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Linguistics course schedule (graduate).
| LIN380K | Phonology I | |
| LIN380L | Syntax I | |
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LIN381L | Syntax II |
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LIN381S | Semantics |
| LIN382 | Historical Linguistics | |
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LIN383 | Introduction to Old Norse |
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LIN383 | Introduction to Diachronic Linguistics-German |
| LIN384 | Topics in Romance Linguistics | |
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LIN385 | Field Methods in Linguistic Investigation |
| LIN391.1 | Studies in English Phonology | |
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LIN392 | Laboratory Methods in Phonetics and Phonology |
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LIN392 | The Acquisition of German |
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LIN392 | Second Language Acquisition |
| LIN393 | Talmudic Literature: Text & Language | |
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LIN393.4 | Neurolinguistics |
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LIN393.5 | Translation: Theory, History, Practice |
| LIN393S | The Lexicon in Syntactic Theory | |
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LIN393S.1 | Current Issues in Syntactic Theory |
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LIN395 | Conference Course |
| LIN396 | Identities and Language Ideologies | |
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LIN396 | Grammar of the Arabic Language |
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LIN396 | Turkic Culture & Language in Central Asia |
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LIN396 | Communication in Everyday Language |
| LIN396.2 | Intro to Graduate Linguistic Anthropology | |
| LIN396.3 | Ethnography of Speaking |
This introduction to phonology is designed to familiarize students with the conventions of description and analysis, and argument building standard in the field of phonology. Our primary focus will be on language prosody, or (i) the ways in which languages organize sounds into larger units such as syllables and stress units, and (ii) the ways in which prosodic structure interacts with the realization of certain types of morphemes (prosodic morphology). In addition to syllable structure and stress, then, we will also examine operations of reduplication, truncation, and prosody-based non-concatenative morphology. The theoretical orientation within which phonological phenomena will be examined is Optimality Theory. As is appropriate for a graduate course, students in LIN 380K will read selections from the past and current literature to be assigned weekly. Students will be required to submit weekly solutions to phonology problems assigned in class, will be asked to complete short assignments based on weekly readings, and will write a short (10 page) paper on some phonological topic to be selected by the student and approved by the instructor.
LIN 381M
TBA
Readings will be made available in a course packet.
Back to graduate course index
This course is an introduction to generative syntax for graduate students: we will study syntactic analysis and syntactic theory. The syntactic analysis will develop basic techniques of analysis and argumentation, using mainly English but also data from other languages. The theory is known as the Principles and Parameters approach, or the Government-Binding Theory. It has been developed by Chomsky and many others in the past fifteen years. The course will prepare students to work in the theory and enable them to understand some of the issues currently under debate.
Homework problems will be assigned for almost every class day. The problems will give essential practice in actually doing syntax. Further, they introduce well-known examples and techniques which are part of basic knowledge of the field. The homework is an integral part of the course. We will usually discuss homework problems in class and students will be called upon to present their solutions, questions, and comments. There will be a text which will provide basic information. Toward the end of the semester we may read one or two current articles in syntax.
Graduate standing
There will be frequent homework problems and two or three take-home examinations.
Haegeman, L., 1995 Introduction to Government & Binding Theory, 2nd ed.
This is the second semester course of the graduate requirement in syntax. The course takes a generative approach to syntactic analysis. It integrates concepts from the Government and Binding framework with concepts from Minimalist approaches. In the introduction to the course, we will review general principles of modules of the grammar: X-Bar Theory, q-Theory, Case Theory, Binding Theory and Control and Movement Theory. The course will focus on two types of arguments in syntactic analysis: 1) empirical arguments and 2) theoretical arguments. Empirical arguments will be based on data, while theoretical arguments will be related to the restrictiveness of the system used to account for the data. In the course, we will formulate hypotheses based on data and consider additional data that may lead us to modify the hypotheses. As the course progresses, we will address topics such as argument structure and lexical rules of derivation, lexical and functional projections, cross-linguistic variation related to morphological properties of languages and interface levels.
LIN 380M & LIN 389H or LIN 380L
Supplementary course packet
This course is an introduction into important topics in current research of natural language semantics. It is based on LIN 380M, "Introduction to Semantics", which focused on principles of compositional interpretation, argument structure, modifier constructions, quantifiers, plural reference, the syntax/semantic interface, and the treatment of scope ambiguities, and which introduced technical tools like set theory, type theory and the lambda notation. All this is presupposed by the current course, but can be acquired independently by working through Irene Heim & Angelika Kratzer, "Semantics in Generative Grammar", London: Blackwell Publishers, 1998.
