[Linguistics 83. Language, Structure, and Culture]
Catalog Number: 8319
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Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
What do the world’s almost 7,000 languages have in common? Why do they show recurrent commonalities and principled differences? What do they reveal about the human ability for speaking and thinking? How do languages develop? How do they die? This course addresses these and related questions while introducing the languages of the world; their distribution, recurrent structural properties, and genetic classification; processes of language contact; and the relationship between language and the brain.
Note: Expected to be given in 2009–10.
Linguistics 88. Language and Cognition
Catalog Number: 5126
Cedric Boeckx
Half course (fall term). M., W., at 12. EXAM GROUP: 5
What does language tell us about the human brain? We will approach this question from various psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic perspectives: speech perception and perceptual illusions; language disorders; blind sight and split brain effects; brain imaging; neural networks and computer modeling of language. We will also touch on the problems of speech recognition and speech synthesis, focusing on the light that these topics shed on the nature of linguistic knowledge.
*Linguistics 91r. Supervised Reading and Research
Catalog Number: 1100
Dianne E. Jonas and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Independent study with a faculty member. For students who wish to pursue a particular linguistic topic not covered in other course offerings.
Note: Students should consult the Head Tutor about having this course count towards the concentration.
*Linguistics 97r. Group Tutorial — Sophomore Year
Catalog Number: 1791
Dianne E. Jonas and members of the Department
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Intensive study in a selected linguistic area such as phonology, syntax, historical linguistics, phonetics, morphology, semantics, psycholinguistics, acquisition, sociolinguistics, creole studies, or computational linguistics. Meets as two six-week small-group tutorials, in the spring term.
Note: Required of concentrators.
*Linguistics 98a. Group Tutorial — Junior Year
Catalog Number: 4222
Dianne E. Jonas and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Meets as two six-week small-group tutorials, both held in the fall term, each covering one of the areas of linguistics listed under Linguistics 97r.
Note: Required of concentrators.
*Linguistics 98b. Tutorial — Junior Year
Catalog Number: 7273
Dianne E. Jonas and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Individual tutorial with a faculty member.
Note: Required of concentrators.
*Linguistics 99a (formerly *Linguistics 99). Tutorial — Senior Year
Catalog Number: 3082
Dianne E. Jonas
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Group tutorial led by the Head Tutor with the participation of students’ thesis advisors for research and writing of the Linguistics honors thesis. Graded Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory. An honors student who expects not to complete the thesis should consult with the Head Tutor about completing other substantial work to receive credit for the course.
Note: Both Linguistics 99a and 99b are required of all senior honors concentrators. Students who wish to enroll must obtain the signature of the Head Tutor.
*Linguistics 99b. Tutorial - Senior Year - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 2561
Dianne E. Jonas
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Individual tutorial with a faculty member for research and writing of the Linguistics honors thesis. Graded Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory. An honors student who expects not to complete the thesis should consult with the Head Tutor about completing other substantial work to receive credit for the course.
Note: Both Linguistics 99a and 99b are required of all senior honors concentrators. Students who wish to enroll must obtain the signature of the Head Tutor.
Linguistics 112a. Introduction to Syntactic Theory
Catalog Number: 7318
Dianne E. Jonas
Half course (spring term). M., W., at 12. EXAM GROUP: 5
An introduction to syntactic theory, analysis and argumentation in the model of generative grammar. Discusses analyses and hypotheses of grammatical structure forming the foundation of current syntactic theory. Emphasis on constituent structure analysis, motivation for transformations, constraints on rule application and conditions on representations. Survey of syntactic phenomena, including argument structure, movement, and anaphora.
Linguistics 112b. Intermediate Syntax
Catalog Number: 4730
C.-T. James Huang
Half course (fall term). M., W., at 11. EXAM GROUP: 4
Continuation of 112a. Fundamental principles and parameters of Government and Binding Theory.
Prerequisite: Linguistics 112a.
[Linguistics 114. Introduction to Morphology]
Catalog Number: 1289
Andrew Nevins
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
An introduction to the analysis of word structure. Topics include the place of word formation in relation to phonological and syntactic phenomena, the nature of the lexicon, current theories of morphology, including Distributed Morphology. Consideration of morphological issues in psycholinguistics. Emphasis on the analysis of morphological phenomena in a wide range of typologically diverse languages.
Note: Expected to be given in 2009–10.
Linguistics 115a (formerly Linguistics 115). Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology
Catalog Number: 2791
Andrew Nevins
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., at 10. EXAM GROUP: 12
Analysis of phonetic and phonological phenomena from a wide variety of languages. Topics include distinctive feature theory, underlying and surface representations, the abstractness of phonological representations, rules and their ordering, language acquisition and change. Training in phonetic transcription, spectrogram (“voiceprint”) reading, and hypothesis-testing in phonological analysis.
