Transfer Student Courses in Linguistics (Division 423)

Winter Term, 2000 (January 5 - April 26, 2000)

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): 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 – Meets with Linguistics 551

Instructor(s): Carolyn Madden (cagm@umich.edu)

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

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This introductory course in second language acquisition will focus on current theories of second language acquisition and how they relate to second language learning and teaching. The course will cover some of the major historical highlights of SLA research and provide students with experience in data analysis and interpretation. While much of the literature focuses on the acquisition of English, examples and analysis of other language data will be discussed. The course is intended for all students interested in understanding and evaluating proposed models of second language acquisition.

Section 001 – Reading Early Varieties of English.

Instructor(s): Thomas Toon (ttoon@umich.edu)

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

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

See English 408.001.

Section 001.

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

Prerequisites & Distribution: Ling 314 and 315. (3). (Excl).

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

WHAT IS LEARNABILITY? Learnability theory is a method of evaluation of a class of grammatical systems in terms of how feasible it would be for the child-learner to acquire these systems under a given set of circumstances. Learnability theory is one of the central topics of linguistics and cognitive science. (Every valid theory of language acquisition needs to explain it, and probably no other topic has aroused such levels of debate across disciplines.) From the study of human languages, we know that our linguistic system is one of extraordinary complexity; however, acquiring language is something that every child accomplishes successfully in a matter of a few years and without the need for formal instruction. How is this feat possible? In order to address this major question, this course carefully examines learnability, the goal of explaining the learning problem (how languages are "learnable" in the abstract) as based on linguistic theory constructs, and language acquisition theory. Ideally, by integrating these three components, we can actually bring about greater precision and validation in each field while simultaneously informing the general area which constitutes a complete theory of language learning. Every linguistic theory and theory of language acquisition relies on learnability formulations as an ultimate explanatory tool. In turn, learnability draws on characteristics from other disciplines in order to bring about viable solutions to learning operations. The bottom line: linguistics theory outlines what is going on, but learnability determines how it is executed and what cognitive architecture is involved. A number of interesting issues and developments concerning these aspects will be treated in this course.

This course has wide appeal across disciplines such as linguistics, psychology, education, languages and computer science. Given its unique integration of various fields, it can attract a diverse and engaged group of advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students.

Evaluation: (1) a midterm exam where students write short answers to questions designed to test their grasp of reading materials; (2) a final paper (8-10 pp.) on a topic of interest; (3) an oral-based critique/presentation based on one of the syllabus topics and followed by a brief quiz.

Section 001.

Instructor(s): San Duanmu (duanmu@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Ling. 313. (3). (Excl).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

The goal of this course is to introduce students to the fundamental areas of phonology, which is the study of the sound system of human language. These areas include phonemics (how to determine the sound of a language), distinctive features (how to represent sounds), rules and constraints (how to understand and describe sound changes), underspecification, multitiered phonology, feature geometry, and prosodic structure (syllable, stress, tone, intonation). Both theory and problem-solving ability will be emphasized. The assignments include weekly exercises and a final project. Prerequisite: Linguistics 313 or 512, or by permission of the instructor.

Section 001.

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

Prerequisites & Distribution: Linguistics 314. (3). (Excl).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This is an introduction to semantics (literal meaning) and pragmatics (contextual and inferred meaning) with emphasis on applications to grammatical analysis. More than half of the course will be dedicated to semantics. We will explore the question of how people know the meanings of words and sentences of their language, and how semantics relates to syntax on the one hand and logic, mental representations, and the world on the other. Specific topics to be covered include:

1. ambiguities of structure and of meaning;
2. word meaning and compositionality; and
3. quantification and logical form.

There will be weekly exercises, a midterm and a final exam. No specific prerequisites, though it is assumed that participants have a working knowledge of syntax. Designed for first-year graduate students; well-prepared undergraduates are welcomed, but Linguistics concentrators should take 314 to satisfy concentration requirements.

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Lesley Milroy (amilroy@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Ling. 514 or graduate standing. (3). (Excl).

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

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

Students will be introduced to methods of studying the relationships between language variation and social structure and to the major findings of sociolinguists who have examined these relationships. The course will focus largely (but not exclusively) on the quantitative methods developed by Labov, which are designed to reveal the way language change is rooted in synchronic variation. Social models of language change will be considered. The class will study reports of research which focus variously on everyday social interaction, on larger scale patterns of social dialect variation, and on patterns of code choice in bidialectal and bilingual communities. Relationships between language and social class, language and gender, and language and ethnicity will be discussed. Other topics to be covered are language and style and some of the larger-scale social, educational and political issues associated with the process of language standardization. All students will carry out a small-scale piece of original sociolinguistic research.