ENG 238
INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS
OLD VERSION!
(Note that my current Introduction to Linguistics has a homepage on the cinfo.truman.edu server. This is a somewhat out-of-date, but vaguely illustrative example of a past syllabus.)
Syllabus
Although usually taken for granted, the ability to use language is at the very heart of what makes us human. The linguistic competence of the individual speaker (the largely unconscious knowledge of a native language) is an astonishingly complex and fascinating set of facts. This course explores the nature of language (its structure as well as its role in identity, culture, and history) and provides students with basic tools of linguistic analysis.
TEXTBOOK:
An Introduction to Language, 6th edition (1998). Victoria Fromkin & Robert Rodman. Harcourt Brace.
Language: Readings in Language and Culture, 6th edition (1998). Clark, Eschholz, & Rosa (Eds.) St. Martin's Press.
CLASS POLICIES:
Attendance: This course is not taught straight out of the textbook. Important points in the lectures will be covered on the quizzes and on the final. It is therefore imperative that you attend class. If I am unable to attend class illness or inclement weather, I will leave a message on my voicemail. Please do NOT call the Division office to see if class has been cancelled!
Homework: There will be several homework assignments to be turned in. No late homework will be accepted without a valid medical excuse. In addition to this, you will be expected to keep an Exercise Log in which you do practice exercises. This will be checked periodically, and will count toward your homework grade.
Grading:
| homework | 20% |
| in-class tests | 20% |
| Final exam | 15% |
| E-forum | 10% |
| project | 30% |
| participation | 5% |
Academic Integrity: If you cheat, you fail. You are expected to work alone on the project, the tests, and the final.
Disabilities and Accommodations: If you need special accommodations due to any type of disability, please let me know as soon as possible.
TESTS & FINAL: There will be three in-class (50 minute) tests. These will not be cumulative. Your in-class test average accounts for 20% of your final grade. No make-up tests will be given without a valid medical excuse. The final test is cumulative and accounts for 15% of the final grade.
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Electronic Discussion Board: You will participate in an electronic discussion throughout the semester. At bare minimum, each student will make at least one original linguistic observation and one response each week. (You are encouraged to respond to as many observations and comments as you like.) Please note that the observations you make are not graded - if you keep up with the discussion, you get full credit. To access the discussion board, you must first go to an index of courses. Choose our course (Introduction to Linguistics, ENG 238.02, Instructor Mary Shapiro) and follow the links. You will be asked for a user id and password. The user id is the same as your e-mail address, and the password is your social security number.
PROJECTS: Each student will complete a longer project involving actual language use and original linguistic analysis.
Miscellaneous Linguistic Fun
- The Languages of Science Fiction, a course taught by yours truly at the University of Texas at Austin a couple of years ago. This site has dozens of great links to follow for Language in the Star Trek Universe, Constructed (artificial) languages, The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), Speaking Machines, and much, much more.
- How to say "I can eat glass" in lots of different languages.
- Animal sounds in different languages
- Travlang's Word of the Day picks a different word everyday and gives the translation in dozens of different languages. If you have a sound card, you can listen to the pronunciations, too! Bookmark it!
- To learn American Sign Language, try SIGNhear.
- Translations of Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky into lots of different languages.
- Lingwhat? is a nifty program to help you figure out what language something is written in.
- One man's desperate campaign to Save the adverb!
- The Chomskybot churns out paragraphs of "linguistic theory" in the style of Noam Chomsky.
- Fun with dialects:
- The Linguistic Society of America, the professional organization for linguists. In addition to lots of good information, this site has links to most linguistics graduate programs in the U.S. and Canada.
- The LinguistList, the official online presence. Especially interesting (?) here is the discussion among linguists.
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I hope that this website will be fairly self-explanatory and easy to use. If you have any comments, suggestions, or constructive criticism, or if you discover fun sites that you think your classmates would be interested in, please let me know.
mshapiro@truman.edu