English 351
Introduction to Linguistics
Clai Rice
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Zelda believes her.
Office: Griffin 357
Phone: 482-1327 
Email: crice at louisiana dot edu
Office Hours: MTTH 9:00-11:00
and by appointment


UL Moodle | Assignments

Course Description:  This course will introduce students to the basic issues involved in studying human language: its sounds, words, and sentences, how it is deployed in various forms of social discourse, and how it is acquired by children. Special attention will be paid to the particular language forms known as Creoles, especially to the dialects frequently heard in French Louisiana.

Textbook: Language Files, 11th ed. Ohio State University Press, 2011. ISBN: 978-0-8142-5179-9.

English 351 - Introduction to Linguistics - Daily Schedule

Tuesday

Thursday

 

 

Jan 16

Course Intro, Files 1.1-1.3
Linguistic Bibliography due Wed, Jan 22

Jan 21

Design Features of Language, File 1.4
Animal Comm, Chapter 14 (and see exercises 9-12)
Arbitrariness and Signs

Jan 23

Language Variation, Chapter 10

Jan 28

Phonetics, Files 2.1, 2.2 (consonants)

Jan 30

Phonetics, File 2.3 (vowels)
Quiz

Feb 4

Phonetics, Files 2.4 (non-English sounds)
Quiz

Feb 6

acoustic phonetics, Files 2.5, 2.6, 2.7
Quiz

Feb 11

Test 1

Feb 13

Language Contact, Chapter 12

Feb 18

phonology

Feb 20

syllables

Feb 25

phonology problems

Feb 27

phonology problems

Mar 4

Mardi Gras-- No Class

Mar 6

Language Variation

Mar 11

Test 2

Mar 13

Jabberwocky poem, morphology

Mar 18

morphology (File 12.6)

Mar 20

morphology problems

Mar 25

morphology problems

Mar 27

syntax

Apr 1

syntax

Apr 3

syntax

Apr 8

Test 3

Apr 10

semantics

Apr 15

semantics: File 7.3 and deixis (303)

Apr 17

pragmatics

Apr 22

Spring Break-- No Class

Apr 24

Spring Break-- No Class

Apr 29

pragmatics

May 1

Language Contact: Files 11.1-3

Apr 6

Exam

May 8

 

Points for Each Assignment: 
 
Tests (3) 100 each
Homeworks (5) 10 each
Class Participation (quizzes, attendance, discussion) 50
Dialect Project (100 points)
 100 
Final Exam (comprehensive) 100 

One of the tests or the final exam will be dropped from the total, so the semester's point total is 500. Thus, if you like your test grades, you will not be required to take the final exam.
Attendance: University policy is that you may miss 10% of the class meetings without serious consequences.  Subsequent absences will cause your grade to suffer.  No make-up tests will be given unless you tell me in advance of class that you will be absent for some (important) reason.
Academic Honesty: All work done for this class should be your own. If you use anyone else's words or ideas in your work, you are expected to document that fact appropriately in your own paper. Any violation of this principle will result in a grade of zero for the assignment, and the case will be forwarded to the Dean of Students for further possible action, as indicated by the policy in the Undergraduate Bulletin, p. 444.
Americans With Disabilities Act Compliance Statement
It is the policy of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette to afford equal opportunity in education to qualified students. If you have a disability that may prevent you from meeting course requirements, contact the instructor immediately to file a student disability statement and to develop an accommodation plan. Course requirements will not be waived but reasonable accommodations will be developed to assist you in meeting the requirements.
Phonetics Links:
Sammy, the Interactive Saggital Section -- make sure your javascript is turned on.
Bell Labs text-to-speech (TTS) synthesizer demo
Phthong -- practice your IPA reading and transcription skills; use the LIN 228 link for more precise style.
Another IPA practice page
Summer Institute of Linguistics Speech Analysis software
Praat -- download the speech analysis software or read about techniques of phonetic analysis
International Phonetic Alphabet chart
The Wikipedia glossary of phonetics is useful
How to read a spectrogram (by Robert Hagiwara)
On the "ghoti" spelling's misattribution to GB Shaw.

Online Linguistics Textbooks:
How Language Works: The Cognitive Science of Linguistics , by Michael Glasser
Linguistics 001, Mark Liberman's course at U. Penn
Fren 215: Introduction à la linguistique française (in French), by Greg Lessard
The Syntax of Natural Language, by Beatrice Santorini and Anthony Kroch

Various Linguistics Links:
The Linguist List -- "World's largest online linguistic resource"
Ethnologue -- A database of the world's languages
Poetics and Linguistics Association-- Professional association for stylistics
Language Log -- professional linguists meet the real world
The Web of Language --Dennis Baron's op-eds on linguistics issues in the press
MLA's Language Map of the USA
Dave's ESL Cafe -- Great place to start investigating ESL teaching overseas

Various Text and Author Links:
Some short texts we may discuss in this class
Heather McHugh Links
Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons
Text of Jabberwocky
Lewis Carroll Home Page
The Emily Dickinson International Society