Linguistics 001     Schedule of lectures and readings

(Fall 2003)

Follow the links in the middle column for lecture notes. In this course, these are notes for the lecture, rather than notes on the lecture, so that they serve as an on-line textbook. As such, they generally provide a larger volume of material than is presented in the lectures. In class, I'll give an overview of the day's topic, and work through examples and sample problems in detail, typically in ways that are not entirely covered in the lecture notes.

The right-hand column provides links to additional course readings. These are articles or book chapters that provide useful background. In many cases, additional links will be provided within the main page of lecture notes.

Because the lecture notes are updated each year, to modify the content as well as to refresh stale links, the new lecture notes will generally appear about a week before the date of the lecture. If you want to "read ahead", you can consult the links in the schedule for the fall 2002 edition.

1. We 09/03
Introduction to the course  
2. Mo 09/08
Perspectives and approaches

Miller, George A. "The Scientific Study of Language." Ch. 1 of The Science of Words. (1991).

3. We 09/10 
Prescriptive and descriptive linguistics
Nunberg G. "The Decline of Grammar". The Atlantic Monthly, Dec. 1983.,
Halpern, M. "A War that Never Ends". The Atlantic Monthly, March 1997.
4. Mo 09/15 
Pinker, S. "An instinct to acquire an art". Ch. 1 in The Language Instinct (1994).
Smith, J.M. and E. Szathmary, The Origins of Life. (1999):
Ch. 2 "The Major Transitions"
Ch 12 "From Animal Societies to Human Societies"
Ch. 13 "The Origin of Language"
5. We 09/17 
Communication: philosophical perspectives

[see links in lecture notes]

6. Mo 09/22 
Basic elements of linguistic form: morphology

 

7. We 09/24 
The sound of linguistic structure: phonetics

 

8. Mo 09/29
The structure of linguistic sound: phonology
9. We 10/01 
The pronunciation of English
10. Mo 10/06  
Syntax I

 

11. We 10/08 

Syntax II
(slides for Syntax lectures)

Online text for LING150, Chap. 2:
"Constituent structure",
Mo 10/13 FALL BREAK  
12. We 10/15
Meaning I: semantics

 

13.  Mo 10/20
Meaning II: pragmatics
14. We 10/22
Language in society: sociolinguistics
Labov, W. "Driving Forces in Linguistic Change." International Conference on Korean Linguistics, August 2, 2002. Seoul National University
Mo 10/27 
Midterm

Midterm from 2002
(note that coverage included "language and gender")
15. We 10/29 
Language and gender  
16. Mo 11/03 
Linguistic form in art, ritual and play  
17. We 11/05 
Language production and perception  
18. Mo 11/10 
Brain and language

 

19. We 11/12
Reading and writing  
20. Mo 11/17 
Child language acquisition

 

21. We 11/19
Languages of the World
Gibbs, W. W. "Saving Dying Languages". Scientific American, August 2002.
22. Mo 11/24 
Language Change
 
We 11/26 [Thanksgiving: No lecture]  
23. Mo 12/01
Signed and spoken language  
24. We 12/03 
Language technology
25. Mon 12/08
Exam review  
  Final Exam  

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