Fall 2003

This information effective for Fall 2003. Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.

Linguistics

[LING-020] [LING-051] [LING-052] [LING-055] [LING-080V] [LING-101] [LING-105]

20. Introduction to Linguistics

MWF 12:30-1:40
Earth & Marine #B214
staff

This course is a general introduction to the nature of language, its complexity, and its diversity. The first part of the course will focus on the core areas of language study: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. The second part of the course will focus on issues in language and society. These may include such topics as dialects, American Sign Language, the acquisition of language, and the official English language movement. By the end of the course, you should be acquainted with systematic methods of studying language, be aware of the fundamental similarities of all human languages as well as their startling diversity, and have an informed perspective on how issues of language impact our society. This course does not satisfy any named requirement for the linguistics major. Course requirements: class participation, weekly home-work assignments, a midterm, and a final exam.

Prerequisites: none.
General Education Code: IH

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51. Phonetics I

MWF 8:00-9:10
Soc. Sci. II #71
staff

Phonetics is the study of human speech sounds. This course emphasizes the acquisition of four related skills: recognition, transcription, description, and production of speech sounds. The focus is not on any particular language. Given a good grasp of phonetics, one can listen to any human language and record accurately on paper the way it sounded so that any other phonetician could read it back. This skill is extremely useful for anyone who ever plans to be in a foreign language environment and is also applicable in a number of other domains—for instance, speech therapy; research work on machine recognition and synthesis of speech; dialect acquisition for actors; foreign pronunciation for broadcasters; and, of course, the study of linguistics. The work will involve learning a highly useful phonetic alphabet and acquiring an understanding of the articulatory and acoustic properties of speech sounds. In addition, students will apply this knowledge in order to better understand facts about language sound systems, e.g., why certain sounds are common or uncommon.

Prerequisites: none. General Education Code: IH (Introduction to Humanities)

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52. Syntax I

MWF 9:30-10:40
Earth & Marine #B214
Instructor: James McCloskey
E-mail: mcclosk@ling.ucsc.edu

This course is an introduction to English syntax (principles of sentence construction) and to syntactic analysis in the framework of generative grammar. It constitutes the entry course to the syntax sequence for linguistic majors. No prior linguistic or other training is presupposed. The work for the course consists entirely of homework problems. An assignment will be given at every class, due at the following class, and returned the class after that. The homework will require time and careful attention and will usually be rather challenging. These problems will be designed to involve students in observation and analysis of linguistic data and in the construction and testing of syntactic theories. At two times during the quarter, the problems will be more comprehensive and time-consuming and will function as take-home exams. There is no text. Though it is part of the required core sequence for linguistics majors, Syntax I is designed for all students interested in an introduction to a rigorous, scientific approach to language study; a better understanding of the structure of English and of language, in general; or just plenty of exercise in precise thought and writing.

Prerequisites: Satisfaction of the Subject A and C requirements.

General Education Codes: IH (Introduction to Humanities), W (Writing Intensive).

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55. Syntactic Structures

MWF 9:30-10:40
Cowell 131
Instructor: Jorge Hankamer
E-mail: hank@ling.ucsc.edu

This course is an introduction to syntactic analysis in the framework of generative grammar. No previous training in linguistics is assumed. The work will proceed by way of class discussion and homework assignments. Both the discussion and the homework will focus on selected topics in the syntax of English, German, French, Spanish, and other languages. Course requirements: 12-14 homework assignments and a take-home final exam. This course satisfies a core course requirement in linguistics for the language studies major. It does not satisfy any named requirement for the linguistics major.

Prerequisites: Satisfaction of the Subject A and C requirements.

General Education Code: IH (Introduction to Humanities), W (Writing Intensive).

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80V. Structure of the English Vocabulary

TTH 10:00-11:45
Cowell 131
Instructor: Adam Albright
E-mail: albright@ling.ucsc.edu

Exploring the historic origin and development of word elements in English, as well as their sound, meaning, and function in their contemporary language, the course aims to offer a deeper understanding of the language that has become the international medium of communication and, at the same time, provide tools for vocabulary expansion and word-building techniques. The roots of the English vocabulary are extremely varied—with words of Germanic, Romance, and Greek origin as well as borrowings from all over the world. One of the goals of the course is to analyze the structure of the English vocabulary and understanding the ways in which its diverse influences and varied history have shaped the modern language. Evaluation will be based on class participation, weekly assignments, weekly quizzes, a midterm, and a final.

Prerequisites: none.

General Education Code: T4 (Topical: Humanities & Arts).

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101. Phonology I

TTH 8:00-9:45
Soc. Sci. II #71
Instructor: Armin Mester
E-mail: mester@ling.ucsc.edu

Phonetics and phonology are the two branches of linguistics that deal with sound structure. While phonetics focuses on the physical manifestations of sounds and on theories of speech production and perception, phonology is concerned with the systems of rules that determine how the basic sounds of a language combine. We will begin by discussing the internal structure of sounds and developing a precise formalism (the distinctive feature system) for representing this internal structure. We will then consider the kinds of systematic regularities in sound-combination that motivate phonological rules. The rest of the course will be devoted to three fundamental questions that can be raised about phonological rules: What is the form of these rules? How do they interact with one another? And what are the properties of the representations to which they apply? Because phonological rules can depend on word structure, any rigorous investigation of phonology inevitably touches on this area as well. Thus, this course also constitutes an introduction to morphology (word structure). Course requirements: Weekly problems, midterm, and final exam.

Prerequisites: Satisfaction of the Subject A and C requirements; Phonetics (LING 51) or Intro to Linguistics (LING 20).

General Education Code: W (Writing Intensive).

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105. Morphology

TTH 4:00-5:45
Stevenson 152
Instructor: Donka Farkas
E-mail: farkas@ling.ucsc.edu

Morphology is the study of how words are constructed, just as syntax is the study of how sentences are constructed. Morphology has an obvious connection to phonology since words are made up of phonemes as well as of morphemes, and the phonological shape of a morpheme may depend on its phonological environment; it also has a connection to syntax since the internal structure of a word may depend in part on its syntactic environment; and it has a connection to semantics since the meaning of a complex word is a function (sometimes a very interesting function) of the meanings of its parts. The course has two main goals: (i) to provide an introduction to some of the basic theoretical problems in morphology, and (ii) to go through a series of problems in order to see morphological processes at work and develop the ability to do morphological analysis. As a term project, each student will adopt a language and be responsible for developing a morphological description for it. The work will consist of a number of analytical problems, some readings, and a term paper on the morphology of some language.

Prerequisites: LING 52 (Syntax I), or LING 55 (Syntactic Structures) and LING 101 (Phonology I).