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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 MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

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  • MET LX 522: Intermediate Syntax: Modeling Syntactic Knowledge
    Prereq: METLX 521, or consent of instructor. *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.
  • MET LX 528: 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.
  • MET LX 531: Semantics & Pragmatics: Introduction to Linguistic Meaning
    Prereq: (METLX250) or consent of instructor. Systematic examination of how meaning is encoded in words and sentences, and how it can emerge from the complexity of the grammar. This course also touches on various aspects of pragmatics--the study of how meaning is shaped by context. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Individual in Community, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Critical Thinking. Effective Fall 2025, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Teamwork and Collaboration.
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • The Individual in Community
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • MET LX 532: Intermediate Semantics: The Grammatical Construction of Meaning
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS LX 331 (formerly CAS LX 502); Graduate Prerequisites: GRS 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. Also offered as CAS LX 732.
  • MET LX 542: Language, Race, and Gender
    Prereq: (METLX250) 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 Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Teamwork/Collaboration.
    • Social Inquiry I
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • MET LX 546: Language Variation and Change
    Prerequisite: METLX 250 or consent of instructor. 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 Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Teamwork/Collaboration.
    • Social Inquiry I
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • MET LX 549: Bilingualism
    Prereq: (METLX250) or consent of instructor. 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. Carries humanities divisional studies credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry II, Individual in Community, Critical Thinking.
    • Critical Thinking
    • The Individual in Community
    • Social Inquiry II
  • MET LX 560: Historical and Comparative Linguistics
    This course explores different approaches to historical linguistics, the study of language change. We will discuss various types of linguistic change (phonological, morphological, semantic, and syntactic) and the methods used to investigate these changes. Throughout the course we will address the contribution of historical linguistics to understanding prehistory. Another important topic of this course is linguistic reconstruction (reconstruction of protolanguages), its methods and goals. We also explore the social and linguistic motivations for linguistic change. Finally, we will consider language contact and borrowing and genetic/genealogical classification of languages.
  • MET LX 565: Variation in Dialects of English
    Prerequisite: METLX 250 or consent of instructor. Exploration of how dialects of English differ from each other, focusing on grammatical variation in the US, with occasional forays into British dialects. Students come to appreciate how linguists investigate grammatical diversity scientifically, revealing the complex structure of non-standard dialects.
  • MET LX 570: 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.
  • MET LX 575: History of French
    Overview of socio-historical and linguistic factors underpinning the emergence, development, and spread of the French language over time. Study of historical, societal, and political events, along with phonetic, morphological, syntactic, and orthographic changes. Representative texts demonstrate stages of language change. Effective Spring 2025, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy.
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Historical Consciousness
  • MET LX 583: 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.
  • MET LX 584: 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. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered MET LX 508.
  • MET LX 590: Topics in Linguistics
    Topics and pre-requisites vary by semester and section. May be repeated for credit as topics change. Please see "Notes" for current offering.
  • MET LX 591: 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.
    • Ethical Reasoning
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • MET LX 594: Introduction to Programming for Computational Linguistics
    Prereq: (METLX250) or consent of instructor. 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 (NLP). Topics include tagging and classification, parsing models, meaning representation, and information extraction. (Not intended for students with a background in programming or computer science.) Carries MCS divisional studies credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning II, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Quantitative Reasoning II
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • MET LX 596: Computational Linguistics
    Prerequisite: METLX 250 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 Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning II, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Quantitative Reasoning II
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • MET MA 113: Elementary Statistics
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: (METMA100) or equivalent. - MA 113 may not be taken for credit by any student who has completed any MA course numbered 300 or higher. Students may receive credit for not more than one of the following courses: MET MA 113, MA 213, or CAS MA 113, MA 115, or MA 213. Basic concepts of estimation and tests of hypotheses, ideas from probability; one-, two-, and multiple-sample problems. Applications in social sciences. Primarily for students in the social sciences who require a one- semester introduction to statistics, others should consider CAS MA 115 or MA 213. This course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Quantitative Reasoning II. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning II, Critical Thinking.
    • Critical Thinking
    • Quantitative Reasoning II
  • MET MA 120: Applied Mathematics for Social and Management Sciences
    Linear equations, systems of linear equations, matrix algebra, exponential functions and logarithms, elements of differential calculus, optimization, probability. Applications in economics, finance, and management. Note: MET MA 120 may be taken for CAS credit. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning II, Critical Thinking.
    • Critical Thinking
    • Quantitative Reasoning II
  • MET MA 123: Calculus I
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: (METMA118) or equivalent. - Students may receive credit for either MET MA 121 or MA 123 or CAS MA 121 or MA 123, but not both. Limits; derivatives; differentiation of algebraic functions. Applications to maxima, minima, and convexity of functions. The definite integral; the fundamental theorem of integral calculus; applications of integration. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning II, Critical Thinking.
    • Critical Thinking
    • Quantitative Reasoning II

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