Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. 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.

• CAS LP 952: Directed Study: Portuguese
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: graduate standing and consent of instructor. - Hours arranged. Consent of instructor and department.
• CAS LS 606: Spanish Translation Workshop
  Graduate Prerequisite: Advanced proficiency in Spanish. - Advanced study of the Spanish language through the translation of written texts. Analysis of the theory and practice of translation as a catalyst of cultural transfer. Taught in Spanish.
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  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • Oral and/or Signed Communication
• CAS LS 621: Reading Spanish for Graduate Students
  Designed to prepare graduate students for the Spanish reading exam. Develops a knowledge of the fundamentals of Spanish grammar. Practice in translating passages. No previous knowledge of Spanish required.
• CAS LS 850: Seminar: Theories of Literature
  Satisfies department theory requirement. Topic for Fall 2024: Literary Theories & Critical Practices. Traces, explores, and equips students to work with literary theories and critical methodologies, from influential twentieth-century works to the most recent trends in gender and sexuality studies, ecocriticism, disability studies, and critical race studies.
• CAS LS 860: Seminar: Topics in Hispanic Literature
  May be repeated for credit if topic is different. Topics for Fall 2024: Section A1: Fictions of Authenticity in XXth and XXI Century Latin American Literature. How is voice produced in certain texts? Is there a privileged language to persuade readers, create subjectivity, celebrate truth and understand its betrayals? Are authenticity and truth comparable? Readings include Borges, Donoso, Cortázar, Ocampo, Pizarnik, Puig among others. Section B1: TBA.
• CAS LS 951: Directed Study in Hispanic Language and Literatures
  Graduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor and department. - Hours arranged.
• CAS LS 952: Directed Study in Hispanic Language and Literatures
  Graduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor and department. - Hours arranged.
• CAS LX 601: Phonetics & Phonology: Introduction to Sound Systems
  Introduction to the nature and patterning of sounds in human language. Presents articulatory and acoustic phonetics, and basic phonological analysis, focusing on cross-language typology and comparison. Hands-on development of practical skills, including IPA transcription, field techniques, and digital speech analysis. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry II, Quantitative Reasoning I, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Quantitative Reasoning I
  • Scientific Inquiry II
• CAS LX 611: Morphology: Introduction to the Structures and Shapes of Words
  Graduate Corequisites: (GRSLX612) - (Students must also register for required co-req GRS LX 612.) Morphology, the study of the internal structure and the shapes of words across languages, straddles the boundary between syntax and phonology. This course covers the major empirical and theoretical issues in the study of morphology, emphasizing links to other components of grammar. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course entitled "Morphology" that was previously numbered CAS LX 521.
• CAS LX 617: "Having" and "Being" across Languages
  Languages differ startlingly in how they express the apparently basic concepts of "possession" and "essence". Students explore this variety and its implications, addressing fundamental questions about linguistic relativism, language universals, and the relationship between structure and meaning. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered CAS LX 517.
• CAS LX 621: Syntax: Introduction to Sentential Structure
  Introduction to syntax as an object of inquiry. Students build an increasingly sophisticated model of syntactic knowledge to account for data from English and other languages, constructing and evaluating alternative hypotheses about how sentence structure works. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course entitled "Syntax I" that was previously numbered CAS LX 522.
• CAS LX 628: Questions
  Exploration of question formation across languages, and from several theoretical perspectives, integrating syntax, phonology, semantics, morphology, pragmatics, and philosophy in pursuit of a general understanding of one of the central phenomena in theoretical linguistics. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered CAS LX 519.
• CAS LX 631: Semantics & Pragmatics: Introduction to Linguistic Meaning
  Systematic examination of how meaning is encoded in words and sentences, and how it can emerge from the complexity of the grammar. Also touches on various aspects of pragmatics--the study of how meaning is shaped by context. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course entitled "Semantics I" that was previously numbered CAS LX 502. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, The Individual in Community, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • The Individual in Community
• CAS LX 641: Sociolinguistics
  Introduction to language in its social context. Methodological and theoretical approaches to sociolinguistics. Linguistic variation in relation to situation, gender, socioeconomic class, linguistic context, and ethnicity. Integrating micro- and macro-analysis from conversation to societal language planning. Also offered as CAS AN 521.
• CAS LX 642: Language, Race, and Gender
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: Graduate standing in the Linguistics program, or consent of instructor . - Do women talk differently from men? How do race and ethnicity relate to the way people use language? This course examines these interrelated questions from the perspective of modern sociolinguistic theory, analyzing a range of languages and communities throughout the world. Effective Spring 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Teamwork/Collaboration.
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  • Social Inquiry I
  • Teamwork/Collaboration
• CAS LX 646: Language Variation and Change
  Why do languages change over time? Who leads and who follows in situations of language change? The course answers these questions by examining the link between language change and linguistic variation, focusing on how synchronic variation leads to diachronic change. Effective Spring 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Teamwork/Collaboration.
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  • Social Inquiry I
  • Teamwork/Collaboration
• CAS LX 649: Bilingualism
  The psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics of life with two languages. Topics include bilingual language use, processing, acquisition, organization; effects of bilingualism on cognition and development; the bilingual brain; the bilingual speech community; bilingual education; bilingualism in the media and public eye. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered CAS LX 545. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry II, The Individual in Community, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • The Individual in Community
  • Social Inquiry II
• CAS LX 650: Crosslinguistic Approaches to Language Acquisition
  Exploration, within the framework of generative grammar, of how similarities and differences in the acquisition patterns of syntax, semantics, and morphology across typologically diverse languages provide key evidence about the essential nature of first and second language acquisition. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course entitled "Language Acquisition and Linguistic Theory" that was previously numbered GRS LX 700.
• CAS LX 655: Second Language Acquisition
  Overview of second language acquisition at all linguistic levels. Topics include the role of the native language; markedness; universals; environmental variables; cognitive and affective factors; social dimensions; individual differences among learners; and application of theory to third language acquisition. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered CAS LX 542.
• CAS LX 659: Interrupted Acquisition and Language Attrition
  Examines native language knowledge and change in speakers who have become dominant in another language. Topics include differences among heritage speakers, international adoptees, and adult second language learners; language change in expatriates; and environmental and affective factors conditioning language loss. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course entitled "Incomplete Acquisition and Language Attrition" that was previously numbered CAS LX 546.