Fall 2007

LIN 372K • Sound Patterns: Sound to Word-W

Course Description

This course is an undergraduate level introduction to phonological patterns found in the world's languages. Phonology is the study of how sounds behave (inventories of sounds, how they are distributed, and how they influence one another) in spoken human languages. Emphasis will be placed on problem solving. Students will learn how to identify phonological patterns in data, to describe these patterns in theory-neutral terms, and how to analyze them. Other important skills to be developed are fundamental to the construction of solid arguments: learning to identify proper evidence for a particular analysis, constructing an argument for a particular analysis (point of view) based on the evidence, identifying advantages and disadvantages of an analysis, and comparing a proposed analysis with potential alternatives. This class is a core program requirement for linguistics majors and is therefore quite specialized. However, the pattern-identification and argument building skills we focus on are broadly general and valuable beyond their specialized application in linguistic studies.

Texts

No text; there will be a reading packet and texts put on reserve.

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