This is the webpage for Sections 1 and 5 of Ling 101. This site should be used in conjunction with the main course webpage, from which you can download the course syllabus as part of the (required) course pack.
If you have questions about the material covered in the lecture or in section, particular questions you would like to address during class, or would just like to discuss something further, please visit my office hours, or contact me via email.
Please note this additional extra credit opportunity: Cherlon Ussery requests subjects for a psycholinguistics experiment, which consists of a questionnaire, and should take approximately 20-30 minutes. No appointment is necessary; simply come to 301 South College during the following times next week.
Correction to syllabus: As was announced in John's recent email, the date of the second midterm exam is Monday, 13 November; the November 10th discussion section will be devoted to reviewing. The date of 6 November given in the course syllabus is a mistake.
Correction to syllabus: the experiment sign-up page is http://wwwx.oit.umass.edu/~linguist/esdb/
The first mid-term exam for this course is this Wednesday, 11 October, in the usual place and at the usual time of the lecture. It will cover all of the material in Lectures 1-9, in addition to the readings assigned since the beginning of the course.
Correction to the 29 September handout: The link to the Excel spreadsheet which accompanies Homework 2 was miscopied on page 5 of the handout I distributed today. The link is: http://courses.umass.edu/ling101s/hw2data.xls. This is also in the homework, and in this corrected version of page 5 of the handout.
Clarification of a point I made in the 22 September discussion: There was a slight inaccuracy in the way I described the Indo-European (IE) language family during our discussion of Selim's native langauge Persian(Farsi). As mentioned in class, both Persian(Farsi) and Rumanian are members of IE. I said that English and Rumanian were in the same major subbranch; in fact, this is only arguably (and, it seems, most likely not) the case. IE is divided into eight major subbranches; English is a member of the Germanic branch, Rumanian a member of the Italic branch, and Farsi(Persian) a member of the Indo-Iranian branch. Prior to this century, scholars assumed the existence of one additional, higher-level of division of these eight subbranches into two major subbranches: Western (or kentum) and Eastern (or satem). Certain discoveries made in this century threw the validity of this division into question, and most linguists no longer maintain it, drawing the IE language family tree as it is schematized here, with all eight major subbranches branching directly from IE. Here you can see this in graphical form. (Ethnologue.org is a useful website for looking up linguistic and ethnographic information about almost any of the world's known languages; the links above are to Ethnologue's entries for Persian, Rumanian, and the IE family, but you might enjoy exploring a bit.)
I collected Assignment 4, which was due today. We discussed it, along with the associated Tannen reading. We also reviewed the Gricean Maxims, and I introduced the related notion of conversational implicature.
I distributed Assignment 5, which is the final assignment for this course and is due at the next discussion section (7 December). Here is the rubric we will use in grading this assignment. Remember that no late homeworks will be accepted after the last class meeting on 13 December.
The major topic of discussion today was the connection between language and power, and relatedly, the use of language in political discourse. As we discussed in class, the importance of language as an instrument of power is strikingly illustrated by the 1990 GOPAC Memo, the full text of which you can see here. Here also is the link to the Washington Post article regarding the use of the term "hungry."
In relation to Assignment 4, which was distributed today and which will be due 1 December, we talked about what it means to think critically, and considered the the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning. Remember that we will be paying particular attention in grading this assignment to the clarity and reasoning of your argumentation.
I also distributed handout, which describes the (optional) term paper options for this course. Remember that, if you do want to write a term paper, the declaration of intent to do so must be returned to me by 11 December.
We began reviewing for the exam, and I distributed this handout, which contains important information regarding the content and form of the questions that will be on the exam. Remember that, as last time, the three essay questions on the exam will come from the six possible essay questions on the handout, so be sure to prepare for all of them. (We didn't have time to discuss every question in class, so if you are unclear about any of them, please ask me.)
I also asked everyone to write some reflections on the course so far. Particularly, if you weren't in discussion, I would appreciate it if you could write an email explaining which topic, issue, phenomenon, or any other aspect of the material we have covered in this course so far that you have found most interesting, intriguing, or, perhaps, the most open to debate. (You could also write it on paper, and bring it to the next class.)
In relation to my returning Homework 3, we spent a bit of time talking about the craft of writing, reviewing some common grammatical mistakes and stylistic matters with the help of this handout.
We reviewed important points from this week's lecture on language change. We talked about loanwords as one major source of introducing new words into a language (this wikipedia entry has a link to the interesting list of etymologies of loanwords from various languages found in English that I mentioned in class). Finally, we discussed the linguistic significance of slang, and saw that the mechanisms of semantic change are often highly relevant to the development of slang terms. We also heard some good examples of portmanteau slang terms; if you want to read more about portmanteau words and morphemes (which you are responsible for for the upcoming exam) I also recommend this wikipedia article.
Homework 3 was due today, and we discussed the Eckert article.
We continued to consider aspects of AAVE's grammar. Continuing from last week's lecture, we reviewed the grammatical category of aspect in general, and the components of the aspectual system of AAVE particularly. We also considered the grammatical phenomenon of negative concord, which is found in AAVE as well as many other languages such as Spanish and French. The handout is here.
I turned back Homework 2. A review of Pinker's hypothesis and an explanation of how you needed to tie it into the assignment, a list of common errors and misunderstandings, and some general comments and suggestions for improvements are in Section 2 of today's handout.
We discussed the criteria for defining dialects. We also reviewed the major Boston dialect features, and used the data from your dialect surveys to illustrate the notion of isogloss (defined on p.1 of the handout).
I distributed Homework 3, which is due at next week's discussion, Friday, 27 October. Homework 3 is based on this article by sociolinguist Penelope Eckert. You must do the reading assignment in order to write the essay!
I returned your first midterm exams. If you would like to see which questions you missed on the multiple choice section, you need to schedule an appointment with me.
No discussion sections today. Remember that the dialect survey, which was distributed after the exam on Wednesday, is due in lecture this Wednesday 18 October.
In preparation for the first exam, which is this Wednesday 11 October, we went over this exam description, and began reviewing. Remember that the three essay questions on the exam will be chosen from the six on this handout.
We discussed the second homework assignment, which is due at the next discussion section (6 October). This handout provides an overview of important points to keep in mind as you complete the assignment. Also be sure you have read and understood Pinker Chapter 5, particularly pp. 119-141. Please contact me if you have any questions regarding any substantive, procedural and/or presentational matters related to this assignment.
We also started a very interesting discussion of animal communication systems, what distinguishes them from human language, and how, if at all, experiments in 'teaching' other animals human language can contribute to our understanding of the human language faculty. As a few people suggested during the discussion, animals often respond to humans in such a way that makes them appear to have mastered something akin to language or other complex, abstract systems, when in fact they are not using anything of the sort. This effect is some times known as the 'Clever Hans effect'; to find out why, have a look at thisWikipedia article about the famous horse called Clever Hans.
We reviewed some common misconceptions about language discussed in Pinker's first chapter. (To get us started, there was a short in-class assignment, which you might want to have a look at if you missed discussion.) We also discussed Homework Assignment 1, which was due today. The primary topic for today was the Critical Period Hypothesis, and the evidence in its favor. In case you have remaining questions about the CPH or would like to read more, this Wikipedia article provides a good overview and list of suggestions for further reading; it also contains a section on extending the CPH to second language learning, which several of you raised questions about in discussing the homework. www.feralchildren.com is a good source to read more about the case of Genie we discussed in class, as well as about some other famous cases of children who failed to acquire language before puberty due to being isolated, confined, or "wild."