The Department of Linguistics offers a series of non-specialized and concentration courses designed to meet the needs of students with broad interests, as well as those with more focused interests, in the study of language. Students who want to learn more about which courses might best fit their interests are encouraged to contact an Undergraduate Advisor.
Much of our current knowledge of early civilizations is due to the deciphering of ancient scripts and languages, which requires an understanding of how scripts and languages work as well as a bit of luck. This course examines successful decipherments of the past (e.g., of Egyptian and of languages written in cuneiform scripts), recent breakthroughs (e.g., in deciphering Mesoamerican languages), and cases that remain unsolved. Hands-on exercises are based on real examples.
In this course we discuss linguistic theories and techniques in analyzing pronunciation, using English as the primary example. We shall also compare English with other languages and discuss how to evaluate `foreign accents' objectively, using computer instruments. There is no prerequisite for this course.
We will study Semantics and Pragmatics in this class, focusing on why and how one asks interesting questions, and why and how one recognizes satisfying answers to them; these are the bases of all education, the so-called Socratic method. This class is especially designed for incoming students who are worried they might be interested in too many subjects; the professor has spent 48 years in college being interested in practically everything, and strongly recommends curiosity.
Language permeates just about every aspect of human existence, and as such the study of language offers a richly interdisciplinary approach to understanding the human condition. It also affords excellent background for many other fields, such as cognitive and social psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, anthropology, foreign languages, and history.
This course will introduce you to some of the many different ways in which language can be studied, and will show what we learn about being human from this. Some of the broad topics that we will discuss include the following:
This course will address these and other questions about global multilingualism, which is a (or the) major issue in language policies, language planning, and language contact in general. The focus will be a comparative study of language politics in countries all over the world, including such topics as language rights, language use in national educational systems, and other social implications of multilingualism.
This course introduces students to Deaf culture within the United States, and focuses on the link between culture and language (in this case, American Sign Language). An analysis of medical and cultural models of perceiving deafness is investigated to familiarize students with the range of perceptions held by members of the cultural majority and the effect it has on the Deaf community. The influencing factors of educational systems on deaf children are reviewed to understand the link between language systems used in the classroom and the development of a Deaf identity. The historical roots of American Sign Language and the value of language preservation provide for additional overview of attitudes in American society. Social adaptations to deafness and individual factors of communicative and linguistic development are analyzed for understanding the implications of family and social systems on deaf children and adults.
Instructor will use a course pack. There will be weekly written assignments (1-2 paragraph reaction statements to readings from the course pack) or weekly quizzes. There will be a written midterm and final.
LING 150 is a beginning course in American Sign Language (ASL) that introduces students to basic grammatical structures and sign vocabulary through intensive classroom conversational interactions. Emphasis is on practical communicative functions as students learn how to communicate in a visual-gestural channel. Classroom work is supplemented by video-taped workbook exercises to facilitate development of receptive language skills. LING 140 (Introduction to Deaf Culture) is a pre- or co-requisite for this course. Class will meet two days, two hours per day. There will be 1-2 hours of weekly lab work to be completed at the Language Resource Center.
This course will be conducted exclusively in American Sign Language. Required course materials include a workbook and videotape. Handouts will also be provided. An optional Dictionary of ASL is suggested. Students will complete weekly assignments from the workbook. There will be both a midterm and final consisting of both written exams and videotaped Sign Language interactions. A 3-5 page term paper is also required (a report on a Deaf social event, on an interaction with Deaf persons, or on an approved article or subject).
Students will be introduced to inquiry into the nature of the human mind (cognitive psychology) with particular focus on the Chomskian Revolution in Linguistic Theory. Under this approach, "language" study constitutes a revealing inquiry into the nature of human cognitive capacities. The kinds of questions to be examined include:
- What is (a) language? What is English? Where is it? Is it inside your head?
- What is the human mind? Is it the same thing as your brain? Are the words that you are reading now getting in (or coming out) of your brain? What is cognition?
- Close your eyes; Think of and/or visualize the exact route you would take from your current location back to your dorm. Is there a little movie in your head? Is there a map in your head? and you "read" it?
- Suppose I say John hit the clown with the twinkie on his head yesterday. What does that mean? Does it have just one meaning -- or more? How can a single stimulus, have multiple meanings? Is there something in your head? How did you "learn" what you know about it, even though you've never heard it before? Did someone give you a lesson about this exact sentence?
