Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• GRS LX 669: The Structure of Creole Languages
  Overview of pidginization and Creolization. Evolution, typology, and area characteristics of Creole languages. Role of contact languages and other linguistic substrata. Field and classroom research with Creole language speakers. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered CAS LX 533.
• GRS LX 670: Romance Linguistics
  Covers morphophonological and morphosyntactic change since Latin, plus various topics in the comparative grammar of modern Romance languages. Students deepen their linguistic knowledge and analytic skills by applying what they have learned in other linguistics courses to this language family.
• GRS LX 673: The Structure of French: Phonology
  The sound system of standard French and dialect variation in France, Canada, and other Francophone regions. Questions about mental representation of linguistic information, processes of word formation, and language variation and change. Students discover linguistic regularities through frequent problem sets. Conducted in French. Also offered as CAS LF 503.
• GRS LX 674: The Structure of French: Syntax
  Exploration of French syntax with comparisons to Quebecois, English, and other languages. Topics include the position of the verb, pronoun status, questions, relative clauses, imperatives, negation, causatives, and left/right dislocation. Students discover structural properties through frequent problem sets. Conducted in French. Also offered as CAS LF 502.
• GRS LX 676: Topics in French Linguistics
  Topics vary by semester. Taught in French. May be repeated for credit as topics change. Also offered as CAS LF 506. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered CAS LX 506.
• GRS LX 677: Indigenous Languages of Latin America Discussion
  Required discussion section for students registered in GRS LX 667. Students must also register for GRS LX 667.
• GRS LX 681: 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. Conducted in Spanish.
• GRS LX 683: 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. Conducted in Spanish. Also offered as CAS LS 507. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered CAS LX 507.
• GRS LX 684: 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. Conducted in Spanish. Also offered as CAS LS 508. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered CAS LX 508.
• GRS LX 686: Topics in Spanish Linguistics
  Topics vary. Taught in Spanish. Also offered as CAS LS 505.
• GRS LX 690: Topics in Linguistics
  Topics and pre-requisites vary by semester and section. May be repeated for credit as topics change. Topic for Fall 2023: Topics in Linguistics: Language Revitalization. Pre-reqs: CAS LX 250, Introduction to Linguistics, or equivalent. Languages become "endangered" or "dormant" for multiple reasons, and efforts to revitalize languages take many paths. We examine key cases of language revitalization, including examples from around the world, but with a primary focus on indigenous languages of North America.
• GRS LX 691: Linguistic Field Methods
  A team-based in-depth investigation of the phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and lexicon of an African or other non-Indo-European language. Bi-weekly sessions with language consultant. Weekly trainings on methodology, ethics, analysis, and presentation of results. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Teamwork/Collaboration.
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  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • Ethical Reasoning
  • Teamwork/Collaboration
• GRS LX 694: Introduction to Programming for Computational Linguistics
  Introduction to computational techniques to explore linguistic models and test empirical claims. Serves as an introduction to programming, algorithms, and data structures, focused on modern applications to Natural Language Processing. Topics include tagging and classification, parsing models, meaning representation, and information extraction. [Not intended for students with a background in programming or computer science] This course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning II, Research and Information Literacy.
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  • Quantitative Reasoning II
  • Research and Information Literacy
• GRS LX 703: Phonological Analysis
  Survey of phonological theory and analysis, with focus on cross-linguistic typology of phonological systems. Phonological reasoning and argumentation skills are developed. Empirical coverage includes contrast, distinctive features, rules and constraints, opacity, tone, syllabification, stress, and interactions with morphology and syntax. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course entitled "Introduction to Phonology" that was previously numbered CAS LX 513.
• GRS LX 705: Prosody
  Exploration of the melodic and rhythmic aspects of the languages of the world. Emphasis on theoretical and experimental approaches to cross-linguistic typology. Specific topics include syllables and syllable-weight, rhythm and speech timing; stress and metrics; tone and intonation. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered CAS LX 525.
• GRS LX 706: Advanced Topics in Phonology
  Topics will vary. May be taken more than once for credit with different topics. First topic: Distinctive feature theory from Structuralism to the present. Issues include the putative universality of distinctive features, their phonetic underpinnings, tension among the various roles features play in the grammar, and applicability of features to phonology beyond consonants and vowels.
• GRS LX 709: Intermediate Phonetics
  Comprehensive overview of the field of linguistic phonetics, focusing on speech production, aerodynamics, acoustics, and perception. Special attention to the role of phonetics in shaping cross-language phonological typology. Emphasis on practical skills for phonetic data analysis.
• GRS LX 722: Intermediate Syntax: Modeling Syntactic Knowledge
  Using linguistic data drawn from a wide variety of languages, students develop a precise model of syntactic knowledge through evaluation of hypotheses and arguments. Exploration of major discoveries and phenomena from the linguistic literature.
• GRS LX 723: Advanced Syntax: Issues in Modern Syntactic Theory
  Exploration of advanced topics in syntax, chosen in part based on student interest, through reading and critical discussion of both foundational and recent literature. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course entitled "Syntax II" that was previously numbered CAS LX 523.
• GRS LX 724: Intermediate Syntax: Modeling Syntactic Knowledge Discussion
  Required discussion section for students registered in GRS LX 722. Students must also register for GRS LX 722.

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