INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS

LING 100 | 2020 SUMMER 2

SYLLABUS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
UBC’s Point Grey Campus is located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the
xwməθkwəy̓ əm (Musqueam) people. The land it is situated on has always been a place of
learning for the Musqueam people, who for millennia have passed on in their culture, history,
and traditions from one generation to the next on this site. Visit https://www.musqueam.bc.ca/ to
learn more about the Musqueam people.

COURSE DESCRIPTION AND GOALS:

This web-oriented course is an introduction to the study of language as a universal and uniquely human
cognitive system: What universals do all languages share and how do languages differ? An investigation
of sound systems, word-building, grammatical principles, language change, dialect variation, language
acquisition, neurolinguistics. Recommended but not required for an honours, major, or minor in
linguistics or speech sciences.

Please read the policies outlined in this syllabus carefully. Refer to this document first before
emailing us questions. Remaining enrolled in the class is an agreement to abide by the policies of
the course. You are responsible for all the information contained within.

PREREQUISITIES: None.

COURSE INFORMATION

Instructor: Oksana Tkachman

E-mail: oksana.tkachman@ubc.ca
Office hours: Fridays 2-3pm (via Collaborate Ultra)
Class time: Tuesday & Thursday 1pm – 3m
Textbook (required): Yule, G. (2017). The study of language, 7th ed. Cambridge University Press
Note: If you happen to have a copy of the 4th, 5th, or 6th edition, feel free to use it. The content is
largely similar.

TEACHING ASSISTANTS AND TUTORIALS

Rachel Soo
T05 Tuesday/Thursday 3-4pm
T07 Tuesday/Thursday 4-5pm
E-mail: rachel.soo@ubc.ca
Office hour: Wednesdays 10-11am

Ife Adebara
T06 Tuesday/Thursday 3-4pm
T08 Tuesday/Thursday 4-5pm
E-mail: Ife.adebara@ubc.ca
Office hour: Mondays 3-4pm
Lectures are pre-recorded and will be available on Canvas, so you can watch them any time (the relevant
lecture will be uploaded at 1pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays). However, tutorials and virtual office hours
on Collaborate Ultra happen in real time. Tutorials will NOT be recorded.

EXPECTATIONS

This is an (extremely) intensive web-oriented course. You are responsible for information and learning
materials on Canvas and should check it regularly. “I didn’t know that" or “I didn’t read the
announcement" are not acceptable reasons for failure to complete assigned tasks by the deadline.

To get the best possible grade in this class, you should watch all pre-recorded lecture videos and do all
assigned readings. Canvas quizzes are designed precisely to motivate you to catch up with course
materials and beat procrastination.

Every student must register for a tutorial section. To get the most out of tutorials, you should attempt the
problem sets before class. Although we do NOT take attendance at tutorials, going through the problem
sets with your TAs will help you approach linguistic data like a linguist and acquire problem-solving
skills. If you cannot attend tutorials, make good use of the discussion board on Canvas and office hours.

COURSE GRADING:

Requirement Percentage
Assignment 1 10
Assignment 2 10
Midterm 1 25
Midterm 2 25
Final group project: constructed language 15
Participation on Canvas: 14 discussion posts 7
Quizzes (9 total, only 7 best count) 7
LOC 1
TOTAL 100

There is NO final exam.

Assignments: Two assignments are to be submitted on Canvas. You will have at least a week to complete
them. Late assignments will NOT be considered for credit.

You may work together for assignments, but each student should write up their own answers, and you should
indicate which other students you worked with. Assignments that include identical answers will be treated as
violations of the UBC code of academic integrity. For details, see http://www.calendar.ubc.ca/vancouver/ ?
tree=3,54,111,959

If you have a problem with opening or downloading an assignment, contact your TA or instructor immediately.
“I couldn’t open it” will not be accepted as an excuse for late assignments. You should check the relevant
pages ASAP to avoid technical problems. Problems with submitting assignments will also not be accepted as
an excuse for late assignments. Students should retain a copy of all submitted assignments until the end of the
grading period.
Midterm exams: Two open-book midterm exams will be conducted on Canvas. The format is similar to
tutorial problem sets. You will have a 9-hour window to complete each exam. The midterm exams may
NOT be made up or rescheduled, barring emergencies or advance-notice agreement (at my discretion).
MISSED EXAMS MAY BE MADE UP ONLY IN CASES OF FAMILY OR MEDICAL EMERGENCY
(WITH A SUITABLE NOTE FROM A DOCTOR). If you know in advance that you’ll have to miss the
midterm, please let both your TA and the instructor know as early as possible.

