An overview of current theoretical approaches to second language acquisition (SLA). We begin with a discussion of some of the key questions and issues addressed in SLA research, such as the nature of interlanguage, the role of the first language in non-native language acquisition, the Critical Period Hypothesis, the nature of input, possible reasons for differential success in the attainment of second. The main model we will examine is Universal Grammar (UG)-based SLA, which will be compared and contrasted to others, such as connectionist, processing-based, and functionalist models.

This course, assuming no more than general familiarity with phonological concepts, offers an intensive introduction to the formal apparatus of generative phonology, with an emphasis the development of fluency in analyzing phonological data. The presentation of material in class therefore assumes concurrent registration in the associated practicum (Ling 73600: Phonology Practicum, Monday 6:30-8:30 p.m., 1 credit).
The basics of phonological description and theory -- inventories, distinctive features, natural classes, alternations, levels of representation, rule formulation - are first introduced within the linear framework of classic generative phonology. With these basics in place, we motivate additions to the formalism - feature geometry, underspecification, autosegmental architecture , metrical representation -- in terms of their better capture of common phonological phenomena. Finally, we review an altogether different analytic framework, Optimality Theory.
Textbooks
Kenstowicz, M. (1994). Phonology in Generative Grammar. Cambridge MA: Blackwell.
Roca, I., & Johnson, W. (1999). A Workbook in Phonology. Malden MA: Blackwell.
Preliminary Reading
Although a course in linguistic phonetics is not a prerequisite for the course -- because phonology is not phonetics -- students without prior exposure may benefit from a review of basic notions and terminology. To this end, copies of Chapters 1, 3 and 5 of Roca and Johnson's (1999) "A Course in Phonology" (an undergraduate text) are recommended. See the department's readings cabinet.
Course Assessment
Regular homework assignments (phonology problem sets), plus mid-term and final take-home examinations.

From Principles-and-Parameters Theory to Minimalism
Taking the end-point of Syntax I as a starting-point (and as a prerequisite for registration), this course takes its participants from Chomsky's (1981) original Government-Binding Theory all the way to the most recent incarnation of the principles-and-parameters approach to generative grammar: the minimalist program (Chomsky 1995). Along the way, it addresses, among other things: (i) Lasnik & Saito's (1984) theory of "gamma-marking" and intermediate trace deletion at LF, (ii) Chomsky's (1986-Barriers) densely successive-cyclic derivations for A'-movement via intermediate VP-adjunction, (iii) his unification of the theories of government and bounding, (iv) his analysis of A-movement and its dependency on head-chains, (v) the perspective on the general interdependency of A-movement and head-movement that the "equidistance" based theory of locality in Chomsky (1993) gives rise to, (vi) the general premises of the minimalist program of Chomsky (1993) and Chomsky (1995), (vii) the reduction of the phrase-structure component of the theory ("bare phrase structure"), and (viii) the connection between hierarchical relationships between constituents and their linear sequencing ("antisymmetry"; Kayne 1994).

The course presupposes a solid command of the issues addressed in Syntax I (LING 72100), but no specific knowledge of syntactic theory beyond that point.

Literature
The Haegeman (1994) textbook that was used for Syntax I will continue to be used in the first weeks of classes; beyond that point, we will rely primarily on Chomsky (1995), The Minimalist Program (MIT Press) and materials that will be provided in class.

An introduction to Montague semantics, also known as model-theoretic semantics or truth conditional semantics. The
course covers some of the philosophical background as well as the intersection of semantics with syntax and pragmatics. Specific topics include: definitions of truth, predicate logic, quantification, and intensionality. The course assumes a bit of syntax but no mathematical or logical background. The text is Meaning and Grammar, 2nd edition (Chierchia and McConnell-Ginet, MIT Press). Students will also be encouraged to look at Logic, Language, and Meaning (L T F Gamut, Chicago Press) as well as other texts. The course is evaluated with a series of assignments during the semester (50%) and a final take-home assignment (50%)

Children acquire new words with astonishing ease and speed. This course will explore theoretical and empirical research pertaining to the mechanisms by which children acquire the meaning of words. Questions to be examined include: Are there special word learning mechanisms? If so, what are some of them? If not, what are the sources of constraint on the acquisition of word meaning? Are the meanings of words from different syntactic categories learned in the same way? How/do morpho-syntactic differences between languages influence the acquisition of word meanings? How do statistical properties of the input impact the course of lexical development? What is the role of parental input? Where do syntax-semantics correspondences in lexical development come from? What kinds of errors do children make in acquiring the meanings of novel words? How do they learn to correct these errors? What are the cognitive resources that the child must bring to the task of learning various different kinds of word meanings? We will cover research on the acquisition of the meanings of nouns, verbs, adjectives, spatial prepositions, and personal pronouns. Students will be introduced to the methods available for studying lexical development as well as their limitations. Class meetings will include a combination of lecture and seminar style sessions. Students will have the opportunity to do presentations as well as a project/paper on a topic of interest in lexical development.