The present course has three parts:
Part I is concerned with phenomena like tense, aspect, modality, vagueness, point
of view, and indexicals. The common denominator of these subjects that natural-language
expressions have to be interpreted with respect to parameters, like the time of utterance.
We will also discuss the semantics of propositoinal attitude verbs in this part.
Part II turns to the interpretation of expressions in text. This includes theories
of anaphoric reference and of presuppositions. In particular, we will discuss Discourse
Representation Theory and other models of so-called "dynamic interpretation".
These theories depart from the traditional truth-conditional view of semantics; their
basic view is that the meaning of a sentence is its potential to change the information
state of a hearer.
Part III addresses the structuring of information in discourse. We will discuss the
semantics of questions and the corresponding semantics of answers in which parts
are highlighted by focus (accent), and we will have a look in the pragmatics of topic-comment
structures.
LIN 380L & LIN 380M (but see note above)
Grading is based on homeworks (50%) and two take-home exams (25% each).
E-mail: krifka@mail.utexas.edu
There is no required textbook. The material is covered in class notes. Occasionally we will read articles or chapters that represent original research; they will be put on reserve. For Part II we will be using parts of Hans Kamp & U. Reyle (1993), From Discourse to Logic, Kluwer Academic Publishers.
General Outline of Course:
LIN 480K (no substitutes without permission of the instructor). The basics of Optimality Theory will be assumed.
TBA
Bloomfield, Language (1984).
W. P. Ker has said that the Sagas differ from all other "heroic" literatures in the larger proportion that they give to the meanness of reality. He is referring to the medieval novels of the Icelanders written in the late 12th and 13th centuries with their affronts to family honor and subsequent blood vengeance, their portraits of memorable characters, and their advanced social system where women had greater rights than anywhere else in the world at that time. This course is an introduction to the classical language of Scandinavia (Old Icelandic) of this period and the large corpus of medieval literature written in Old Icelandic. Among the great works are the Poetic Edda and Snorri Sturlusson's Prose Edda, the two principal texts dealing with Germanic mythology, and family sagas such as Nj·ls saga and Laxdúla saga, which treat events that supposedly took place in the tumultuous 100 years between 930 when Iceland was fully settled and the Althing (the world's first parliament) was founded and 1030 by which time Iceland had been a Christian country for thirty years. During the semester we will become familiar with the language by reading excerpts from a variety of texts. One short though complete Icelandic saga will be read as well. Since contemporary Icelanders can still read the sagas we will use their pronunciation. If we succeed, by the end of the semester students will be able to read most Old Icelandic prose with the aid of a dictionary.
Twelve semseter hours of upper division coursework
Quizzes (30%), Final Exam (take-home) (50%), Classroom Participation (20%)
E. V. Gordon, An Introduction to Old Norse. Oxford.
One saga in English to be provided by instructor.
This seminar aims to provide an up-to-date review of the study of language change (historical linguistics), as it applies to the German language and the Germanic language-family. The course is aimed at linguists, anthropologists, Germanists, Classicists, and English specialists.
No mastery of particular linguistic concepts is presumed or required.
We will be surveying the changes that have taken place in methodology since the Neo-Grammarians and Saussure, and we will be assessing objectively the contributions of major ideas, theories and hypotheses in tackling central questions of language. The extension of the rule-oriented approach of "generativism" to historical problems, which profoundly affects the areas of historical syntax and phonology, will also receive special attention. Also taken into account is the recent research on "convergence", pidgins and creoles, dialectology, etc. In particular, Labov's pathbreaking work in sociolinguistics opens the way to the rethinking of the problems regarding the nature and motivation of language change.
Sound change will be analyzed in detail as well as analogy, with German and Germanic examples. Semantic, morphological and syntactic changes will then be examined, as well as the results of language contact — lexical borrowing, dialects, areal convergence, creolization, etc. The emergence of Yiddish and other dialects within West Germanic will be carefully considered, as will the development of Standard German. Internal reconstruction will lead the way to the comparative method and comparative reconstruction. We will conclude with some reflections on language change and language acquisition.
Graduate standing, OR permission of the instructor. Also, an interest in language; willingness to surprise yourself.
