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First-Year Courses in LinguisticsThis page was created at 12:17 PM on Thu, Oct 4, 2001. Fall Academic Term, 2001 (September 5 - December 21)Open courses in Linguistics Wolverine Access Subject listing for LING Fall Term '01Time Schedule for Linguistics. LING 102. First Year Seminar (Humanities).Section 001 The Chinese LanguageInstructor(s): San Duanmu (duanmu@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: Only first-year students, including those with sophomore standing, may pre-register for First-Year Seminars. All others need permission of instructor. (3). (HU). First-Year Seminar, Credits: (3). Course Homepage: http://coursetools.ummu.umich.edu/2001/fall/ling/102/001.nsf This is not a language course, but a seminar that examines some interesting facets of the Chinese language. Chinese is spoken by a fifth of the world's population and differs from western languages in many ways. Questions to be discussed include: How was the Chinese writing system invented and how did it evolve? What is tone and how does it distinguish words? How does old Chinese differ from modern Chinese? How are Chinese dictionaries organized? How do Chinese dialects differ? We will also look at some peculiar properties of Chinese, such as monosyllabic words (each syllable is a word) and lack of inflection (no number, tense, or person marking). No knowledge of Chinese is required.
LING 103. First Year Seminar (Social Science).Section 001 Deciphering Ancient Languages.Instructor(s): William H Baxter III (wbaxter@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: Only first-year students, including those with sophomore standing, may pre-register for First-Year Seminars. All others need permission of instructor. (3). (SS). First-Year Seminar, Credits: (3). Course Homepage: http://coursetools.ummu.umich.edu/2001/fall/ling/103/001.nsf The written remains of ancient cultures if we can read them tell us a great deal about how the human world got the way it is. Over the last two centuries, scholars have managed to decipher Ancient Egyptian, the cuneiform scripts of the Middle East, and (most recently) the Mayan hieroglyphs of Central America. This course looks at how they did it. Problem sets involving authentic ancient inscriptions will be used to show how historical and linguistic knowledge, careful reasoning, and dumb luck have led to successful decipherments in the past, and may produce additional successes in the future.
LING 114. A World of Words.Section 001.Instructor(s): John M Lawler (jlawler@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (HU). Credits: (3). Course Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/wow/ The English language is said to have almost a million words; words for everything from aardvarks to zygotes. There are a lot of questions asked about words: Do we really have all the words we need? How do we know what they mean? Why is English spelling so weird (or is it wierd)? Why are some words considered "bad" and others "good"? Where do words come from, anyway? In this course we will study and attempt to answer these and other questions about the English language and its vocabulary. Topics to be studied include:
In the process of studying these we can expect:
Assignments include readings, group and individual homework assignments, participation both in class discussions, and (take-home) midterm and final exams. Texts include:
LING 140. Introduction to Deaf Culture.Section 001.Instructor(s): Paula D Berwanger (pberwang@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (Excl). Credits: (3). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. This course introduces students to Deaf culture within the United States, and focuses on the link between culture and language (in this case, American Sign Language). An analysis of medical and cultural models of perceiving deafness is investigated to familiarize students with the range of perceptions held by members of the cultural majority and the effect it has on the Deaf community. The influencing factors of educational systems on deaf children are reviewed to understand the link between language systems used in the classroom and the development of a Deaf identity. The historical roots of American Sign Language and the value of language preservation provide for additional overview of attitudes in American society. Social adaptations to deafness and individual factors of communicative and linguistic development are analyzed for understanding the implications of family and social systems on deaf children and adults. Instructor will use a course pack. There will be weekly written assignments (1-2 paragraph reaction statements to readings from the course pack) or weekly quizzes. There will be a written midterm and final.
LING 150. Elementary American Sign Language.Section 001.Instructor(s): Paula D Berwanger (pberwang@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: Concurrent enrollment in or completion of Ling. 140. (4). (LR). Credits: (4). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. LING 150 is a beginning course in American Sign Language (ASL) that introduces students to basic grammatical structures and sign vocabulary through intensive classroom conversational interactions. Emphasis is on practical communicative functions as students learn how to communicate in a visual-gestural channel. Classroom work is supplemented by video-taped workbook exercises to facilitate development of receptive language skills. Linguistics 140 (Introduction to Deaf Culture) is a pre- or co-requisite for this course. Class will meet two days, two hours per day. There will be 1-2 hours of weekly lab work to be completed at the Language Resource Center. This class will be conducted exclusively in American Sign Language. Required course materials include a workbook and videotape. Handouts will also be provided. An optional Dictionary of ASL is suggested. Students will complete weekly assignments from the workbook. There will be both a midterm and final consisting of both written exams and videotaped Sign Language interactions. A 3-5 page term paper is also required (a report on a Deaf social event, on an interaction with Deaf persons, or on an approved article or subject).
LING 210. Introduction to Linguistic Analysis.
Section 001.Instructor(s): Thomas E Toon (ttoon@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (SS). Credits: (4). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. Nothing is more distinctly human than our ability to use language. Because of that, we expect that the study of language can provide insight into "human nature." This course is an analytic introduction to the methods linguists use for describing languages (although general training in analytic thought is our ultimate goal). Drawing on examples from a large number of the worlds languages, we will look at the sounds of language, how they are produced and how they pattern into words; we will study the diverse ways in which individual languages approach processes of word and sentence formation, while we ask whether there are processes universal to all languages. By focusing simultaneously on language data and on the techniques used by linguists to make sense of these data, we will see that our understanding of the object of inquiry (language) is influenced by our methods of inquiry. Requirements include problem-solving assignments, quiz(zes), and midterm and final exams; there is no prerequisite except an interest in language and thinking.
LING 211. Introduction to Language.
Section 001.Instructor(s): Robin M Queen (rqueen@umich.edu) , Rusty BarrettPrerequisites & Distribution: (3). (SS). Credits: (3). Course Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rqueen/TEACHING/211 From time immemorial human beings have been curious about what appears to be a uniquely human possession, human language about its structure, its diversity, its use, and its effects on others. This course explores the human capacity for language. We begin with a discussion of the uniqueness of human language and then review major aspects of language structure common to all human languages: sound systems, words and their meanings, sentence structures and meaning. We will then examine child language development, sentence processing, and language change; finally, we will extend our results to discussions of language variation, including social and political attitudes toward language (for instance, what is "Standard English", and is it better than other dialects of English? And should English become the official national language of the United States?). Course requirements include regular homework assignments, one midterm exam, and a final exam. Required Textbook:
LING 212. Introduction to the Symbolic Analysis of Language.
Section 001.Instructor(s): Acrisio PiresPrerequisites & Distribution: (4). (MSA). Credits: (4; 2 in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. This course is an introduction to some basic mathematical concepts and techniques used in linguistics. The main focus of the course will be learning how to construct models of natural language with these mathematical tools and to evaluate to which extent these models succeed in approximating natural language. It will introduce and explore topics familiar to linguistic theory such as structural descriptions, phrases and phrase markers, the use of set theory, trees, transformations and constraints on their application; and notions of derivations and representations. Most of the issues covered in the courses relate directly to syntax, although it should also be relevant to people interested in computational linguistics and semantics. Possible extensions into those areas may include types of grammars, automata and parsing theory; and/or the use of first order logic in quantification. There will be weekly readings and/or homework, a midterm and a final exam. There will be no discussion this course. The course will be MW 11:30-1 only.
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