Quizzes: Quizzes are open-book mini-tests to motivate you to study the required materials, including the
textbook, videos, and other assigned readings. Typically, they will be on the materials to be studied in
preparation for the upcoming tutorial. You will be given 30 minutes to complete 10 multiple-choice
questions. Quizzes count for 1% each. Your lowest 2 quiz marks out of 9 will be dropped. Quizzes may
NOT be rescheduled or retaken for any reason. Missed quizzes result in a mark of zero, without
exception.

Group work: You will be assigned to a group of 5 students. Your group will be creating a constructed
(that is, artificial) language. Each of you will contribute to some aspect of the language, such as its sound
inventory and phonotactical rules, syntactic phrase structure rules, or word formation rules, with
corresponding grammatical and ungrammatical examples. The guidelines for final projects will be
provided later in the course.

Participation on Canvas: Each student should contribute a total of at least 14 posts on the online
Discussion Board during the term. Each meaningful post is worth 0.5% of your final grade. On Canvas
you will see 10 graded discussion threads on different topics. Your 14 posts do NOT need to be equally
distributed among different topics. In order to earn points, your posts must be meaningful (e.g. raise a
question related to that topic, give an additional example, answer another student’s question, share a
useful resource). Posts like “I agree" without further elaboration or replies with only an emoji will not be
awarded participation points.

Linguistics Outside the Classroom (LOC): Participation in Linguistics Outside the Classroom (LOC) is
required for this course. This is a means of increasing your involvement in learning about linguistics
outside of regular classroom instruction. There are two ways of satisfying this requirement. (1) One way
is by participating in 1-point worth of experiments being run by researchers in the Department of
Linguistics. Experiments typically take anywhere from 15 minutes to 1 hour and offer the opportunity to
contribute to and learn about linguistics research first hand. Due to COVID-19, all experiments will be
conducted online this term. Your participation in research is always voluntary. (2) A second way of
completing this requirement is by attending one Linguistics research seminar or colloquium and writing a
one-paragraph summary of the talk, which you submit online within one week of attending. In addition,
this term we also provide the option of watching pre-recorded online talks. To sign up for eligible
experiments and live or pre-recorded talks, please visit https://ubclinguistics.sona-systems.com. You can
also satisfy this requirement by participating in an appropriate combination of experiments and talks. The
credits associated with experiments vary according to their duration. Attending a talk and writing a
summary constitutes 2 LOC points. You must complete the LOC requirement by August 13.

Deadlines: Assignments are posted at least a week before the due date. Quizzes are unlocked at least 4
days before the due date and you will be given 30 minutes after you click “Start”. For midterms, you will
have a 9-hour window to work, but it does NOT mean you will need the entirety of the 9 hours to
complete the midterm. This is simply to accommodate students in different time zones.
Honour Code. Every assignment must include the following statement, plus your signature: “I have
abided by the UBC code of academic integrity.” This statement indicates that you have abided by the
code on all issues relating to that assignment.

Notes:
 Any changes to the course schedule will be announced on Canvas.
 Additional readings and other source materials may be assigned. These will be available on
Canvas.
 The assigned materials for each week should be studied before the lecture.
 Quizzes will be available Wednesdays and Mondays (with the exception of the first quiz, which
will be released on Tuesday, July 7th).