Grades for the course will be distributed as follows:
Seminar participation (50 %), Oral presentations, assignments (25 %), Final paper
(25 %)
The evaluation of your performance is mainly based on your oral participation in activities, discussions, as well as individual presentations and a final paper. Identical levels of linguistic expertise among the whole group are not expected. This means participation in discussions counts as much towards a grade as written assignments and the research paper.
McMahon, April. Understanding Language Change. Cambridge: 1994.
Robinson, Orrin. Old English and Its Closest Relatives: A Survey of the Earliest
Germanic Languages. Stanford:1992.
Waterman, John. A History of the German Language. Waveland Press /U. Washington
Press: 1991 (repr.).
Russ, Charles. The German Language Today: A Linguistic Introduction. 1994.
Course Packet: Available at Abel's, 715-D W 23rd St.
In this course we will analyze how the Romance languages came into being, how they developed, in what respect they are "Romance," and in what respect they differ. We will focus on syntax, but also refer to other aspects of language. First we will discuss the notion of "Romance language," as well as the methods, sources, and specific methodological problems in comparative Romance linguistics. We will also analyze the major changes in the development of Late Latin, the process of language spreading and "dialectization," and the notion of Proto-Romance. Subsequently we will discuss the degree of archaisms in each of the Romance languages and analyze phenomena that are attested in all of them, pointing out the parallels and differences, such as the development of auxiliaries (e.g. "have"), the emergence of the article, the development of nominal categories, the development of the comparative construction, the emergence of the adverb in –ment(e), or the nominal forms of the verb.
Graduate standing
Harris, Martin and Nigel, Vincent 1990 The Romance Languages,
London: Routledge
Reading Packet
This course shows you how to document a language by interacting with a person who speaks it natively. Linguistic documentation is an ever more urgent necessity. It is estimated that as much as 80% of the world’s 6000 or so languages will be extinct by the year 2100. Most of these are poorly documented or else undocumented.
This work is crucial for linguistics. At present our theories still perform poorly, or else are vague or silent, when asked to make predictions about new languages. They are likely to do better once informed by more of the human languages that have actually evolved over history.
This work is also important in a humanistic sense. The maintenance of an ancestral language is a heartfelt issue in many communities under pressure (of one kind or another) to abandon it. While linguists cannot "save" endangered languages—only individual speakers and communities can do that—our experience as documenters, archivists, lexicographers, grammarians, and sociolinguists can often be of great help. On a global level, the preservation of linguistic diversity is often linked to the preservation of cultural and intellectual diversity, both because of the role language and speaking have as emblems of cultural identity, and because of the dependence of culturally significant linguistic practices (including verbal art) on lexical and grammatical details of individual languages.
We will learn about documentation by documenting as much as we can of one particular language through consultation with a native speaker. I will chose a language that has been little studied and that I have had not experience with. Our work will be aimed toward the production of a (very!) preliminary lexicon, grammar, and set of texts, which we will present to our consultant at the end of the class.
Consent of instructor
Assignments (80%), Class Participation (20%)
None
This course is an introduction to the sounds of English and the rules governing their distribution. We will consider how sounds of the various varieties of English are produced, how they are perceived, how they are organized into syllables, and how they are distributed within words. We will also look at patterns of stress and intonation. A central theme will be how different forms of English (American and British, standard and non-standard) differ in pronunciation of one’s native language(s) affect one’s pronunciation of languages learned later in life.
Graduate standing
The grade will be based on homework assignments, a midterm and a final examination.
Phillip Carr. English Phonetics and Phonology: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.
This course is an introduction to how to obtain and analyze acoustic measurements of speech sounds. We will work through the whole process of laboratory work on speech sounds, from the initial exploration of data to the final presentation of results. In particular, we will focus on developing the following skills:
Each student will work through these steps in an individual project involving some aspect of speech sounds and their distributions. The question addressed by the project can lie in any area of linguistics (e.g. phonetics, phonology, sociolinguistics, semantics, historical linguistics) as long as it involves quantitative instrumental data.
In parallel with data oriented exercises, we will read published papers in which quantitative instrumental data is presented as the basis for a linguistic argument. We will concentrate on how quantitative data is presented, and how such evidence can be critiqued.
Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
The grade will be based mainly on a series of laboratory and homework exercises, consisting of different small steps in an individual research project. There will also be a final oral and written presentations of the results of that project.
A packet of readings which will include many key papers in the field.
