SYLLABUS for LIN201: Introduction to Language and

Linguistics

All readings refer to the textbook (The Language Files, 11th edition)
unless otherwise indicated.
The homework will be uploaded on BlackBoard by Friday midnight of
the week indicated. It is due (in electronic form, to your preceptor) by
Friday midnight of the following week. Please include the pledge.

Monday Lecture

9/15
The sounds of
language
Ch. 2.2-2.3
2.6 optional
9/22
Phonology:
phones and
phonemes; rules
Ch. 3.1-3.4

Wednesday Lecture

Precept

9/10
Linguistics: The scientific
study of human language
Ch. 1.1-1.5
9/17
Sound production
Ch. 2.4-2.5
Optional 2.7

Human language:
Fundamentals

9/24
Accents; Speech perception
Ch. 9. 4

Phonology
Ch. 3.5
Fri:
Phonetics/phonolog
y homework
assigned
Morphology
Fri:
Phonetics/phonolog
y homework due
Morphology
homework
assigned
Syntax
Fri: Morphology
homework due
Syntax homework
assigned
Semantics
Fri: Syntax
homework due
Go over midterm

9/29
Morphology: What
exactly is a word?
Ch. 4.1

10/1
Morphology: How do we
make new words? Why
impossible, illegal,
indefensible and irregular?
Ch. 4.2.-4.5

10/6
Syntax:
(un)grammaticalit
y, word order
Ch. 5.1-5.3
10/13
Lexical semantics
Ch. 6.1-6.2
10/20

10/8
Syntax: categories, phrase
structure, sentences
Ch. 5.4-.5.5
10/15
Syntax-semantics interface
TBA
10/22

Phonetics,
Phonology

Compositional
semantics
Ch. 6.4
11/3
Pragmatics
Ch. 7.1-7.3
11/10
How do children
learn language?
Ch. 8.1 -8.3
11/17
Language, mind
and brain
Ch. 9.1-9.3
11/24
Language
variation,
sociolinguistics
Ch. 10.1 -10.5
12/1
Language, culture
and thought
Ch. 11.1-11.2
12/8
How did human
language evolve?
TBA

In-class midterm exam

Fall Break
11/5
Pragmatics
Ch. 7.4-7.5
11/12
Bi-/multilingual language
acquisition
Ch. 8.5
11/19
Psycholinguistics/language
processing
Ch. 9.5.-9.7
Thanksgiving

exam

Pragmatics
Fri: Pragmatics
homework
assigned
Language
acquisition
Fri: Pragmatics
homework due
Neurolinguistics
Language
processing

12/3
Writing, writing systems
Ch. 15.1-15.3

Linguistic
Relativism
Writing

12/10
Corpus and computational
linguistics
Take-home final assigned
Jan. 13
Due January 19

Review