBH215

Required Textbooks:
Akmajian, A. et al. 2001. Linguistics: an introduction to language and Communication. The MIT Press.
Trudgill, Peter. 2000. Sociolinguistics: an introduction to language and society. New York: Penguin Books
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Course Description
This course is an introduction to linguistics, an academic field devoted to the study of various aspects of human language. We will start with the following topics: morphology, phonetics, phonology, semantics and syntax and then move on to pragmatics, sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics. We will learn what languages are like, how they are analyzed, how they change, how they are acquired and taught, how they differ from culture to culture and how social relations are reflected in languages. In addition to exploring the major questions inherent in the nature of human language students will conduct and share their own research projects that are designed to develop and strengthen students' research and analytical skills not only in the area of linguistics but also in other areas of their academic research.
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Assignments and Evaluation
1.  Class participation (15%). Before you come to class, you should finish the assigned reading. We will spend the class time discussing the fundamental concepts from the readings.
2. Weekly Exercises (10%). Late "arrivals" will not earn credits although I will be happy to correct them and provide feedback.
3. Two short critique papers (5%) that consist of 1) good summary that describes the research questions, the methodology employed and the findings of the research, 2) your reflections and critique of the article and, 3) how the information you obtained is relevant to your own research and/or interest. In other words what have you learned from the reading? Is it informative in terms of understanding of the issue under question or/and in terms of designing your own research methodology? Does the review of literature help you identify a direction in which your research can advance the understanding of the issue under exploration?
4. A 10-page double-spaced term paper (20%). Click here for the research guidlines and due dates.
5. Mid-term (1:10-2:30, 2/24) and final examinations (6:30-8:30, 5/9) (50%)
    The examinations are designed for you to demonstrate 1) that you have understood the key concepts of the textbooks and readings, 2) that you have done all the exercises, and 3) that you have grasped the topics discussed in class. For the first part of the examination, you need to define and explain 10 key concepts such as (generative grammar, semantics, speaker meaning and linguistic meaning, synonymy, binary antonyms, coreference, syntax, constituent structure, transformational rules, structural ambiguity, phrase structure rules, nodes, root and derived structure, particle movement, conjunction constraint, extraposition, morpheme, grammatical morpheme, bond morpheme, prefix, derivational affix, inflectional affix, phonemic, allophone, distinctive feature, complementary distribution, phonological rule, affricate, manner of articulation.). The second part will be five questions that are identical or VERY similar to the exercises that we have done so far. The third part will be two essay questions that are related to the topics discussed in class.

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Class Calender
 
Date Content Readings and Homework
1/18 Introduction to the course and pretest

Chapter 1 What is Linguistics
Click here to read more
1/20

What is language? What do you know about different languages? What do linguists do? What are some of the major subfields in linguistics?

Chapter 2 Morphology
1/25 Morphology: the study of words and word structures. What is in a word? What do we know when we say that we know a word? Phonetic information, lexical and syntactic information, what else?

Review Ch. 2 and do exercises 1-10.

Click here to read more on morphology.
1/27

Morphology: the study of words and word structures.
Start the chapter on phonetics, if possible.

Chapter 3 Phonetics
2/1 Phonetics: the study of sounds. How are human speech produced and heard (articulatory phonetics)? How speech sounds can be analyzed visually on a computer (accoustic phonetics)? Review Ch. 3 and do exercises 1-10.

Click here to read about Acoustic phonetics.
2/3

Continue with phonetics and phonemics
Praat and Acoustic phonetics: we are going to have this class in LLC (downstairs) of Olin Library.

Chapter 4 Phonology
2/8 Phonology: the study of the sound systems of a language. Is /t/ pronounced the same way in "tea" and "writer"? What is phonological rules behind systematic sound changes?

Review Ch. 4 and do exercises: All.

Chapter 5 Syntax
2/10 Syntax: the study of sentence structures. What are the different approaches to the study of syntax? What is structural ambiguity? Phrase structure grammar? and thransformatinal rules? How are these concepts used when we analyze language structures? Review Ch. 5 and do exercises 1-10.
2/15 More on Syntax Chapter 6 Semantics 
2/17 Semantics: the study of linguistic meanings. What is meaning? What are the theories of meaning?

 Read an article from the Reading List and write a critique paper and get ready to share with the class.
Optional: exercises 1-10.
2/22

General review and talk about your research projects.
First critique paper due.
2/24 Mid-term Exam Intro. to sociolinguistics
3/1

Introduction to sociolinguistics

Research Proposal Due

 Read Trudgill/Ch. 1 and 2
3/3 Language and social class. How do social variables and linguistic variables interact. Trudgill/Ch. 1 and 2

Spring Break :)

Read the little Penguin book on sociolinguistics
3/22

What do we know about language and ethnic groups?

