Topics in Linguistics

CAS LX 390

Topics and pre-requisites vary by semester and section. May be repeated for credit as topics change. The pre-requisite for all three Fall 2024 sections is CASLX250 or equivalent. Topics for Fall 2024: Section A1: Language Revitalization. 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. Section B1: Cognitive Science of Language. This course serves as an introduction to studying language as a part of broader cognitive science, exploring questions about the nature of linguistic representations, how they are processed and acquired, and how they interact with other cognitive domains. Section C1: Lexical Semantics. Pre-requisite in addition to CASLF 250 is CASLX 331 or 631 or equivalent. Recommended is CASLX321/621 or equivalent; or consent of the instructor. Investigation of the traditional notion of morpheme as a ¿minimal form-meaning pairing," and its attendant difficulties. Students gain an appreciation of the relationship between word structure and word meaning across languages via a series of case studies.

FALL 2025 Schedule

Section Instructor Location Schedule Notes
A1 Yacovone CAS 204B MWF 11:15 am-12:05 pm Topics in Linguistics: Child Language Acquisition (A1) This course explores current and classic theories of language acquisition and assesses the empirical evidence underlying them. Students will learn through lecture, hands-on research, and lab-based demonstrations. Topics include linguistic nativism/empiricism, speech/sign perception, word recognition, and other sentence processing phenomena. Pre-req: CAS LX 250, or consent of instructor

FALL 2025 Schedule

Section Instructor Location Schedule Notes
B1 Kim CAS 208 TR 9:30 am-10:45 am Topics in Linguistics: Cognitive Science & Language (B1) This course serves as an introduction to studying language as a part of broader cognitive science, exploring questions about the nature of linguistic representations, how they are processed and acquired, and how they interact with other cognitive domains. Pre-req: CAS LX 250, or consent of instructor

FALL 2025 Schedule

Section Instructor Location Schedule Notes
C1 Kim CAS 204B TR 11:00 am-12:15 pm Topics in Linguistics: Contemporary Research in Neural Network Models of Language - This seminar will discuss contemporary research in computational linguistics and cognitive science, focusing on neural network models. We aim to survey new research directions enabled by recent technological advances, contra things possible e.g., in the second wave of connectionism. Pre-reqs: LX 496/796 or CS 505, or consent of instructor

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