Linguistics 115b. Intermediate Phonology
Catalog Number: 1549
Andrew Nevins
Half course (spring term). M., W., at 11. EXAM GROUP: 4
Focuses on enriched phonological representations and on representational constraints: syllabification, subsyllabic constituency, autosegmental phonology, the phonological skeleton and timing tier, feature geometry, underspecification, metrical stress, and prosodic morphology.
Prerequisite: Linguistics 115a.
Linguistics 116a (formerly Linguistics 116). Introduction to Semantics
Catalog Number: 6115
Gennaro Chierchia
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., at 11. EXAM GROUP: 13
An introductory course on semantic interpretation in natural language. What does it mean to “know the meaning” of an utterance? This course provides the formal tools to characterize truth-conditional meanings of sentences. Topics covered include the relation between form and meaning, ambiguity, reference, the role of context dependency, quantifier scope, and variable-binding.
Linguistics 116b. Intermediate Semantics
Catalog Number: 2118
Gennaro Chierchia
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Continuation of 116a. Designed to enable students to follow current research in semantics. Topics covered include: intensional contexts, indexicals, modalities, event based semantics, presuppositions, implicatures.
Prerequisite: Linguistics 116a, equivalent, or permission of instructor.
Linguistics 117r. Linguistic Field Methods
Catalog Number: 8401
Andrew Nevins
Half course (fall term). Th., 3–5. EXAM GROUP: 17, 18
Instruction in the elicitation of phonological, morphological, and syntactic information from a native speaker of an unfamiliar language, with the object of developing a grammatical sketch of the language. Emphasis on methodology and problems of elicitation and grammatical description in the field. Participants work directly with the native speaker, both individually and as a group, with the assistance of the instructor.
[Linguistics 120. Introduction to Historical Linguistics]
Catalog Number: 8486
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Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Methods and goals of linguistic reconstruction. Topics include the regularity of sound change, types of linguistic change, the relationship between linguistic reconstruction and synchronic analysis, language contact and borrowing, and mechanisms of linguistic change, including recent theories.
Note: Expected to be given in 2009–10.
Linguistics 122. Introduction to Indo-European
Catalog Number: 1336
Jay Jasanoff
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 10. EXAM GROUP: 12
An introduction to the historical study of the Indo-European languages, using the comparative method to arrive at a picture of the parent language of the family, Proto-Indo-European.
[Linguistics 123. Intermediate Indo-European]
Catalog Number: 6959
Jay Jasanoff
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Designed as a sequel to Linguistics 122. A detailed overview of Indo-European comparative grammar, with emphasis on recent developments and discoveries.
Note: Expected to be given in 2009–10.
[Linguistics 130. Psycholinguistics]
Catalog Number: 8966
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Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
A survey of current research psycholinguistics for students in linguistics and related fields. Provides an overview of models of language comprehension and production from word to sentence level. Aims to expose students to models and methods used in the study of language acquisition, processing, disorders and brain imaging.
Note: Expected to be given in 2009–10.
[Linguistics 132. Psychosemantics]
Catalog Number: 6578
Gennaro Chierchia and Jesse Snedeker
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Explores issues at the interface of linguistic semantics, pragmatics and psychology. Introduces how the analysis of meaning has been pursued by linguists and psychologists. Focuses on topics that are both of central interest to theoretical linguistics and the target of experimental research. These include sentence structure, sentential connectives, quantification, numbers, mass-count distinction, adjectives and comparison, scales and modalities.
Note: Expected to be given in 2009–10.
Prerequisite: A background in psychology or linguistics; some acquaintance with both helpful but not necessary.
[Linguistics 145. Logical Form]
Catalog Number: 5755
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Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
How does the meaning of a sentence derive from the combination of the meanings of the words it contains? It is generally assumed that word meanings by themselves are not sufficient to account for sentence meanings, and that syntax plays an important role. We explore the hypothesis that there is an abstract level of syntax called Logical Form which, in combination with word meanings, determines a substantial part of the meanings of sentences.
Note: Expected to be given in 2009–10.
[Linguistics 146. Syntax and Processing]
Catalog Number: 0536
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Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Selected grammatical phenomena will be examined from a theoretical and experimental perspective, with a view toward answering questions like the following: What theoretical treatments are available? How do experimental studies distinguish among competing theoretical approaches? What kind of future experimental work is needed to resolve the outstanding issues?
Note: Expected to be given in 2009–10.
[Linguistics 148. Language Universals]
Catalog Number: 5455
Maria Polinsky
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Provides an introduction to the study of cross-linguistic variation and analyzes alternative approaches to language universals (functional explanations, processing explanations, explanations in terms of universal grammar). Topics to be studied include word order, case marking, agreement, lexical categories, subject-hood, and information structure. Sampling techniques and the use of hierarchies will also be covered.