Wee Date Topic Readings Assignment due

k
Mon. July 6
Tue. July 7 Introduction
What is language?
1 Wed. July 8
Thu. July 9 Phonetics Yule Ch. 3
Fri. July 10 Assignment 1 posted
Quiz 1 due
End of add/drop period
Mon. July 13
Tue. July 14 Phonology Yule Ch. 4 Quiz 2 due
2 Wed. July 15
Thu. July 16 Morphology Yule Ch. 5 Quiz 3 due
Fri. July 17 Assignment 1 due
Finalize final-project
groups
Mon. July 20
Tue. July 21 Syntax Yule Ch. 7, 8 Quiz 4 due
3 Wed. July 22
Thu. July 23 Midterm # 1
Fri. July 24
Mon. July 27
Tue. July 28 Semantics & Yule Ch. 9, 10 Assignment 2 posted
4 Pragmatics Quiz 5 due
Wed. July 29
Thu. July 30 Historical Linguistics Yule Ch. 17 Quiz 6 due
Fri. July 31
Mon. August 3
Tue. August 4 Sociolinguistics Yule Ch. 18, 19 Assignment 2 due
5 Quiz 7 due
Wed. August 5
Thu. August 6 Midterm # 2
Fri. August 7
Mon. August 10
Tue. August 11 Language & Culture Yule Ch. 20 Quiz 8 due
6 Wed. August 12
 Thu. August 13 Language & the Brain Yule Ch. 12 Quiz 9 due
Fri. August 14 Final project due
Grading scale
The table below provides an estimate of grade breakdowns for the final grade following UBC guidelines.

90-100 A+ 64-67 C+
85-89 A 60-63 C
80-84 A- 55-59 C-
76-79 B+ 50-54 D
72-75 B 00-40 F
68-71 B-

GRADE APPEALS

We do NOT negotiate marks/grades. The only reason a grade change will be made is if there is an
arithmetic error. The following are NOT reasons for reconsideration of a grade:
• The student is on probation
• The student worked hard and thinks this should be a factor
• The student does not like the grade scale
• The student’s score is x% below the next grade and would like the instructor to ignore the
difference.

If you have a question about how your mark was calculated, please contact your TA.

Marking errors: Miscalculations should be brought to our attention within one week (7 calendar days) of
an assignment/exam being returned. Any papers that are not returned for correction within this period will
stand as marked.

Scaling: Faculties, departments, and schools reserve the right to scale grades in order to maintain equity
among sections and conformity to university, faculty, department, or school norms. Students should
therefore note than an unofficial grade given by an instructor might be changed. Grades are not official
until they appear on a student's academic record.

I reserve the right to. . .

»» expect compliance with these policies, and to grade accordingly

»» change the reading, assignment, or course schedule, as our speed requires
»» test/quiz you on information from any reading, lecture, class discussion, posted website, etc.
»» replace some of the quizzes with student polls (points given for participation) or other tools
»» make announcements via Canvas/email and hold you accountable for that information
»» make the ultimate decision about late assignments, make-ups, rescheduled exams, etc.
»» change old policies or implement new ones as the situation requires

E-MAIL POLICY AND COMMUNICATION CHANNELS

Content-related questions: Bring them up in tutorials, on Canvas’ Discussion Board, or come to virtual
office hours. Emails about these matters will NOT be answered. You are highly encouraged to meet with
a TA or the instructor during virtual office hours if you have questions about course material.

Organizational matters that are of interest to all students: Post a question on the Discussion Board.
Personal matters: If you are sick and need to miss a midterm, please send an email to the instructor. If
this is your first in-term concession, state your full name and student number as well as the course
number. Edit your email for tone and clarity. If you require a second concession, you must make your
request to your Faculty Advising Office.

In general, your TA should be your first point of contact. We may not respond to email questions on short
notice, for example, the day before an assignment is due. Please plan accordingly. When e-mailing us,
always put “LING 100” in the subject line. Note that we will not be checking emails after 5pm or on
weekends; if you have an urgent question that cannot wait until the next day, please email it as early in
the day as possible. In general, give us 24 hours to answer your email (but we will probably answer it
sooner).

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

The UBC policy on academic misconduct is in effect at all times in this class, both in letter and spirit. I
will treat violations of it seriously. If you ever have questions about academic integrity or misconduct, or
their application in this class, you should bring them to me.

All work that you turn in is to be your original work. You may NOT turn in another person’s work as
yours, and quoted material must be properly cited. You may not give or receive assistance to/from
another person during exams or quizzes, nor receive information from any means not authorized by the
instructor.