LING 210
Introduction to Linguistic Analysis
T & TH 1:00-2:30PM
Credits: 4
Requirements & Distribution: SS
Primary Instructor:
Lawler, John M
Edward Sapir said:
"Everything that we have so far seen to be true of language points to the fact that it is the most significant and colossal work that the human spirit has evolved -- nothing short of a finished form of expression for all communicable experience. This form may be endlessly varied by the individual without thereby losing its distinctive contours; and it is constantly reshaping itself as is all art. Language is the most massive and inclusive art we know, a mountainous and anonymous work of unconscious generations."
At about the same time (circa 1920), Krazy Kat said:
True, all true. As Krazy suggests, this "massive and inclusive art" is also the information bottleneck of the human condition. A vast amount of our knowledge, including virtually everything we learn in formal education, comes to us through Language. Consequently, learning to analyze language, in ways that work for all languages, and to describe it objectively, is an indispensable tool for intellectuals, and one that stimulates in addition the habit of close attention to language, which is one of the things necessary for effective writing, not to mention clear thinking. Further, an understanding of how language really
works (in contrast to the linguistic mythologies usually taught in schools) gives one a metaphorical place to stand that facilitates the study of anything that is described in language, which means just about everything.
Over the last century, linguistic scientists have amassed an array of analytic procedures, concepts, and findings that allow one to de-mystify speech, grammar, and language use, and to discover a number of surprising facts about one's own and others' languages. This course is a medium-sized (maximum 60) 4-credit intensive introduction to the methods linguists use for describing languages (although general training in analytic thought is our ultimate goal).
Drawing on examples from a large number of the world's languages, after a brief introductory unit we will devote about two weeks to each of the major areas of linguistic analysis, in order:
- Morphology
- Phonetics
- Phonology
- Syntax
- Semantics
- Pragmatics
By focusing simultaneously on language data, and on the techniques used to make sense of these data, we will see that our understanding of the object of inquiry (language) is influenced by our methods of inquiry.
There will be frequent quizzes and daily data analysis problems, which will form the context for our discussion. In addition, there will be comprehensive midterm and final take-home exams, which may be done in groups. This class is especially recommended for those with interests in scientific analysis (including mathematics, computing, and engineering), since the analytic methods discussed are generalizable easily.
The textbook is The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language; materials for analysis and handouts are in a course pack at Excel (1117 South University). No prerequisites except an interest in language and thinking.
LING 250
Intermediate American Sign Language
M & W 9:00-11:00AM
Credits: 4
Primary Instructor:
Berwanger, Paula D
Students in this intermediate course in American Sign Language (ASL) will learn more advanced communicative forms including understanding the essential role of facial communication (non-manual behaviors) in forming expressions. Additional vocabulary including idiomatic expressions will be introduced to expand students' abilities to understand and converse appropriately in various settings. Through a conversational approach, students will continue to study selected literature, history, culture, and outlooks of Deaf people in order to develop an understanding of appropriate standards of communicating in ASL. Students completing LING 250 will have acquired a basic understanding of how to communicate in a visual-gestural channel in order to receive and express ASL sentences in everyday conversational interactions. Regular attendance is essential. Participation in class includes short presentations and situational role playing. There will be 1-2 hours of weekly lab work to be completed at the Language Resource Center.This course will be conducted exclusively in American Sign Language. Required course materials include a workbook and videotape. Handouts will also be provided. An optional Dictionary of ASL is suggested. Students will complete weekly assignments from the workbook. There will be both a midterm and final consisting of both written exams and videotaped Sign Language interactions. A 3-5 page term paper is also required (a report on a Deaf social event, on an interaction with Deaf persons, or on an approved article or subject).
LING 305
Advertising Rhetoric
M & W 4:00-5:30PM
Credits: 3
Primary Instructor:
Heath, Jeffrey G
Considers how verbal and visual advertising messages are interpreted by consumers within a cultural context. The rhetorical analysis emphasizes the inherent contradictions in most advertising messages; for example, consumers want cars that are a) roomy, safe, and comfortable, but also b) compact, sporty, and exciting. The components of print ads (photography, dimensionality, layout, copy, typography) are broken down and analysed in this context. In addition to exams and individual papers, there are creative projects involving radio and print (magazine) formats, using Audacity and Photoshop. Designed for students with no art background; not open to students from the School of Art and Design. At least junior standing required.
