Linguistics 001     Schedule of lectures and readings

(Fall 2011)

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.

As an experiment, this year we'll try using Piazza to mediate course-related discussion.

[We will try to keep the links on this schedule active a week or two ahead of time. If you want to read further ahead, you can look at the links for the Fall 2010 edition of the course. But note that the schedule is subject to change, and this year's lecture notes and other material are likely to change at least to some extent, even when the topics remain essentially the same.]

1. We 09/07
Introduction to the course (video)
2. Mo 09/12
Perspectives and approaches

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

3. We 09/14
Prescriptive and descriptive linguistics
4. Mo 09/19 
Pinker, S. "An instinct to acquire an art".
Ch. 1 in The Language Instinct (1994).

Smith. and 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"

(Just for fun: "Can a dog learn a word?"; "The strange, new sight"; "Signs and symbols; words and tools")
5. We 09/21
Communication: philosophical perspectives

[see links in lecture notes]

6. Mo 09/26 
The pronunciation of English (Slides from the lecture)
7. We 09/28
Basic elements of linguistic form: morphology

[slides from lecture]

(Just for fun:
"Psycholinguistics in the logging industry"
"All your base are belong to which lexical category?"
"Linguists boycott Intelligent Design hearings"
"Fearful (also nauseous, addictive, dubious, suspicious...) symmetry"
"Not a brillantological invention"
"W's conundrum"
"Euphony and usefulness"
"Cracking down on the Hezbollians"
"Playing with your morphology"
"Bogosity" -- and more...)

8. Mo 10/03
The sound of linguistic structure: phonetics

9. We 10/05 
The structure of linguistic sound: phonology
Mo 10/10 FALL BREAK  
10. We 10/12  

Syntax I
(lecture slides)

Read & study HW6 (and answers) from 2005
(note that you aren't required to turn this in.)

(just for fun:
"Crash blossoms"
"Compared"
"Fucking shut the fuck up"
"Not propping open the door"
"Insufficient agency"
"He must can parse"
"Adverbial modification at the Supreme Court today"
"Elliptical sin"
"'Passive Voice' -- 1397-2009 -- R.I.P."
"Hot Dryden-on-Jonson action"
"Those who are not authorized are not authorized" )

11. Mo 10/17 

Syntax II

Beatrice Santorini's Syntax Text , Chap. 2:
"Constituent structure".
12. We 10/19
Meaning I: semantics

(Just for fun:
"The reality could not be further from the truth"
"Cannot underestimate" = "must not underestimate?"
"Why are negations so easy to fail to miss?"
"Rarely better than de re"
"No post too obscure to escape notice")

13. Mo 10/24
Meaning II: pragmatics
14. We 10/26

Language in society: sociolinguistics

(lecture slides)

15. Mo 10/31
Language and gender
16. We 11/02
Linguistic form in art, ritual and play  
17. Mo 11/07
Patterns and performances in speech and music
[Slides in .ppt form; zip archive including audio files]
(archive is about 27 MB)

(Just for fun:
"ma ko MA ko SA" … "ma MA ku SA"
"Arom on polyrhythms"
"Rock syncopation: stress shifts or polyrhythms?"
"Bembé, Attis, Orpheus")
18. We 11/09 

Language production and perception

(lecture slides)

(Just for fun:
"Finger spoonerisms and conservation of caps"
"Reverse English"
"Phonetics quiz"
"Notes from the ESL trauma unit"
"Noi lai and contrepets"
"Get your boyfriend to move it: a speech perception story"
"The doors of infant perception"
"Escher sentences"
"The Wason Selection Test"
"Halfalogues onward"
"This delayed and dominating echo"
)

Mo 11/14 Midterm (Study guide, 2007 Midterm, answers)
19. We 11/16

Languages of the World
[lecture slides]

Gibbs, W. W. "Saving Dying Languages". Scientific American, August 2002.
"Experiencing language death"
20. Mo 11/21
Brain and language
We 11/23 [Thanksgiving: No lecture]  
21. Mo 11/28
Language Change
22. We 11/30  Reading and writing "The globalization of educational fads and fallacies"
"Reading corruption"
"Mark Seidenberg on the Reading First controversy"

"Ghoti and choughs again"
23. Mo 12/05
Child language acquisition
24. We 12/07 
The Language of Law
Justice Antonin Scalia, "Law and Language: Review of 'Law's Quandary'", First Things, Nov. 2005.
Lawrence Solan, "Private Language, Public Laws: The Central Role of Legislative Intent in Statutory Interpretation", Georgetown Law Journal, 93(2), Jan. 2005
Geoffrey Nunberg, "The Book of Samuels", Fresh Air commentary.

"Is marriage identical or similar to itself?"
Tu 12/20 Final Exam
(2009 exam for reference)
Time 12:00-2:00
Location: Stiteler B6

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