Transfer Student Courses in Linguistics (Division 423)

Fall Term, 1999 (September 8 - December 22, 1999)

To see what Transfer Student courses have been added or changed in Linguistics this week go to What's New This Week.

Section 001.

Instructor(s): David Beck

Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (SS).

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

Language, according to one prominent view, is what makes us human. Certainly it pervades virtually every aspect of human existence. But few people realize how rich the linguistic universe is until they consider the variety of linguistic devices and practices employed by speakers of the 5000-6000 known languages of the world. The goal of this course is to provide an understanding of, and appreciation for, the diversity of human languages – and in this way to enhance students’ sophistication about their own language(s) and culture(s). We will concentrate on two main questions: first, how do languages resemble, and differ from, each other in sounds, word structure, and sentence structure? And second, what are some linguistic and sociopolitical results of situations in which two or more languages come into contact? The context for these investigations will be a study of selected language families, both in class and in individual student projects.

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Diana Cresti (dcresti@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & 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 the representation of linguistic meaning. Set theory, first-order logic, and (elementary) model theory. The main focus of this course will be learning how to construct rudimentary models of natural language with these mathematical tools. We will investigate the extent to which these models succeed in approximating natural language, and analyze some of their better known failures (e.g., why do people often believe that ‘Every cat sneezed’ and ‘No cat sneezed’ are contraries of each other? Why can't our models account for this?). We will also attempt to systematize our understanding of these problems, and discuss possible ways of overcoming (some of) them. There will be weekly exercises, a midterm, and a final exam.

Section 001.

Instructor(s): José Benkî (benki@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Ling. 210 or 211. (3). (SS).

Credits: (3; 2 in the half-term).

Course Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~benki/L313/syll313.html

This course explores two fundamental aspects of the sounds of human languages: speech sounds as physical entities (phonetics) and speech sounds as linguistic units (phonology). In viewing sounds as physical elements, the focus is articulatory descriptions: How are speech sounds made? What types of articulatory movements and configurations are used to differentiate sounds in the world’s languages? In this part of the course, the goal is to learn to produce, transcribe, and describe in articulatory terms many of the sounds known to occur in human languages. In the next part of the course, the focus is on sounds as members of a particular linguistic system. Phonological data from a wide range of languages are analyzed – that is, regularities or patterns in sound distribution are extracted from the data set and then stated within a formal phonological framework. We will also construct arguments to support the proposed analyses, and will find that phonetic factors play a crucial role in validating phonological analyses. Throughout the course, a major emphasis is that speech sounds are simultaneously physical and linguistic elements, and that these two aspects of sound structure are interdependent. Class sessions will consist of lectures, phonetic practice, and discussion of phonological data sets. Course grades will be based on weekly assignments, midterm, and take-home final exam. Linguistics 210, 211, 411, or permission of instructor is required to take the course.

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Teresa Satterfield (tsatter@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Ling. 210 or 211. (3). (Excl).

Credits: (3; 2 in the half-term).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This course introduces the foundations of generative syntactic inquiry. Methodological issues are first presented, including discussions of mentalism, cognitive capacities, mind vs. brain, knowledge vs. behavior, and the difference between studying "languages" as opposed to investigating human cognitive capacities such as the human capacity to acquire natural language systems. A formal syntactic analysis of certain central aspects of syntax is constructed as a vehicle for presenting the fundamental aspects of contemporary syntactic theory, while concurrently illustrating the application of the methods discussed in the first part of the course.

Instructor(s): Patrice Beddor (beddor@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Permission of instructor. (1-6). (Excl). Offered mandatory credit/no credit. (EXPERIENTIAL). May be repeated for a total of six credit.

Credits: (1-6).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

Students will participate in (and, if necessary, be trained for) a service project, through the Program in Linguistics and/or the English Language Institute. Though projects will vary from term to term, they may usually be expected to involve either one-on-one tutoring (in literacy, English as a Second Language, or linguistics, for instance) or formal teaching outside the University, or some mix of these. The course is designed for linguistics concentrators, and good academic preparation in core linguistic concepts is assumed. Each project will have a faculty supervisor, whom students should contact for specific information, and to determine eligibility and any special requirements.

Section 001.

Instructor(s): John Lawler (jlawler@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: One course in phonetics or phonology and a course in syntax. (3). (Excl).

Credits: (3; 2 in the half-term).

Course Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/416.html

The objective of this course is to provide students of linguistics (and well-prepared others) with an opportunity to apply the methods of linguistic analysis and theory that they have studied. Working directly with a native speaker consultant, we will analyze a language which is unfamiliar to the students. This course is the culmination of any linguist's formal training; it turns out that one needs all the linguistics one knows in order to make sense of an unknown language, which is always full of perplexing subtleties and unexpected phenomena.

Starting with the sounds, and moving to the larger structures of the language, we will produce analyses of its phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. In the process, we will use special software developed by the Summer Institute of Linguistics specifically for field work in unknown languages.

At least two short papers, and one final term paper, involving an analysis of some aspect of the data collected will be required. There is no textbook, though there will be readings in a course pack. As a lab class, we will schedule an extra hour a week of elicitation by arrangement.

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Stefan Frisch (sfrisch@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Psych. 340. (3). (Excl).