LING 313
Sound Patterns
M & W 4:00-5:30PM
Credits: 3
Primary Instructor:
Duanmu, San
This course explores two fundamental aspects of the sounds of human languages: speech sounds as physical entities (phonetics) and speech sounds as part of a linguistic system (phonology). In viewing sounds as physical elements, the focus is articulatory descriptions: How are speech sounds made? What types of articulatory movements and configurations are used to differentiate sounds in the world's languages? In this part of the course, the goal is to learn to produce, transcribe, and describe in articulatory and acoustic terms many of the sounds known to occur in human languages. In the second part of the course, the focus is on sounds as members of a particular linguistic system. Phonological data from various languages are analyzed -- that is, regularities or patterns in sound distribution are extracted from the data set and then stated within a formal phonological framework. We will also construct arguments to support the proposed analyses, and will find that phonetic factors play a crucial role in validating phonological analyses. Throughout the course, a major emphasis is that speech sounds are simultaneously physical and linguistic elements, and that these two aspects of sound structure are interdependent. Class sessions will consist of lectures, phonetic practice, and discussion of phonological data sets. Course grades will be based on weekly assignments, midterm, and a final.
LING 315
Introduction to Syntax
T & TH 8:30-10:00AM
Credits: 3
Primary Instructor:
McNulty, Elaine M
This course investigates the syntax (sentence structure properties) of human language. It addresses the need for a scientific model to explain human knowledge of language that also makes predictions about its representation in the mind. The focus here is on human language as a specific cognitive capacity restricted to humans, rather than on the individual languages (e.g., English, Arabic, Hindi) that are made possible by the existence of this capacity. For this reason, the course explores in detail many structural properties that are common across different languages, even those that clearly do not share a common recent past. A simple example: all languages have specific strategies to ask questions that make them different from affirmative sentences (e.g., English uses special question words -- 'who', 'what' and so on -- as most languages do). In order to explain this and many other common properties of human language, a scientific hypothesis that has been explored in depth is that a large part of human knowledge of language is biologically determined, and maybe innate. This is further supported by the fact that normal children effortlessly learn their native language at an amazing speed, despite the complexity of the task at hand (compare trying to learn for example Korean or Turkish as an adult, with years of language classes), and despite variation and deficiencies of the language input they are exposed to.
It is also clear, however, that there is a huge diversity among human languages, which can be illustrated only in an unfair way in this short description (e.g., only some languages change the sentence structure in a regular question: you say 'Who do you like?' in English, instead of 'You like who?', a possible word order similar to the one would find for instance in Chinese). Given this kind of diversity, which will be made clear, children need to be exposed to some minimum input of a particular language in order to be able to acquire it proficiently. Therefore, a major question that arises in modern linguistic inquiry and that will be object of this course is how the hypothesis of a biological basis for human language -- which provides an explanation for the common aspects among all human languages and for the striking success of the acquisition task -- can be reconciled with the obvious diversity of the human language experience. Course requirements include (bi-)weekly assignments, a midterm and a final exam.
Prerequisites: Although there are no official prerequisites, students usually take one introductory course in linguistics (LING 210, 211 or 212) before taking this course.
LING 316
Aspects of Meaning
M & W 1:00-2:30PM
Credits: 3
Introduction to aspects of semantic and pragmatic systems in natural language. Topics covered include: lexical semantics, logic and formal systems, reference and coreference, presupposition and entailment, metaphor and cognition, pragmatics, and text analysis. Emphasis on data analysis.
LING 340
Introduction to Sociolinguistics
M & W 2:30-4:00PM
Credits: 3
Primary Instructor:
O'Shannessy, Carmel
In this course we examine language as a social phenomenon, exploring how variation in language use can enhance our understanding of social processes. How does our background and identity shape the way we speak? Or is it that the way we speak shapes our communities? In exploring these questions we will cover the following topics: quantitative approaches to language variation and change; registers and varieties tied to particular contexts; regional, social, and ethnic varieties of English; relationships between language and gender; and social and cultural issues associated with signed languages. We will examine issues of language and power, language planning and standardization, and languages in education. Our exploration of issues related to languages in contact will include the social dimensions of bilingualism and multilingualism, including code-switching practices and contexts of diglossia. We will investigate the emergence and structure of pidgins, creoles and other contact languages, and issues of minority language maintenance, revitalization and attrition.
