Courses

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  • CAS LX 235: Language in the Contemporary World: Technology, Society, and the Law
    Exploration of the role of human language in a range of activities and endeavors, focusing on issues of technology, governmental policy, education, gender roles, legal language, language crimes, and the use of language in both media and politics to shape perceptions. Carries humanities divisional studies credit in CAS.
  • CAS LX 245: Language and Mind
    Foundations of linguistics as a science, in relation to cognitive science, philosophy of language, and psychology, including a critical overview of the research program initiated by Noam Chomsky. Students read and discuss original works, and write short essays. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS.
  • CAS LX 250: Introduction to Linguistics
    Properties that languages share and how languages differ with respect to structure (sound system, word formation, syntax), expression of meaning, acquisition, variation, and change; cultural and artistic uses of language; comparison of oral, written, and signed languages. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS.
  • CAS LX 320: Language, Race, and Gender
    Do women talk differently from men? How do race and ethnicity relate to the way people use language? This course examines these inter-related questions from the perspective of modern sociolinguistic theory, analyzing a range of languages and communities throughout the world.
  • CAS LX 406: The Linguistics of Contemporary English
    Systematic introduction to the linguistic analysis of modern English (phonology, morphology, syntax) from the perspective of generative grammar. Other topics include: English and its West Germanic relatives, non-standard varieties and the development of standard English, varieties of World Englishes.
  • CAS LX 420: Spanish in the United States
    An ethnographic survey and sociolinguistic analysis of Spanish as spoken in urban areas of the US. Focuses on issues of language and dialect content, language change, the fraught notion of 'heritage' speakers, and code-switching as a sociolinguistic phenomenon. Also offered as CAS LS 420.
  • CAS LX 491: Directed Study: Linguistics
    Application form available in department.
  • CAS LX 492: Directed Study: Linguistics
    Application form available in department.
  • CAS LX 500: Topics in Linguistics
    Topic for Fall 2013: Language Acquisition and Linguistic Theory. A general introduction to the study of first and second language acquisition within the framework of generative grammar. Covers theoretical approaches to syntactic, semantic, and phonological development, reviewing studies and methodologies, both classic and current.
  • CAS LX 501: Linguistic Field Methods
    An in-depth investigation of the phonology, morphology, syntax, and discourse/pragmatics of an African or other non-Indo-European language. Weekly sessions with language consultant.
  • CAS LX 502: Semantics I
    Introduction to the study of linguistic meaning, with the goal of improving understanding of the ways in which native speakers produce and interpret language. Emphasis on the interaction of meaning with other components of grammar and cognitive systems. Carries humanities divisional studies credit in CAS.
  • CAS LX 503: Semantics II
    Systematic development of a semantic theory of natural language, using the tools of model-theoretic semantics. In-depth study of the relation between meaning and grammar, and the relation between meaning and context.
  • CAS LX 504: Topics in Pragmatics
    Covers the main areas of linguistic pragmatics, the study of language use and the relation between meaning and context. Study of pragmatic phenomena such as presuppositions, implicatures, anaphora, and focus, from the perspective of linguistic semantics.
  • CAS LX 506: Topics in French Linguistics
    Topics vary by semester. Taught in French. Also offered as CAS LF 506.
  • CAS LX 507: The Sounds of Spanish
    Introduction to Spanish phonetics and phonology. Covers articulatory, acoustic, and auditory phonetics, focusing on techniques for visualizing speech sounds. Examines the phonemic inventory and phonological organization of Spanish from several perspectives, including generative and articulatory phonology as well as sociolinguistics. Also offered as CAS LS 507.
  • CAS LX 508: The Structure of Spanish
    Introduction to Spanish morphology and syntax. Explores the structure of Spanish words, phrases, and sentences from multiple perspectives with a focus on natural language data. Examines Generative, Usage- Based, and Lexical-Functional approaches to the analysis of grammatical structure. Also offered as CAS LS 508.
  • CAS LX 510: Phonetics
    Introduction to articulatory and acoustic phonetics. Investigation of the production and perception of the sounds of the world's languages. Development of practical skills, including IPA transcription, description of sound systems, and basic acoustic analysis. Focus on cross-linguistic typology. Carries humanities divisional studies credit in CAS.
  • CAS LX 513: Introduction to Phonology
    Introduction to phonological theory and analysis. Focus on major cross-linguistic patterns in phonological systems. Topics covered include distinctive feature analysis, phonological rules and constraints, phonological opacity, tone, syllables and syllable weight, metrical stress theory, and interactions with morphology and syntax.
  • CAS LX 518: Focus
    Exploration of focus in natural language, integrating syntax, phonology, semantics, morphology, and pragmatics in pursuit of general understanding of the cross-linguistic diversity of focus phenomena and the ways in which different linguistic processes cooperate to express focus.
  • CAS LX 521: Morphology
    Introduction to major theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of word structure in natural language. Emphasis on the development of skills for analysis of morphological structures of unfamiliar languages. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS.

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