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 LX 723: Advanced Syntax: Issues in Modern Syntactic Theory
  Graduate Prerequisites: (GRSLX722) or consent of instructor. - 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.
• CAS LX 724: Intermediate Syntax: Modeling Syntactic Knowledge Discussion
  Graduate Prerequisites: (GRSLX621) ; Graduate Corequisites: (GRSLX722) - Required discussion section for students registered in GRS LX 722. Students must also register for GRS LX 722.
• CAS LX 732: Intermediate Semantics: The Grammatical Construction of Meaning
  Graduate Prerequisites: CAS LX 631 (formerly CAS LX 502), or consent of instructor. - 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. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course entitled "Semantics II" that was previously numbered CAS LX 503.
• CAS LX 733: Experimental Pragmatics
  Graduate Prerequisites: GRS LX 631 (formerly CAS LX 502), or consent of instructor. - Covers recent developments in the theory of pragmatics and related empirical findings obtained through a variety of experimental methods. Topics include scalar implicature and its relation to vagueness and imprecision, hyperbole, metaphor, irony, politeness, and the pragmatics of reference to objects in visual scenes. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning II, Digital/Multimedia Expression, Creativity/Innovation.
  BU Hub Learn More

  • Creativity/Innovation
  • Digital/Multimedia Expression
  • Quantitative Reasoning II
• CAS LX 736: Advanced Topics in Semantics & Pragmatics
  Graduate Prerequisites: CAS LX 432/ GRS LX 732 - Topic will vary. May be taken more than once for credit with different topics. Topic for Spring 2020: Degree semantics. The semantics of expressions of degree, including vague, gradable expressions like "tall", positive and comparative forms ("taller", "tallest"), and degree-denoting expressions like "six feet". Examination of multiple theoretical perspectives, and investigation of crosslinguistic variation through literature and new data collection.
• CAS LX 738: Discourse Analysis: Theoretical and Methodological Approaches
  Review of current research literature on discourse analysis; students practice and apply current methods and techniques of discourse analysis.
• CAS LX 753: Acquisition of Phonology
  Graduate Prerequisites: (GRSLX601) or consent of instructor. - Surveys current knowledge about how children acquire phonology during the first years of life. Topics include biological foundations; perceptual and vocal development; word learning; phonological universals; implicit and explicit learning mechanisms; formalist and functionalist models; and individual variation. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course entitled "Phonological Development" that was previously numbered CAS LX 541.
• CAS LX 754: Acquisition of Syntax
  Graduate Prerequisites: (GRSLX621) or consent of instructor. - Exploration of the character and course of acquisition of syntactic knowledge in both first and second language contexts. Covers methodological principles for conducting studies and analyzing data, and topics such as development of verb movement, binding theory, and tense. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered CAS LX 540.
• CAS LX 790: Intermediate Topics in Linguistics
  Prereq: Graduate standing or consent of instructor - Topics for Spring 2024: Advanced Morphophonology. Investigation of what morphology and phonology are, how they may or may not be distinct, and how they interact. Topics will vary, but may include: emergence, innateness, inflectional classes, morphomes, paradigms, rules and/or constraints, analogy, cyclicity, ineffability, and prosodic morphology.
• CAS LX 795: Quantitative Methods in Linguistics
  Graduate Prerequisites: graduate standing in the Linguistics program, or consent of instructor . - Introduces students to quantitative approaches to linguistic data, including visualization, hypothesis testing, and data modeling. Students gain proficiency in R, an open-source statistical environment, and learn the logic behind statistical techniques, as well as practical skills for using them.
• CAS LX 796: Computational Linguistics
  Graduate Prerequisites: CAS LX 250 and CAS CS 112, or consent of instructor. - Introduction to computational techniques to explore linguistic models and test empirical claims. Serves as an introduction to concepts, algorithms, data structures, and tool libraries. Topics include tagging and classification, parsing models, meaning representation, corpus creation, information extraction. [Students who have already taken CAS LX 394/GRS LX 694 are not eligible to take this course.] Effective Spring 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning II, Research and Information Literacy.
  BU Hub Learn More

  • Quantitative Reasoning II
  • Research and Information Literacy
• CAS LX 801: Seminar in Linguistic Research
  Advanced graduate students working on their qualifying research papers or thesis present and discuss work in progress. The course is organized thematically based on students' research areas. Readings each week are determined on the basis of the research discussed. 2 cr. per semester.
• CAS LX 802: Seminar in Linguistic Research
  Advanced graduate students working on their qualifying research papers or thesis present and discuss work in progress. The course is organized thematically based on students' research areas. Readings each week are determined on the basis of the research discussed. 2 cr. per semester.
• CAS LX 865: Advanced Topics in Linguistics: Language Acquisition
  Graduate Prerequisites: (CASLX522) or consent of instructor. - An in-depth exploration of current issues in language acquisition in relation to recent developments in linguistic theory, making use of computer-based tools and techniques in hands-on lab work. The focus is on experimental methodology and statistics, analysis of transcripts to uncover generalizations and test theoretical predictions, and use of other psycholinguistic tools. Topics to be covered will be drawn, in part, from the recent programs of the annual Boston University Conference on Language Development.
• CAS LY 572: Arabic Translation and Interpreting
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASLY304) - Graduate Prerequisites: three years of Arabic or consent of instructor. - Training in strategies of written translation between Arabic and English, and introduction to the challenges of oral interpreting. Exercises drawn from various contemporary materials including print and broadcast media as well as literary texts. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Oral and/or Signed Communication, Critical Thinking.
  BU Hub Learn More

  • Critical Thinking
  • The Individual in Community
  • Oral and/or Signed Communication
• CAS MA 505: History of Mathematics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASMA225 OR CASMA230) and (CASMA242 or CASMA442); or consent of instructor. - The development of mathematics from Antiquity through the 18th Century. Assuming background in modern mathematics, its roots are systematically pursued in terms of modern techniques, structures, and results. Providing the emergence of mathematical concepts and procedures, a coherent, unifying view of number, geometry, algebra, calculus, and mathematical analysis is presented. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Historical Consciousness.
  BU Hub Learn More

  • Historical Consciousness
• CAS MA 511: Introduction to Analysis I
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASMA225 OR CASMA230) - Graduate Prerequisites: (CASMA225 OR CASMA230) - Fundamental concepts of mathematical reasoning. Properties of the real-number system, elementary point-set theory, metric spaces. Limits, sequences, series, convergence, uniform convergence, continuity. Differentiability for functions of a single variable, Riemann-Stieltjes integration.
• CAS MA 512: Introduction to Analysis II
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASMA511) - Graduate Prerequisites: (CASMA511) - Background of CAS MA 511 used to develop further topics of calculus. Exponential and logarithmic functions, Taylor series, power series, real analytic functions. Differential and integral calculus for functions of several variables. Line and surface integrals, divergence theorem, Stokes's theorem, inverse and implicit function theorems, change of variables. Fourier analysis.
• CAS MA 531: Mathematical Logic
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASMA293) or consent of instructor. - Graduate Prerequisites: (CASMA293) or consent of instructor. - The investigation of logical reasoning with mathematical methods. The syntax and semantics of sentential logic and quantificational logic. The unifying Godel Completeness Theorem, and models of theories. A look at the Godel Incompleteness Theorem and its ramifications. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings.
  BU Hub Learn More

  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
• CAS MA 532: Foundations of Mathematics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASMA531) - Axiomatic set theory as a foundation for mathematics and as a field of mathematics: Axiom of Choice, the Continuum Hypothesis, and consistency results. Also offered as CAS PH 461.