Linguistics - Spring 1998

[LING-051-01][LING-080D-01][LING-089-01][LING-102-01][LING-116-01]
[LING-140-01][LING-181-01][LING-216-01] [LING-223-01][LING-265-01]

Phonetics was called the "indispensable foundation" for the study of language by Henry Sweet, the real-life model for Henry Higgins in Shaw's Pygmalion. What he meant was that phonetics studies the only direct physical manifestation of human language use. Writing is only an indirect manifestation&emdash;an attempt made by some culture (but no all) to record acts of speech in convenient and permanent form. Phonetics studies human speech itself.

This course emphasizes the acquisition of three related skills: recognition, transcription, 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&emdash;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..

There are no profound conceptual difficulties inherent in understanding and mastering phonetics. There are no prerequisites or even recommended prerequisites for the course other than belonging to the human species.

The work will involve learning a highly useful universal phonetic alphabet, doing drills and problems that require use of it, and learning the technical terminology for speech sounds and for the means of their production.

Prerequisites: none

General Education Code: IH (Introduction to Humanities)

This course will provide a critical survey of Noam Chomsky's theorizing on language, and the influence of that theorizing on disciplines outside linguistics&emdash;psychology and philosophy especially. It will begin by examining the goals that Chomsky laid out for the study of language and the methodology which he advocated for the pursuit of those goals. It will then examine the principal claims about the nature of language that have emerged from that work&emdash;the claim that there are universal features of language-design, the claim that those features are grounded in a species-specific genetic endowment, the claim that language-learning is fundamentally different from other kinds of learning. The broader implications will then be examined&emdash;the revival of rationalist strains of thought concerning innate ideas, and some claimed implications about intrinsic limitations on human understanding. At each step, the strategy pursued will be to reach as clear an understanding of the Chomskyan position as possible and then to confront that understanding with critiques from various perspectives.

Evaluation will be based on a combination of class participation and written work. Written work will consist of three short papers, which will be based on reading and on class discussions. In the papers, students will be expected to survey and critically evaluate the debates with which the course is concerned.

Prerequisites: none

General Education Code: T4 (Topical&emdash;Humanities & Arts) 

This course will review the major aspects of Hungarian grammar concentrating on features that separate Hungarian from Indo-European languages. Selected readings will be made available.

Students will be evaluated based on participation in class discussion.

Prerequisite: one linguistics course.

General Education Codes: none

Classical generative phonology conceived of a phonological representation as a single linear sequence of sound entities. Nonlinear Phonology, consisting of Metrical and Autosegmental Theory, has altered this picture in fundamental ways.

In Metrical Phonology, the basic idea of phonological constituent structure (with segments grouped into syllables, syllables into feet, etc.) is developed into a detailed theory of the prosodic hierarchy.

Autosegmental Theory has developed a significantly enriched conception of phonological representations which resembles an orchestral score: The "articulatory instruments" (vocal and nasal tract, tongue, lips, larynx with vocal chords) are represented on independent but parallel tiers, temporally coordinated with each other.

This overall nonlinear theory of phonological representation has been successfully applied to a number of problems which had remained intractable in the linear framework, and it has considerably advanced our understanding of the sound structure of human language.

Course requirements: Weekly readings and problem sets, midterm, and final.

Prerequisites: Ling 101 (Phonology I).

General Education Code: none

This course investigates how sentences mean what they mean and how they can be used to communicate more than what they mean. We will be interested in developing precise ways of describing the possible interpretations of a sentence and how that range is related to its syntactic structure. We pursue this goal by considering three topics: (i) the lexical semantics of verbs and a theory of the semantic information in a lexical entry, (ii) the semantics of quantification and the description of scope ambiguities, and (iii) classical problems involving sense and reference and proposed solutions involving the construction of models of discourse reference. We will also make a survey of the development of the study of semantics within generative linguistics theory.

The courses 116 (Semantics 2) and 231 (Semantics A) formerly met together and shared a syllabus. The two courses diverge somewhat now. As a result, undergraduate students who intend to take Semantics B in the winter quarter should, with permission of the instructor, enroll in Semantics A in the fall rather than 116. (You may not receive credit for 116 if you have already taken 231, but you may take 231 in the year after you have taken 116.)

Course requirements: Written work for the course consists chiefly of two problem sets corresponding to a midterm and a final. Additionally, students must submit (and revise as directed) two short essays (squibs) on some problem of interest.

Prerequisites: Ling 52 (Syntax I) or Ling 55 (Syntactic Structures) and Ling 53 (Semantics I).

General Education Code: none

This course addresses three questions: (i) why do languages change? (ii) in what ways can a language change? (iii) how can the results of language change be used to determine the genetic relationships, and the linguistics and cultural history, of a language? After briefly discussing the relationship between language change and language variation, we will survey the best-known types of language change. We will then investigate the comparative method of historical linguistics in some detail. Material from various language families will be discussed; but the empirical focus of the course will be the Indo-European languages.

Course requirements: Weekly or twice-weekly homework assignments, and a final exam.

Prerequisites: Ling 101 (Phonology I).

General Education Code: none

This is a class in comparative grammar, which has a dual purpose. We first seek to systematically survey major phonological, morphological, and syntactic properties of several Romance languages. By doing so, we will also develop an appreciation of the goals and methods of constructing grammatical explanations.

Students entering the course should have one Romance language other than English whose structure they intend to explore. The course will satisfy the 'Structure of' requirement for Language Studies students, who will focus on their major language.

It is anticipated that there will be an extra 2 unit class associated with this course which will delve more deeply into issues in Spanish phonology and syntax.

For more information, consult the instructor.

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

General Education Code: none

This proseminar will focus on issues of segmental phonology, and of phonetics-phonology interaction.

Course requirements: One research paper and presentation.

Prerequisites: Ling 212 (Phonology B).

General Education Code: none

The syntax and semantics of anaphoric relations, principally antecedent-pronoun relations. Topics to be covered include: base-generation of pronouns, structural conditions on antecedent-pronoun relations, disjoin reference and reflexivization, variable binding, the syntax of Logical Form.

Reading:

Tanya Reinhart's Anaphora and Semantic Interpretation and various articles.

Prerequisite:

Ling 222 (Syntax B).

General Education Code:

none

A survey of the basic mathematical notions fundamental to the understanding of work in theoretical syntax, semantics, and phonology.

The course will cover the following topics:

• Basic set theory and boolean algebra
• Predicate logic with first-order quantification and abstraction
• Relations, functions and orders
• Graph theory
• Infinity and recursion
• Formal languages and automata

Basic definitions and theorems will be presented in each section. Work for the course will consist of exercises and problem sets which develop the ability to work with the formal systems and apply the systems to particular points in linguistic theory.

Prerequisites:

none

General Education Code:

none

Revised 7/13/04.