This course is designed to provide students with an overview of the current literature on the acquisition of German by children, with a comparative examination of selected research on the acquisition of German as an L2. Though we will deal mainly with German data, these will be evaluated within the larger context of general theories of first language acquisition. The subject matter for the course will be presented in three sections. In the first, we will consider general questions surrounding the phenomenon of L1 acquisition and proceed to the analysis of the acquisition of German phonetic, phonological, and morphological structures, for the latter area focusing on gender, plurals, and verbal inflection. The second third deals with syntactic acquisition, with an emphasis on the relationship between verbal inflection and word order, and evaluates the recently proposed Full Competence and Modal hypotheses. Finally, in the last third of the course we will consider developmental dysphasia, L2 acquisition, concentrating on Foreign Workers’ German, pidginized and creolized forms of German, as well as the German of Kaspar Hauser and other delayed acquirers. After each third, students will be given short take-home projects which will consist of original data to analyze.
Reading knowledge of German is highly desirable. Prior coursework in general or Germanic linguistics is assumed.
The course grade will be determined on the basis of these three projects.
In this course we approach major issues in L2A theory from the perspectives of linguistics (e.g. parameter resetting), psycholinguistics (e.g. syllable processing), and cognitive science (e.g. models of learning and representation). Our examination includes diverse areas of linguistic competence: phonology, morphology, lexis, and syntax. Our principal focus is on adult learners at asymptote, i.e., the end state of late L2A.
Graduate courses in relevant areas of psychology or linguistics, or permission of the instructor.
Midterm 30%, Final paper on approved topic 50%, Short presentation 10%, Other 10%
This course is designed to introduce the students to the vast area of Talmudic Literature, primarily the Babylonian Talmud (edited around 500CE). We will concentrate on the study of both the text and the language involved. Since the Babylonian Talmud is written in part in Hebrew and in part Babylonian Aramaic, students will naturally be exposed to both through critical reading of selections from the Talmud itself, along with philological and linguistic analysis. Students will also be introduced to reading in Hebrew Talmudic Commentaries (traditional and Modern). No prior knowledge of Aramaic is required.
Graduate standing
Grades will be based on assigned readings, class participation and a paper related to the readings.
Neurolinguistics is a survey-type course that explores subject areas related to the neurobiological representation of language in the brain. It begins with a complete review of basic neuroanatomy. Topics then include: cortical areas involved in language (brain stimulation studies); subcortical areas involved in language; a description of recent work on aphasia emphasizing what can be learned about language representation from empirical study of aphasic language vis-a-vis area of lesion; hemispheric specialization for language. The last topic includes anatomical differences of left and right hemispheres, split-brain subjects, bilingual speakers, and bilingual aphasics.
Graduate standing.
TBA
Outside reading list and note packet.
This seminar concentrates on various historical, theoretical, and practical aspects of translation. Among the topics to be covered:
Graduate standing.
Assigned and optional readings, class discussion, oral reports, and a term paper.
A list of required and optional texts will be provided in class.
This seminar will explore current ideas about the representation of the lexicon. Emphasis will be placed on lexicalist theories, but other views will be surveyed as well. Topics include: multiple inheritance hierarchies, defaults, lexical rules, optimality theoretic approaches, argument structure, lexical description. Idioms, construction grammar, and lexical integrity.
Consent of instructor
Class presentations of readings; occasional assignments; term paper
Book and course packet
This course will provide an introduction to the topic of the syntax-semantics interface. Topics covered will include existential constructions, genericity, aspect, modality, A and A-bar reconstruction, and relativization strategies.
Consent of the instructor.
TBA
TBA
Individual instruction. Prerequisites: Graduate standing. Consent of instructor must be obtained. Requirements: You must have the prior written consent of the instructor before you register for or add this course. Graduate Conference Course Agreement forms are available in Calhoun 508. Please see Kathy Ross, Graduate Coordinator, for information.
Description: Contemporary research in the fields of sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology often has one of two foci: the individual and his or her identity (or, more properly, identities) or language ideology, the beliefs about language that language users hold. Many researchers acknowledge the necessity of linking the two—identity and ideology—but the task is far from complete. In this course, we'll seek to understand why forging links is so difficult and where connections might be found. To achieve this goal, we'll read broadly in work from linguistic anthropology and sociolinguistics that takes identity or ideology as its focus; however, we'll also read researchers from other fields who consider identity and/or ideology with the hope of applying their constructs to questions of language and linguistic practices.
Permission of the instructor. "Introduction to Sociolinguistics" or "Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology" as well as at least one additional course in sociolinguistics or linguistic anthropology. A willingness to read a lot of challenging material and to think hard about complex issues.