Academic misconduct that is subject to penalty includes, but is not limited to, the following:

Plagiarism occurs where an individual submits or presents the work of another person as his or her own.
Scholarship quite properly rests upon examining and referring to the thoughts and writings of others.
However, when excerpts are used in paragraphs or essays, the author must be acknowledged in the text,
through footnotes, in endnotes, or in other accepted forms of academic citation. Plagiarism extends from
where there is no recognition given to the author for phrases, sentences, or ideas of the author
incorporated in an essay to where an entire essay is copied from an author, or composed by another
person, and presented as original work. Students must ensure that when they seek assistance from a tutor
or anyone else that the work they submit is actually their own. Where collaborative work is permitted by
the instructor, students must ensure that they comply with the instructor’s requirements for such
collaboration. Students are responsible for ensuring that any work submitted does not constitute
plagiarism. Students who are in any doubt as to what constitutes plagiarism should consult their instructor
before handing in any assignments.

Cheating includes but is not limited to: falsifying any material subject to academic evaluation; having in
an examination any materials other than those permitted by the examiner; and using unauthorized means
to complete an examination (e.g. receiving unauthorized assistance from a fellow student).

Submitting the same or substantially the same, essay, presentation, or assignment more than once
(whether the earlier sub- mission was at this or another institution), unless prior approval has been
obtained from the instructor(s) to whom the assignment is to be submitted.

For more information (including info about disciplinary measures) see

http://www.calendar.ubc.ca/vancouver/index.cfm? tree=3,286,0,0 Violations of the UBC code of
academic integrity may result in disciplinary action, including a failing grade for the course, suspension
from scholarships, or expulsion from the University. Take this seriously!
EQUITY AND ACCESSIBILITY

I consider this virtual classroom to be a place where you will be treated with respect, and I welcome
individuals of all ages, backgrounds, beliefs, ethnicities, genders, gender identities, gender expressions,
national origins, religious affiliations, sexual orientations, abilities - and other visible and non-visible
differences. All members of this class are expected to contribute to a respectful, welcoming and inclusive
environment for every other member of the class. If you prefer certain gender pronouns, please let the
instructor and TAs know.

Student accommodations: The University accommodates students (1) with disabilities who have
registered with The Centre For Accessibility, and (2) whose religious obligations conflict with attendance,
submitting assignments, or completing scheduled tests and examinations. Let me know in the first week if
you will require accommodation on these grounds.

Illness and absence: If you experience medical, emotional, or personal problems that affect your
attendance or academic performance, you should discuss this with Arts Academic Advising (or your
home Faculty’s Advising Office). I may require a note from Arts Academic Advising or a health care
professional before I grant any accommodations (such as extending a due date). If you are registered with
The Centre for Accessibility, you should notify your instructor in the first week of the term. If you are
planning to be absent for varsity athletics, family obligations, or other commitments, you should not
assume that these will be accommodated, and you should discuss your situation with the instructor before
the drop date.

Respectful environment and student code of conduct: It is very important that we foster an
environment that is respectful of all participants in the course, no matter what their background. Students,
faculty, and staff should be aware of the UBC president’s Statement on Respectful Environment and
related university policies. See this website for more information: http: //www.hr.ubc.ca/respectful-
environment/

All students are also bound by UBC’s Student Code of Conduct:

http://students.ubc.ca/campus-life/student-code-conduct

Well-being: Being a university student can sometimes be stressful. If you are experiencing any sort of
personal, psychological, medical or financial difficulties, I strongly encourage you to seek help at an early
stage. There are many resources for students available on campus. The following page is a very useful
guide for a wide variety of services related to your well-being: http://students.ubc.ca/livewell If someone
you know is in distress, here is a place where you can find ways to help them:
http://students.ubc.ca/livewell/concerned-about-student/how-help-other-students

COPYRIGHT

All materials for this course (lecture videos, slides, tutorial handouts and answer keys, assignments,
quizzes, etc.) are the intellectual property of the Course Instructor or licensed to be used in this course by
the copyright owner. Redistribution of these materials by any means (e.g. posting them on slide-sharing
websites) without permission of the copyright holder(s) constitutes a breach of copyright and may lead to
academic discipline. Please do not record or re-distribute any portion of the course (including your
tutorial) without prior written consent from the instructor.