Linguistics 101
Introduction to Linguistics

Fall Semester 1997

Times & Places Instructors Readings On-line Materials
Course Goals Grading Tests & Assignments Class Schedule

Times & Places

Lectures: Tuesday and Thursday, 9:3010:45, some big room
Tutorials:
- Section 31: Thursday 1112 (Phillips)
- Section 32: TBA
- Section 33: TBA
- Section 34: TBA

Instructors

Colin Phillips
Office: 46 East Delaware Ave., Room 301
e-mail: colin@udel.edu
Phone: 8316809
Office hours: Thursday 13pm and other times by appointment
TA
Office: 46 East Delaware Ave., Room 303
e-mail: joebloggs@udel.edu
Phone: 8316489
Office hours: TBA

Required Readings

Both of these books are available at the UD bookstore.

Victoria Fromkin & Robert Rodman (1993, 5th edition). An Introduction to Language. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.
Steven Pinker (1994). The Language Instinct. New York: Collins.

On-line course materials (also required)

In this course we will be taking advantage of the University of Delaware's excellent campus-wide network and the Department of Linguistics' new Virtual Laboratory. You should therefore make sure that you are confident using both e-mail and the World Wide Web. If you do not feel comfortable using these, then you should learn soon, by asking a roommate or a friend, or by signing up for one of the University's many free tutorials.

Our use of on-line materials will include:

e-mail: the easiest way to contact either of the instructors
WWW course notes and syllabus updates: the best way to keep up with what's coming up next or what you may have missed
Assignments: most assignments will be posted on the web; some assignments that require you to listen to sounds will only be available via the course web pages
On-line demonstrations
Links to other useful language and linguistics resources around the world

Goals of this Course

[not the version to be included on the syllabus]

Provide students with the tools needed to describe and analyze language in an explicit fashion, to include:
- sounds of language: phonetic and phonemic description, use of a phonetic alphabet
- grammatical categories: familiar categories like nouns and verbs, plus less familiar categories like morphemes marking tense, number, mood, agreement, definiteness etc.
- rudiments of phrase structure: noun phrases, verb phrases, constituent structure of sentences (including some evidence)
Lead students to discover for themselves that behind our (largely) effortless command of our native language lies a remarkably sophisticated and systematic ability.
Bring students to a basic understanding of (a) the immense diversity of human languages, spoken or signed, and (b) the fact that the diversity is nevertheless highly constrained
Illustrate the basic investigative tools of linguistic research (introspection, field work, experiments with children and adults, studies of language disorders)
Provide a broad overview of the various subfields of linguistics, given that this course is a prerequisite for all other courses in linguistics.
Explore the connection between linguistic diversity and cultural diversity (LING101 satisfies the Group C Multicultural requirement).

Grading

Breakdown of credit:

Miscellaneous admonitions about handing in assignments on time, showing up to tutorials etc. etc.

Scores required for specific letter grades:

Tests & Assignments

There will be 2 tests roughly evenly spaced through the semester in addition to the final exam. These are worth a total of 45% of your grade. Given that homeworks are worth just as much as all the tests combined (45%), it is important for you to take care with your written assignments. They will be graded carefully. Clearly presented, well reasoned answers will be rewarded; unclear presentation and murky reasoning will be penalized.

Class Schedule

Week Date Topic Reading

Homework

1 R 9/4 Introduction

2 T 9/9 Introduction

R 9/11 Morphology

3 T 9/16 Morphology

R 9/18 Syntax

4 T 9/23 Syntax

R 9/25 Syntax

5 T 9/30 Syntax

R 10/2 TEST1

6 T 10/7 Semantics

R 10/9 Semantics

7 T 10/21 Phonetics

R 10/23 Phonetics

8 T 10/28 Phonetics

R 10/30 Phonology

9 T 11/4 Phonology

R 11/6 Phonology

10 T 11/11 TEST 2

R 11/13 Sociolinguistics

11 T 11/18 Sociolinguistics

R 11/20 Sociolinguistics

12 T 11/25 Psycholinguistics

THANKSGIVING

13 T 12/2 Psycholinguistics

R 12/4 Neurolinguistics

14 T 12/7 Neurolinguistics

Other possible things to include -- somewhere

Morphology

simple word-building program

Semantics

Implicatures, advertising, legalese

Possible word-meanings: verb types

Language and thought: Levinson-demo

Phonetics

Sounds of the World

Possible sounds

Clickable IPA

Transcribing utterances (from different dialects)

Sounds of dialects and registers

Development of articulation, speech, babbling

Tour of mouth for articulatory features

Sine-wave and single-formant speech

Phonology

Distinctive features: perceptible and imperceptible contrasts

Phonological changes: historical change

Syntax

(non-)diversity, typology

structure: polarity items

Week	Date	Topic	Reading
			Homework
1	R 9/4	Introduction

2	T 9/9	Introduction

	R 9/11	Morphology

3	T 9/16	Morphology

	R 9/18	Syntax

4	T 9/23	Syntax

	R 9/25	Syntax

5	T 9/30	Syntax

	R 10/2	TEST1

6	T 10/7	Semantics

	R 10/9	Semantics

7	T 10/21	Phonetics

	R 10/23	Phonetics

8	T 10/28	Phonetics

	R 10/30	Phonology

9	T 11/4	Phonology

	R 11/6	Phonology

10	T 11/11	TEST 2

	R 11/13	Sociolinguistics

11	T 11/18	Sociolinguistics

	R 11/20	Sociolinguistics

12	T 11/25	Psycholinguistics

	THANKSGIVING

13	T 12/2	Psycholinguistics

	R 12/4	Neurolinguistics

14	T 12/7	Neurolinguistics

Linguistics 101 Introduction to Linguistics