Linguistics 101
Course syllabus
Course Information
Lecture times:
MWF 11:00-11:50am
Lecture location:
Center Hall, room 216
Section time:
Monday 1-2pm
Section location:
York 3050A
Course objectives
This is a general introduction to linguistics, the scientific study of human language. We will focus on the major core subfields of
linguistics: morphology, phonetics, phonology, syntax, and semantics. These subfields are areas of active research in their own right,
and are also prerequisite to working in a number of other subfields of linguistics which we will cover near the end of the course,
including sociolinguistics and language variation, historical linguistics and language change, psycholinguistics, and language
acquisition.
Instructor information
Instructor
TA
Roger Levy
Grant Loomis
Office:
AP&M 4220
AP&M 3331A
Office hours:
Friday 1-3pm (cancelled 10/6; 1:30-3:30pm 10/13,10/20,10/27)
Special office hours Tuesday Oct 30, 11am-1pm
Office hours cancelled Friday Nov 3
Monday 12-1pm and Wednesday 1-2pm
Phone:
(858) 534-7219
TBA
Fax:
(858) 534-4789
(858) 534-4789
email:
rlevy@ucsd.edu
jgloomis@ucsd.edu
Intended Audience
Upper-division students and highly-motivated lower-division students interested in language. No previous exposure to linguistics is
required.
Textbook
We will be using the following textbook for the course:
Akmajian, Adrian, Richard A. Demers, Ann K. Farmer, and Robert M. Harnish. 2001. Linguistics: An Introduction
to Language and Communication. MIT Press. Fifth edition.
Please do the reading for each day before the lecture! You will not understand the material covered in lecture as well otherwise.
Course homepage
The homepage for the course is http://ling.ucsd.edu/courses/lign101. It's subject to update, so check (reload/refresh!) it often.
WebCT
We will be using WebCT for administering homework assignments and various surveys, and as a discussion forum for all
participants in the class. Most of you should be familiar with WebCT from another class; if you aren't, take a look at
http://iwdc.ucsd.edu/step1_webct.pdf.
Discussion board
There will be discussion boards on the course WebCT site for the major topics covered in this class. If you have a question about
course content that may be relevant to other students in the course, we strongly encourage you to post it to the WebCT discussion
board for this class. We encourage you to read the discussion boards regularly, and if you know the answer to a question, to post the
answer! Active participation in discussion boards will be given positive consideration in determining final grades.
Instructor contact policy
Coming to talk to the instructor or TA during their office hours is highly encouraged. Electronic communications about course content
should be made through the WebCT discussion board (see above). We ask that you use email contact only for communications that
are not relevant to other students (e.g., specific learning circumstances or personal emergency).
Schedule
Week
Day
Lecture
Reading
0
Friday
Sep 22
Class introduction. What is linguistics?
Chapter 1
1
Monday
Sep 25
Morphology I: words & morphemes.
Chapter 2.1, 2.2
Wednesday
Sep 27
Morphology II: neologisms.
Chapter 2.3
Friday
Sep 29
Morphology III: inflection and derivation;
exceptions.
Chapter 2.4, 2.5
Monday
Oct 2
Morphology IV: special topics & wrapup.
Chapter 2.6
Wednesday
Oct 4
Phonetics I: physical properties of speech;
phonemic transcription.
Chapter 3.1, 3.2 (pp. 71--73)
Friday
Oct 6
Phonetics II: consonants and vowels.
Chapter 3.2 (pp. 73--86)
Monday
Oct 9
Phonetics III: morphophonetics of plural
formation; allophones; special topics.
Chapter 3.2 (pp. 86-97), 3.3
Wednesday
Oct 11
Phonology I: distinctive feature theory.
Chapter 4.1, 4.2
Friday
Oct 13
Phonology II: external organization.
Chapter 4.3
Monday
Oct 16
Phonology III: intonation & wrapup.
Chapter 4.4
Wednesday
Oct 18
Guest lecture by Professor Rachel Mayberry:
the phonology of sign language
Friday
Oct 20
Syntax I: competence/performance, structure &
ambiguity.
Monday
Oct 23
Midterm exam (morphology, phonetics, and
phonology)
Wednesday
Oct 25
Syntax II: discovering structure through
formulating grammatical rules.
Chapter 5.2 (pp. 156--168)
Friday
Oct 27
Syntax III: constituent structure & tree
diagrams.
Chapter 5.2 (pp. 168--184)
Monday
Oct 30
Syntax IV: transformations.
Chapter 5.2 (pp. 184--197)
Wednesday
Nov 1
Syntax V: phrase structure rules.
Chapter 5.3
Friday
Nov 3
Semantics I: theories of meaning.
Chapter 6.1, 6.2
Monday
Nov 6
Semantics II: lexical semantics and sentencelevel semantics.
Chapter 6.3
Wednesday
Nov 8
Semantics III: mood, deictics, reference.
Chapter 6.4
Friday
Nov 10
Veterans day; no class.
Monday
Nov 13
Pragmatics I: speech acts.
Language Files pragmatics reading: file
8.1
Wednesday
Nov 15
Pragmatics II: entailment, implicature, rules of
conversation.
Language Files pragmatics reading: file
8.2,8.3
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Chapter 5.1
9
10
Friday
Nov 17
Pragmatics III: language in advertising.
Language Files pragmatics reading: file
8.4
Monday
Nov 20
Language variation: African-American English
Vernacular. Special guest lecture by Dr. Tim
Beyer!
Chapter 7.2
Wednesday
Nov 22
Language change I: nature of language change;
language families.
Chapter 8.1, 8.2
Friday
Nov 24
Thanksgiving; no class.
Monday
Nov 27
Language change II: history of English.
Wednesday
Nov 29
Language change III: language reconstruction.
Friday
Dec 1
Final review.
Chapter 8.3
Work and Grading
There will be six homework assignments during the course of the class (5% each), a midterm (30%), and a final (40%). Positive
participation in section and the discussion forum will be taken into account in determining borderline-situation class grades. There
may also be an opportunity to earn extra credit by participating in a psycholinguistic experiment on campus -- more on this later in the
quarter.
Homework Late Policy
We are instituting an amnesty for Homework 3 (phonology): if you haven't turned it in yet but do so by this Friday (October 27), you will
be downgraded 30%. Starting with Homework 4, each late day will cost you a 10% penalty, and homework will not be accepted more
than 5 days late. These penalties are applied to the individual homework assignment, not to your homework grade as a whole.