LING 350
Perspectives on Second Language Learning and Second Language Instruction
T & TH 10:00-11:30AM
Credits: 3
Primary Instructor:
Larsen-Freeman, Diane E
This introductory class aims at providing students with a mix of theory and practice in the teaching of languages. Students will be introduced both to the various language teaching methodologies, and to the theories behind these methods, with an overview of the theories of second language acquisition research, (particularly those pertaining to instructed second language learning) offering an empirical base. In addition to this historical and research background to language teaching, students will also learn the foundations of how to teach the various skill areas such as writing, reading, pronunciation, speaking and listening at various levels and to differing populations of learners. Practice teaching opportunities in class will provide opportunities for students in pairs and groups to try out what they are learning. Students will be required to complete a portfolio containing their own lesson plans, reflections on their practice teaching and reflections on observed language classes.
LING 362
Talking and Telling
T & TH 1:00-2:30PM
Credits:
3
Requirements & Distribution: ULWR
Primary Instructor:
Keller-Cohen, Deborah
This course introduces students to systematic thinking about the structure and function of conversation and narrative from the perspective of anthropology, sociology and linguistics. We will think about such topics as what makes something a conversation, how conversations are organized, what role speaker characteristics play in talk (e.g., gender, age, ethnicity, social rank, culture), the family as an interactional unit, talk in institutions, types of talk (e.g., gossip, interviews), the differences between conversation and narrative, and the role of narratives in ritual, identity construction, and public life. Methodologically the course is aimed at developing students into careful observers who study face to face interactions and narrative. To this end students are taught how to gather oral language data, transcribe it, formulate research questions, and conduct analyses. After an initial independent project, students will work in teams with their collective data to explore other questions collaboratively.
LING 374
Language and Culture
T & TH 10:00-11:30AM
Credits: 4
Requirements & Distribution: HU
Primary Instructor:
Keane Jr, Edward
This course is concerned with the relations among language, thought, and culture. The first half of the course centers on how language as a system of signs makes culture possible. It looks at some basic questions about the nature of human language and its implications for how people make sense of the world. We ask such things as these: What do we share with other animal systems of communication and what is peculiar about human language? How does language shape the way we perceive and think about the things around us -- and how does the world shape language? How does language let people mean things? The second half of the course focuses on language in action and interaction. We explore the dynamics of everyday conversations, the artful uses of language in performance, and aspects of power such as the politics of gender, national identity, and social status. Although most of the readings are drawn from anthropology, we will also venture into closely related areas in linguistics, sociology, and psychology. This course does not assume any background in linguistics and has no prerequisites.
There are four written exercises: two short (2-4 page) take-home essays and two in-class exams. The essays may involve some observations of your own surroundings but otherwise make use only of readings on the syllabus. Attendance in both lectures and discussion sections is mandatory and will be reflected in the final grade. Active participation in discussion sections is expected.
LING 386
Community Service and Language, Education, and Culture
M & W 11:30AM-1:00PM
Credits: 3
Primary Instructor:
Axelson, Elizabeth
In this course, students teach or assist in a local ESL classroom or tutoring program for at least four hours per week or 48 hours during the semester. The course will employ an academic service learning framework in preparing for and reflecting on this experiential practice. Students will receive training and supervision in teaching English as a Second Language and discuss issues as they emerge from the practica and readings. Likely themes include lesson planning, task design, individual learner differences, and socio-cultural factors in teaching ESL. In addition, students will meet with the instructor in small groups based on site placement at least once per month. Students who have experience working with English language learners and a background in applied linguistics or second language education are preferred.
Students assist in a local ESL classroom or tutoring program for at least four hours per week or 48 hours during the semester. Potential site placements include:
- UM Family Housing English as a Second Language program
- Family Learning Institute
- English Language Institute
- Latino academic tutoring organizations
- Ann Arbor Public School ESL classrooms
- Migrant Farmcamps outside of Ann Arbor (car required)
LING 394, Section 001
Topics in Linguistics: Language, Cognition, and Human Experience
M & W 11:30AM-1:30PM
Credits: 3
Requirements & Distribution: ULWR
Primary Instructor:
Pires, Acrisio M
Language, Cognition and Human Experience explores different aspects of human language cognition, especially regarding knowledge of structure and interpretation, and how they relate to human language acquisition, language processing, language change and innovation. One focus is on linguistics as a branch of cognitive science.