Leading and participating in class discussions. Presenting data for class discussion. A final paper.
Bourdieu, Language as symbolic power, Schieffelin et al. Language ideologies: theory and practice, Hawkes, Ideology, Woodward, Identity and difference, and a number of photocopied articles.
The course will comprise a systematic, formal analysis of the grammar of Standard Arabic (Fusha), Modern and Classical, including its more complex syntactic and morphological structures, which students have been exposed to functionally but which they need to have presented to them systematically, formally and cogently. Students will be introduced to the methods and terminology of traditional Arabic grammatical analysis. Arabic texts will be analyzed in terms of not only their syntactic structures, but also their discourse structure and their stylistic devices such as parallelism, repetition, and redundancy. All instruction and discussions will be in Arabic.
Two years of Arabic (i.e. the sequence ARA 506 - ARA 412L), or the equivalent.
Class participation, daily assignments, two tests, and a final take-home
Homework Assignments (50%), Tests and take-home (50%)
No prescribed textbook. Readings will be given in various grammars of Arabic, including 'Abbas Hasan, al-Shartuni, al-Samarra'i, Dahdah, Wright and others.
The Turkic peoples and their culture dominate the Central Asian scene. They were the largest non-Slavic minority in the Soviet Union, and their culture resisted Slavic cultural dominance to a much greater degree than was anticipated. But these Muslim peoples are also important for an understanding of the Middle East, for they have close linguistic ties with Turkey, and their history is closely intertwined with that of the Iranians and the Arabs.
This seminar surveys the Turkic peoples, languages, and cultures of Central Asia. The primary content will be the Uzbek languages, but there will be some discussion of the historical and cultural setting in order to place the languages, in proper context. For those students who decide by (by the second class meeting) to pursue an emphasis on language there will be weekly exercises and two or three short exams, which will serve as the chief basis for grading.
For those students who wish to emphasize the historical and cultural component (e.g., religion, family life, literature, or the political scene) a special set of readings will be assigned, and a research paper will be required. Such students will be expected to participate in the sessions on language for the first 6 or 8 weeks in order to gain an understanding of the structure of the Turkic languages, but they will not be graded on this.
Graduate standing
See above.
Elizabeth E. Bacon, Central Asians Under Russian Rule: A Study in
Cultural Change, 1980.
Khayrulla Ismarulla, Literary Uzbek, Part 1, 1994.
This course will explore ways of collecting data on and analyzing everyday communicative interactions. A goal of this class will be to understand how people in ‘mundane’ conversations construct, negotiate, resist particular ideas about social relationships and particular realities. Readings include both ethnographic studies and theoretical work about how language as well as "non-verbal" semiotic systems are used by interactants in particular contexts. Early on in the course, students will collect language data from a context of their choice, and this data will be analyzed both collaboratively and individually in terms of the concepts and issues examined in the readings and in class discussions.
Graduate standing.
Semester paper
As the graduate core courses in linguistic anthropology, it consists of lectures and class discussions in a seminar format, introducing major topics in linguistic anthropology (the study of language in relation to culture and society). Topics covered include: Language Structure and Function; Ethnosemantics; Speech Socialization; Ethnography of Speaking; Speech Play and Verbal Art; Language and Social Structure;; Variation in language and Speech; Language Change and Reconstruction; Nonverbal Communication (including writing Systems). No prior training in linguistics is pre supposed.
GRADUATE STANDING REQUIRED. RESTRICTED ENROLLMENT, CONTACT THE ANTHROPOLOGY DEPT. FOR PERMISSION TO REGISTER FOR THIS COURSE.
1) Class preparation & class participation; (2) 3 papers based on assigned projects (5-10 pgs each); (3) Grant proposal; (4) Oral presentations of grant proposals, the written version of which will be due on the last class day. Last 3 weeks of the semester to be devoted to oral presentations.; (5) Exam based on assigned reading. Exam will be open book & will require the student to relate general issues of the course to particular analyses & data from the reading assignments (fixed limit of 10 pgs); (6) Each person will conduct an hour of discussion of readings. Course grade determined by final exam, 3 assigned projects, grant proposal, and by class preparation and participation.
This course will begin with a history and overview of the ethnography of speaking with a focus on theoretical and methodological issues. Then discussion and reading will explore the relationship between ethnographic and interactional/conversational approaches to discourse. Students will present their own current research topics.
Graduate standing.
Oral presentation and paper.
Book and course packet
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