Ling 531: Phonology II Syllabus Prof. Gene Buckley Spring 2009 TR 1:30–3 616 Williams Hall
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This course is the second half of a year-long survey of current phonological theory, continued from Ling 530, taught by Rolf Noyer. (Ling 530 can be taken by itself, but its content is assumed in this course.) A mixture of ordered-rule and surface-constraint approaches will be presented, with the main focus on the important conceptual issues and the range of facts that phonological theory must account for. See the schedule page for weekly topics and readings.

There are three textbooks for the course, all of which were also used in Ling 530.

• Michael Kenstowicz. 1994. Phonology in Generative Grammar. Blackwell.
• Rene Kager. 1999. Optimality Theory. Cambridge University Press.

In addition, xeroxed or electronic readings will be provided occasionally during the term.

Homework

On many Thursdays you will receive a problem set which is to be completed and turned in the following week, on Tuesday or Thursday depending on the complexity of the assignment. You are free to discuss the assignment with others, but you must write up your answer independently. Normally the corrected homeworks will be returned in the next class session; they are graded on a scale of 0–10.

Midterm exam

A take-home exam comparable to an extended homework assignment (except no discussion with others!) will be handed out Tuesday, March 3, and will be due in class on Tuesday, March 17, after spring break.

Final exam

The final exam is the foundational exam required for PhD students in the graduate program. It will be scheduled during finals week; the exact day will be determined later in the semester. The letter grade assigned to the foundational exam counts toward the course grade.

Grading

The final grade for the course is calculated as follows:

Homework assignments	50%
Midterm exam	15%
Final exam	30%
In-class discussion	5%

Regular completion of homework assignments is essential. If you have a reasonable excuse, and inform me before the due date, you may be granted an extension; otherwise you will lose one point per day late. Except under special circumstances (serious illness, travel to a conference, etc.), late homeworks will not be accepted after the answer sheet has been distributed (which can be as soon as two days after the homework is due). You will receive a zero for each missing homework and may fail if they become too numerous. No grade of Incomplete will be given simply on the basis of missed homeworks.

Useful links

• Download fonts for the homeworks and other purposes
  • Doulos SIL and Charis SIL (Unicode phonetic fonts)
• Figure out what that language is
  • The Ethnologue (basic information on every language in the world)
• Download papers on Optimality Theory
  • Rutgers Optimality Archive