The questions we will consider include: What aspects of language
cognition and linguistic experience allow children to learn at an
amazing speed the many complex aspects of their language? (e.g. by age
three children have mastered most of the core properties of their
native language, including aspects that involve variation across
languages). What do we do in order to understand so successfully what
we hear or read, to the point that we can be misled by our own
processing choices (something humor often explores: "I shot an
elephant in my pajamas -- How he got into my pajamas I'll never
know")? How does one account for the widespread variation found
across languages, regarding the representation of structure and
meaning? To illustrate this in a very simple way, a sentence like
"He saw us" requires that both he and us be pronounced in
English, different from many languages of the world in which either or
both pronouns can be absent). How does this sort of variation arise,
and how does human linguistic knowledge so often yield language
change, that is, gives rise to innovating grammars by new generations?
In the absence of linguistic input from native speakers, how do
children proceed in order to acquire a native language?
We will explore aspects of the acquisition, processing and language change and variation by considering in more detail phenomena in syntax and semantics, such as the structure and interpretation of inflection, tense, null subjects, interrogatives, passives and related structures; the debate on the interaction between nature and nurture; the emergence of new languages (e.g. creoles and sign languages).
The course is directed to students who are interested in understanding and exploring how linguistic structure and interpretation interact and relate to other aspects of human language cognition.
Although there are no official prerequisites, students will benefit better from the course if they have taken at least one course in linguistics. This course may be taken to satisfy the ULWR. This course also counts toward Applied Linguistics certificate.
LING 406
Modern English Grammar
T & TH 1:00-2:30PM
Credits: 3
Primary Instructor:
Cureton,Richard D
This is an advanced survey of descriptive English grammar. We will look closely at the formal and semantic motivations for basic grammatical categories and processes in English (words, phrases, clauses, and sentences) and we will discuss how these structures contribute to the expressive potential of the system. There will be daily practice in grammatical parsing, weekly quizzes, and a final exam. The course should be attractive to those professionally interested in English education, practical criticism, or further work in linguistic theory -- as well as those generally interested in becoming more articulate about the structure of our language.
Texts: Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum, A Student's Grammar of the English Language and John Algeo, Exercises in
LING 421
Morphology
T & TH 11:30Am-1:00PM
Credits: 3
Primary Instructor:
Heath, Jeffrey G
An introduction to morphological theory, the goal of which is to provide a framework within which word structure in all languages can be described.
LING 440
Language Learnability
T & TH 11:30Am-1:00PM
Credits: 3
Primary Instructor:
McNulty, Elaine M
This course examines various theory-related questions, goals, and assumptions within the scope of language acquisition. The course objectives are two-fold: (1) to develop familiarity with prominent aspects of language learnability; and (2) to promote discussions and perspectives that stimulate further investigation and insight into language learning theories.
LING 447
Psychology of Language
T & TH 10:00-11:30AM
Credits: 3
Requirements & Distribution: BS
Primary Instructor:
Boland, Julie E
The sentence "She saw her duck" has several different
interpretations. What factors determine which meaning of "duck"
we think of? How does this influence the structure of the sentence? Do
people ever produce ambiguous sentences like this? This course is
designed to familiarize students with experimental research on the
cognitive processes that underlie language comprehension and
production in normal adults. The focus of the course is on word
recognition, syntactic and semantic analysis, and discourse-level
processing; language acquisition and speech perception will not be
covered. Topics will include lexical and structural ambiguity
resolution, models of parsing and sentence understanding, the role of
discourse-level information, the planning and production of sentences,
and the role of prosody/intonation. This course will be taught at a
level appropriate for advanced undergraduate and graduate students
studying linguistics, psychology or cognitive science.
LING 450
Perspectives on Second Language Learning and Instruction
T & TH 10:00-11:30AM
Credits: 3
Primary Instructor:
Larsen-Freeman,Diane E;
This introductory class aims at providing students with a mix of theory and practice in the teaching of languages. Students will be introduced both to the various language teaching methodologies, and to the theories behind these methods, with an overview of the theories of second language acquisition research, (particularly those pertaining to instructed second language learning) offering an empirical base. In addition to this historical and research background to language teaching, students will also learn the foundations of how to teach the various skill areas such as writing, reading, pronunciation, speaking and listening at various levels and to differing populations of learners. Practice teaching opportunities in
class will provide opportunities for students in pairs and groups to try out what they are learning. Students will be required to complete a portfolio containing their own lesson plans, reflections on their practice teaching and reflections on observed language classes.