Note: Expected to be given in 2009–10.
Prerequisite: Linguistics 112a or permission of instructor.
[Linguistics 152. Prosody and Intonation]
Catalog Number: 9457
Andrew Nevins
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Prosody and intonation are intricately linked to many domains of language use and linguistic structure. We examine the phonetic form of prosodic contours and intonational grouping, the function of prosody in expressing semantic and pragmatic information and in disambiguation during sentence production and comprehension, and the use of "implicit" prosody even in silent reading.
Note: Expected to be given in 2009–10.
Prerequisite: Linguistics 110 or permission of instructor.
[Linguistics 158r. From Indo-European to Old Irish]
Catalog Number: 3801
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Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Essentials of Celtic historical and comparative grammar.
Note: Expected to be given in 2009–10.
Prerequisite: Some acquaintance with either Indo-European or Old Irish.
[Linguistics 162. Incomplete Acquisition]
Catalog Number: 0315
Maria Polinsky
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
This course analyzes the structure of incompletely acquired languages. Emphasis will be on incomplete acquirers (heritage speakers) whose acquisition was interrupted at an early age. Empirical data from several incompletely acquired languages (Russian, Polish, Czech, Lithuanian, Armenian, Korean, Vietnamese, and Tagalog) will be examined to show how incomplete acquisition leads to constraint-based grammars with systematic similarities. Other topics: testing and education of heritage speakers, comparison of heritage speakers with speakers of pidgin and creole languages.
Note: Expected to be given in 2009–10.
[Linguistics 168. Introduction to Germanic Linguistics]
Catalog Number: 7925
Jay Jasanoff
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
An introduction to the comparative and historical linguistics of the Germanic family, with emphasis on Gothic and the early medieval languages.
Note: Expected to be given in 2009–10.
Prerequisite: Elementary knowledge of German, or another Germanic language, or permission of instructor.
[Linguistics 171. Structure of Chinese]
Catalog Number: 4346
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Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Introduction to the syntactic structure of Mandarin Chinese: the basic structure of clauses and nominal constituents; words, compounds, and phrases; word order and variations; selected special topics (passives, resultatives, ba-construction, topic and relativized structures, questions, anaphora, pro drop); syntactic structure and semantic interpretation.
Note: Expected to be given in 2009–10.
Prerequisite: Linguistics 112a in previous or current term or permission of instructor.
Linguistics 173. Linguistic Issues in the Teaching of Japanese
Catalog Number: 4208
Wesley M. Jacobsen
Half course (spring term). Th., 3–5. EXAM GROUP: 17, 18
An examination of selected phenomena in Japanese phonology, morphology, and syntax with special attention to difficulties encountered in the acquisition of Japanese by adult native English speakers.
Prerequisite: Japanese 120b or its equivalent. Familiarity with basic linguistics concepts desirable.
[Linguistics 174. Tense and Aspect in Japanese]
Catalog Number: 1856
Wesley M. Jacobsen
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Examination of phenomena of tense and aspect in Japanese, with special attention to verbal semantics and the interaction of temporal categories with modality and transitivity.
Note: Expected to be given in 2009–10.
Prerequisite: Knowledge of Japanese equivalent to Japanese 120b, or familiarity with the linguistic structure of a non-Indo-European language, or permission of instructor.
[Linguistics 175. Structure of Japanese ]
Catalog Number: 4029
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Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Introduction to the syntactic structure of Modern Japanese: the structure of clauses and noun phrases and other constituents; selected special topics such as word order and scrambling, relative clauses and other sentence modifiers, passives and causatives, case marking, etc., as they pertain to linguistic theory.
Note: Expected to be given in 2009–10.
Prerequisite: Linguistics 112a in previous or current term or permission of instructor.
[Linguistics 176. History and Prehistory of the Japanese Language]
Catalog Number: 4861
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Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
An examination of evidence from the comparative method, internal reconstruction, and written documents for reconstructing prehistoric stages of the Japanese language and an overview of major developments in Japanese phonology and grammar from the Nara period through the present day.
Note: Expected to be given in 2009–10.
Prerequisite: Knowledge of Japanese equivalent to Japanese 120b, or familiarity with historical linguistics, or permission of the instructor.
Linguistics 188r (formerly Linguistics 188). Biolinguistics
Catalog Number: 2750
Cedric Boeckx
Half course (spring term). M., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7
The class is meant as an exploration of the biology of language. Specifically, it investigates the nature of human language and its importance for the study of the mind and the brain. We will discuss current research into the development of language which tries to make sense of the underlying universality of our language faculty as well as the diversity found in individual languages. We will discuss issues of language design (as a biological system) and language evolution.
Prerequisite: Linguistics 88 or permission of instructor.