Trudgill/Ch.3

  Read an article from the Reading List and write a critique paper and get ready to share with the class. Read Trudgill/Ch. 4.
3/24

How is language and communication affected by gender,
Recommended Reading: Tannen 1990

Trudgill/Ch.5
Trudgill/Ch.6
3/29

How do social contexts affect linguistic performance?
Language and Social Interaction
Recommended Reading: Hymes, 1974
Second critique paper due.

  Trudgill/Ch.7
 
3/31

Research techniques and library skills.

 Linguistics Chapter 7
4/5 Language Varision. We examine regional, social, and personal variation, types of language typical of different activities.

Chapter 8

Review Ch. 7 and do exercises 1-5.
4/7 How does language change over time and how languages can be historically related?

 Chapter 9
Review Ch. 8 and do exercises 1-4.

More on "language change"
4/12 Pragmatics examines language use in context. How contexts condition the intepretation of linguistic meanings? What is context? Situational? Linguistic? Cultural? We will explore speech acts, pragmatic presupposition, speaker reference etc. Review Ch. 9 and do exercises 1-5.
4/14 More on Pragmatics Chapter 10
4/19 Psychology of Language: How is the knowledge of language represented in the mind/brain? What are some of the important questions about L1 and L2 language acquisition?

Chapter 11

Review Ch. 10

4/21 L1 Acquisition: What are the stages of acquisition? What have we learned about the intricate system known as "LAD"? Review Ch. 11
4/26

L2 Acquisiton: we will deal with the difference of L1 and L2 acquisition, interlanguage and other issues involved in L2 acquisition.

Chapter 12
4/28

Language and the brain that deals with how language is stored and processed in the brain.

 Click here to read more on "brain"
5/3

General Review and presentations

Research Paper Due

  
5/5 General Review and presentations  
5/9 Monday: Final Examination: 6:30-8:30
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Useful Links to Internet Resourses
1. Guidelines for Research Papers
2. Ask a Linguist: The site allows students,educators, or other interested parties to submit a question dealing with language or linguistics to a panel of linguists that includes faculty members from Oxford University, the University of Arizona, and the University of Michigan. While users can submit any type of question dealing with language they choose, a section of the site provides answers to frequently asked questions.
3. Center for Applied Linguistics: Improve communication through better understanding of language and culture.
4. ERIC digests: Short research papers on linguistics, foreign language education, ESL, bilingual education, and etc.
5. Linguist List
6. Sounds of the World's Animals: Go to the page if you want to find out how animals "talk" differently around the world.
7. Doing phonetics with computers
8.Languages of the World
9. National Foreign Language Center.
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Recommended Reading:
Bates, E. 1976. Language and Context : The Acquisition of Pragmatics. New York : Academic Press.
Bolinger, D. 1968. Aspects of Language. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World.
Brown, P. 1987.  Politeness : some universals in language usage. Cambridge Univ. Press.
Brown, H. D. 1994. Principles of language learning and teaching. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall
Chomsky, N. 1957 or 1966. Syntactic structures. The Hague, Mouton.
Crystal, D. 1987. The Cambridge encyclopedia of language. Cambridge Univ. Press.
Hymes, D. 1974. Foundations in sociolinguistics; an ethnographic approach. Univ. of Penn. Press.
Jespersen, O.1969. Essentials of English Grammar. University of Alabama Press.
Levinson, S. C. 1983. Pragmatics. N.Y.: Cambridge University Press.
Lightbrown, P. M. 1999. How languages are learned? London: Oxford Univ. Press.
Pinker, Steven. 1994. The language instinct. New York: W. Morrow and Co.
Sapir, Edward. 1921. Language: an introduction to the study of speech. N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and World.
Slobin, Dan. 1971. Psycholinguistics. London: Scott, Foresman and Co.
Tannen, D. 1990. You just don't understand : women and men in conversation. NY: Morrow.
Thomas, J. 1995. Meaning in Interaction : An Introduction to Pragmatics. London: Longman.
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Disability Access Statement
If you have a hidden or visible disability which may require classroom or test accommodations please see me as soon as possible during a scheduled office hour. If you have not already done so, you must register with the Coordinator of Disability Services (Erin Salva, salvae@kenyon.edu, x5145), who is the individual responsible for coordinating accommodations and
services for students with disabilities. All information and documentation of disability is strictly confidential. No accommodations will be granted in this course without notification from the Office of Disability Services.
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