LING 492, Section 001
Topics in Linguistics: Perspectives on First Language Acquisition
M & W 10:00-11:30AM
Credits: 3
Primary Instructor:
O'Shannessy, Carmel
Observing and describing young children's language learning is a fascinating project. In this introductory course we will explore central issues in child first language learning, including bilingual acquisition. We will draw on crosslinguistic studies and survey differing theoretical positions in discussing how children develop the skills to engage in meaningful communication - how they learn phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics.
LING 492, Section 002
Topics in Linguistics: Intonation
W 4:00-7:00PM
Credits: 2 - 3
Primary Instructor:
Queen, Robin M
This course focuses on the form, function and use of intonation. We will begin with early treatments of intonation and move through various theoretical models, ultimately focusing on a predominantly autosegmental approach. This approach relies on the use of the ToBI (Tone and Break Indices) transcription system, and students will have ample opportunity to explore and use this system on a variety of data sources. In addition to the formal phonetic and phonological modeling of intonation, the course will explore intonation at the level of discourse and information structure. Finally, we will investigate the ways in which intonation plays a role in second language acquisition, in language contact and change and in the construction and maintenance of social and cultural identities and practices. Permission of the instructor or a course in phonetics/ phonology is required.
LING 512
Phonetics
T & TH 10:00-11:30AM
Credits: 4
Primary Instructor:
Beddor, Patrice
This course introduces students to the nature of human speech and speech sounds. The course goals are: (1) To understand the speech process, which involves transmission of an acoustic signal from a speaker to a listener, and to arrive at a representation of speech sounds in terms of their articulatory (speaker-based), acoustic, and perceptual (listener-based) characteristics. Towards this goal, students are introduced to fundamental principles of phonetic theory through readings and lectures. (2) To introduce students to phonetic experimentation and modeling. Small-scale experiments provide training in acoustic analysis and perceptual testing, and reinforce theoretical principles by serving as empirical tests of selected claims. (3) To consider the relation between human articulatory and perceptual capacities and patterns in linguistic sound systems (i.e., phonology). Our exploration of issues related to this third goal is necessarily preliminary, serving as a bridge between phonetics and future coursework that many students will take in phonology. (4) To provide practical experience in producing and transcribing sounds of the world's languages.
LING 515
Generative Syntax
M & W 2:30-4:00PM
Credits: 3
Primary Instructor:
Pires, Acrisio M
In Generative Linguistics, syntactic structure is generated by a formal rule system and by applying constraints to its output. Some of these rules and constraints have been hypothesized to be innate, or "unlearned" (most likely a species specific system). That is supported by how human language acquisition (or grammar growth) takes place, in a fast and successful way across the species, and by the observation of striking structural similarities across different human languages. Other aspects of our linguistic knowledge appear "learned", i.e. determined by an interaction between human biology and the particular linguistic experience individuals are exposed to, motivating different but constrained aspects of variation among human languages. This class explores this so-called "Principles and Parameters" approach to the analysis of human syntactic knowledge, focusing on the investigation of how various postulated ("simple") rules and constraints can interact to generate ("complex") structures, characteristic of the potentially infinite number of human language sentences one can produce (such as the one you are now reading, and understanding).
Prerequisites: For undergraduates, LING 315 and permission of the instructor. No prerequisites for linguistics graduate students. Graduate students from other departments may be allowed to enroll with permission of the instructor.
LING 517
Principles and Methods of Historical Linguistics
M & W 11:30-1:00PM
Credits: 3
Primary Instructor:
Thomason, Sarah G
This course is an introduction to the theories and methods that enable linguists to describe and explain processes of linguistic change and historical relationships among languages. The major topics to be covered are the emergence of language families and means of establishing family relationships; sound change; grammatical change, especially analogy; language change caused by culture contacts; the Comparative Method, through which prehistoric language states can be reconstructed with an impressive degree of accuracy; internal reconstruction, a less powerful but still important method for gaining information about linguistic prehistory; and ways in which the study of current dialect variation offers insights into processes of change.
Course requirements: regular homework assignments (45%), final exam (45%), class participation (10%).