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~sfrisch/L447_F99.html

This course will survey the field of psycholinguistics, which addresses two related questions: First, to what extent are the theories of linguistic “competence” psychologically real (i.e., part of the linguistic knowledge of real speaker-hearers)? Second, what are the psychological patterns of linguistic “performance”, the use of language in real time? These questions will be answered by examining children’s acquisition of language, to see what aspects of language are innate and what aspects are learned; by studying language processing during production and perception, and language impairments resulting from brain damage, which reveal how language is stored and manipulated by the brain; and by investigating “special cases”, like bilingualism, American Sign Language, and second language acquisition, to determine whether language is part of the general cognitive system or an independent module. This course will explore both the psychological reality of language and the tools used to examine it scientifically.

Section 001 – Text-to-Speech Synthesis. Meets with Linguistics 792.001.

Instructor(s): San Duanmu (duanmu@umich.edu) , Stefan Frisch (sfrisch@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (Excl). May be elected for credit twice.

Credits: (3; 2 in the half-term).

Course Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~sfrisch/L492_F99.html

This is a lab-oriented course that offers hands-on experience in text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis. We will focus on the concatenative TTS technique, although other approaches will also be discussed. The students will learn the basic components of a TTS system and work on several projects in small groups. Prerequisite: knowledge of linguistics or a programming language.

Section 003 – Romance Phonetics. Linguistics 313 or permission of the instructor is required. Meets with Linguistics 792.003.

Instructor(s): José Benkî (benki@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (Excl). May be elected for credit twice.

Credits: (3; 2 in the half-term).

Course Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~benki/L492792/rpsyllabusf99.pdf

This course is an introduction to the methods and results of acoustic and articulatory phonetics through the use of data from Romance languages where possible, including Catalan, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese as well as varieties of these and other Romance languages. Topics will include an introduction to the acoustics of speech, transcription theory, vowel and consonant production, source-filter theory, coarticulation, and intonation. We will cover in detail phonetic phenomena that are widespread in Romance, such as palatalization, voicing contrasts, spirantization, and nasalization. Requirements will include a small-scale acoustic study of some Romance language data. Linguistics 313 or permission of the instructor is a prerequisite.

Section 005 – The Languages of the Pacific Northwest..

Instructor(s): David Beck

Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (Excl). May be elected for credit twice.

Credits: (3; 2 in the half-term).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

An introduction to the languages and cultures of the Pacific Northwest, concentrating on British Columbia and Washington State. Topics to be covered include the typological profiles of individual languages, proposed genetic relationships, and the spread of grammatical, lexical, and phonological features. Particular attention will be paid to the sociolinguistic and anthropological factors that drive languages to become more alike and to diversify in the context of a Sprachbund, as well as to the cultural practices and oral traditions of the Pacific Northwest culture-area.

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Patrice Beddor (beddor@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Ling. 313. (4). (Excl).

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This course introduces students to the nature of speech sounds. One goal is to provide an overview of the types of sounds in the world’s languages, and to train students in the production and transcription of these (sometimes “exotic”) sounds. Practice with speech sounds is accomplished through native-speaker presentations, in-class exercises, and computer demonstrations. A second goal is to arrive at an understanding of the speech process, which involves transmission of an acoustic signal from a speaker to a listener, and a corresponding description of speech sounds in terms of their articulatory, acoustic, and perceptual characteristics. In achieving this goal, students are introduced to basic principles of phonetic theory through readings, lectures, and hands-on experience in the phonetics laboratory. A third goal is to investigate interactions among articulatory, acoustic, and perceptual properties and to consider their possible consequences for the structure of sound systems. These phonetic properties are viewed as imposing a set of constraints on the notion of “possible speech sound” and as contributing to the definition of “possible speech sound system” for human languages.

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Christina Tortora (ctortora@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Ling. 315. (3). (Excl).

Credits: (3; 2 in the half-term).

Course Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~ctortora/515f99/

This course introduces an approach to the analysis of syntactic phenomena known as the “Principles and Parameters” framework. In this (generative) framework, syntactic structure is taken to be generated by (a) a formal rule system, and (b) a finite set of constraints which apply to the output of the rule system. Some of these rules and constraints are hypothesized to be innate, or “unlearned.” Other aspects of our linguistic knowledge, however, appear to be “learned.” In this course we will focus on how the various postulated rules and constraints interact to generate natural language structures.

Course requirements include weekly assignments, one midterm, and one final. Through the assignments, students will learn (among other things) how to construct a solid argument for one hypothesis over another, how to integrate independent empirical evidence to support a hypothesis, and how to evaluate the merit of one hypothesis over the other based on purely theoretical grounds.

For undergraduates, Ling 315 or permission of the instructor are prerequisites. This class will rely heavily on my notes, which will be posted on a “Ling 515” website. As a supplementary text, we will be using Introduction to Government & Binding Theory, by L. Haegeman, Blackwell 2nd Edition.

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Sarah Thomason (thomason@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Graduate standing, or permission of instructor. (3). (Excl).

Credits: (3; 2 in the half-term).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This course is an introduction to the theories and methods that enable linguists to describe and explain processes of linguistic change and historical relationships among languages. The major topics to be covered are the emergence of language families and means of establishing family relationships; sound change; grammatical change, especially analogy; language change caused by culture contacts; the Comparative Method, through which prehistoric language states can be reconstructed with an impressive degree of accuracy; internal reconstruction, a less powerful but still important method for gaining information about linguistic prehistory; and ways in which the study of current dialect variation offers insights into processes of change. Course requirements: regular homework assignments (45%), final exam (45%), class participation (10%).