Linguistics 202r (formerly Linguistics 202). Advanced Syntax
Catalog Number: 8175
Cedric Boeckx
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). M., 3–5. EXAM GROUP: 8, 9
The third course in the syntax sequence, focusing on major issues in current syntactic theory. Topics include head movement, case and agreement, anaphora, constraints on movement and derivations.
Prerequisite: Linguistics 112b or permission of instructor.
Linguistics 204r. Topics in Syntax
Catalog Number: 6446
C.-T. James Huang
Half course (spring term). Tu., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
Examination of current issues in syntactic theory with focus on topics of interest to the class.
Linguistics 205r. The Syntax-Semantics Interface
Catalog Number: 0776
Gennaro Chierchia
Half course (spring term). Tu., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
An exploration of issues related to the architecture of the grammar, with emphasis on the structures that are interpreted at the semantic interface, and how they are derived.
Linguistics 206r. Syntactic Structure and Argument Structure
Catalog Number: 9020
C.-T. James Huang
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
What is the relationship between a predicate’s semantic content and its syntactic realization? What is the relationship between a predicate’s event structure and its argument structure? Does a predicate’s semantics determine the syntactic frames it occurs in, or might it be the other way around?
[Linguistics 207r (formerly Linguistics 207). Topics in Semantics]
Catalog Number: 8812
Gennaro Chierchia
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Current issues in semantics. Topics for this year include: scope and anaphoric properties of indefinites, quantificational variability and generic uses, and long distance indefinites.
Note: Expected to be given in 2009–10.
Linguistics 214. Advanced Morphology - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 7639
Andrew Nevins
Half course (spring term). W., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7
An examination of selected topics in morphology. Topics this year will include reduplication, cliticization, and affix ordering. Students will consult with instructor on possible research topics.
[Linguistics 219r. Advanced Phonology]
Catalog Number: 2151
Andrew Nevins
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
An examination of why phonological phenomena exist at all, and the nature of phonological computation. Primarily exemplification from harmony, reduplication, and meter. Design conditions imposed by economy, perception, articulation, the learning path, and the lexicon.
Note: Expected to be given in 2009–10.
Prerequisite: Linguistics 114 or permission of instructor.
Linguistics 220ar. Advanced Indo-European
Catalog Number: 3428
Jay Jasanoff
Half course (fall term). Th., 3–5. EXAM GROUP: 17, 18
Topics in Indo-European comparative grammar. Conducted as a seminar.
Linguistics 221r. Workshop in Indo-European
Catalog Number: 1008
Jay Jasanoff
Half course (spring term). Th., 3–5. EXAM GROUP: 17, 18
The topic for the year will be arranged in consultation with interested students. Conducted as a seminar.
[Linguistics 224. Historical and Comparative Linguistics]
Catalog Number: 2967
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Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
An introduction to diachronic linguistics at the graduate level. Theory of language change: sound change and analogy, syntactic and semantic change, change in progress. The comparative method: proving genetic relationship, reconstruction, and subgrouping.
Note: Expected to be given in 2009–10.
[Linguistics 225a. Introduction to Hittite]
Catalog Number: 8206
Jeremy Rau
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Grammar and reading of texts in cuneiform and in transliteration; essentials of the comparative grammar of the Indo-European languages of Anatolia.
Note: Expected to be given in 2009–10.
Linguistics 241r. Practicum in Linguistics
Catalog Number: 4260
C.-T. James Huang and members of the Department
Half course (spring term). W., 3–5. EXAM GROUP: 8, 9
Presentation of reports on current research or assigned topics.
Note: Required of second- and third-year Linguistics graduate students.
Linguistics 247. Topics in Germanic Linguistics
Catalog Number: 3693
Dianne E. Jonas
Half course (fall term). W., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7
Investigation of selected topics in Germanic historical linguistics.
Linguistics 250. Old Church Slavonic
Catalog Number: 8449
Michael S. Flier
Half course (fall term). Tu., 10–11:30. EXAM GROUP: 12, 13
History of the first Slavic literary language, its role in Slavic civilization; phonology, morphology, syntax, and vocabulary of Old Church Slavonic; reading from canonical texts.
[Linguistics 251. Advanced Readings in Church Slavonic Texts ]
Catalog Number: 7038
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Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Readings in canonical Old Church Slavonic texts and later Church Slavonic redactions.
Note: Expected to be given in 2009–10.
Prerequisite: Linguistics 250.
Linguistics 252. Comparative Slavic Linguistics
Catalog Number: 7659
Michael S. Flier
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Introduction to the historical phonology and morphology of the Slavic languages with special attention to relative chronology and linguistic geography.
Prerequisite: Linguistics 250
*Linguistics 301. Reading or Special Topics Course
Catalog Number: 0861
Members of the Department and others listed under Linguistics 300.