Classes will use a combined lecture-seminar format. There is no text: students will read original research and theoretical articles. Students will also a) perform some transcription and data analysis, b) write a 5-10 page midterm paper (which will be a review of a recent journal article), c) make one class presentation, and d) write a final paper or take a final examination.

An important goal of the course is for students to think like researchers in language acquisition. By transcribing and analyzing cild data, students will learn how to ask and answer questions in language acquisition. We will investigate syntactic categories, children's first word combinations, children's errors of omission and commission, the role of performance limitations, the role of parental input in acquisition, and models of learning.

Though belonging to different language families (Hungarian is not even an Indo-European language), the languages spoken in the geographical area broadly defined by the Balkan mountain range share a number of phenomena (incl. multiple wh-fronting) that make it attractive to look at them in tandem. In this seminar, we will look at a variety of phenomena in the syntax, morphology, and semantics of the languages of the Balkans, studying them both individually, per language, and comparatively. Among the languages that will be studied in the course of the seminar are (in alphabetical order) Albanian, Bulgarian, Greek, Hungarian, and Romanian. Topics to be covered in the seminar include the structure of the noun phrase, the structure of the left periphery (wh-constructions, quantification, focalisation, topicalisation), tense/aspect phenomena, argument structure (triadic constructions and dative shift), infinitives and the lack thereof, imperatives, clitic constructions and clitic doubling, and other topics contributed by the seminar participants.

Participation in the seminar is open to all students with a basic background in syntax (successful completion of Syntax I is a formal requirement; familiarity with the material covered in Syntax II is a pro but not a prerequisite).
There will be no coursebook for this seminar; literature (published or unpublished papers) will be made available in due time.

Students taking the seminar for credit will be expected to actively participate in the discussion in class, and to produce a term paper at the end of the course.

The course starts with a presentation of the basic syntactic structures of Spanish as these appear in standard works such as Alarcos LLorach’s Gramática. It then moves on to consideration of special topics such as alternations in the placement of the adjective for meaningful effect, the role of length and information structure in producing favored and disfavored word-order patterns, the patterns of voseo and tuteo, the variable use of subject pronouns, the nature of gender marking, the placement of adverbs, and the meanings of the object pronoun system. The course also looks at dialectal features such as the redundant use of possessives in Mainland varieties and the hardening of word order, the erosion of Personal A, and the rise of non-referential subject pronouns in the Caribbean.

Classes are conducted in Spanish.
Some readings are in Spanish, some in English.
Class participation, presentations, papers and exams are in the language of the student’s choice.

A foundation course in the many ways language reflects and is integrated into social action and belief systems. Topics include: Different professional and lay models of the abstraction "a language" and different socio-cultural constructions of the place of language in society. Types of language. Sociological and anthropological frameworks for sociolinguistic research. Pragmatics (speech acts, conversational maxims, presuppositions, etc.) and the conduct of speaking in situated interaction. Discourse functions of grammar. Language variation and change. Bilingualism, including code switching and its strategic manipulation of community values. Language contact and pidgin-creoles. Language, power, and identity. Politics in the linguistic IQ measurement of intelligence. Applied sociolinguistics in education and language planning. Afro-American English in education. Of the two main approaches in the field, we concentrate more on the socio-cultural than on the quantitative urban one.

Readings from:
Wardhaugh, R. 2002. An introduction to sociolinguistics, 4th ed. Oxford: Blackwell.
Coulmas, F., ed. 1997. The handbook of sociolinguistics. Oxford: Blackwell.
Coupland, N., and A. Jaworski, eds. 1997. Sociolinguistics: a reader. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Oaks, D.D., ed. 1998. Linguistics at work: a reader of applications. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace.
And other sources.

There will be weekly reading assignments and homework, both written and laboratory. The laboratory component of the course will involve using and experimenting with natural language software. The class format will be lecture and discussion. The course grade will be based on homework, class participation, and a term project that consists of (1) a bibliography, (2) abstracts of relevant literature, (3) a proposal, (4) a class presentation, and (5) a final project report.

ELIGIBILITY: DESCRIPTION:
Applications of speech and language processing are found everywhere today. For example, automated telephone systems incorporate voice recognition and synthesis. This seminar will explore how computers deal with natural language in such areas as speech recognition, speech generation, and machine translation.
Intended as an introduction to the field, the course will survey a range of methodologies in speech and language processing and will cover the basic components of natural language systems, including the lexicon, syntax and parsing, semantic analysis and representation, discourse processing, and pragmatics.
FORMAT:The course is open to graduate students with a solid background in either linguistics or computing. Knowledge of both is not required. No programming will be taught, and none is required, although students with programming skills will have the option of doing a programming rather than a research term project.

READING:
Required text: Speech and Language Processing
Daniel Jurafsky and James H. Martin
Prentice Hall, 2000

In this class we will review basic principles of neurolinguistics and then focus on the methods and findings of research on aphasia studies and imaging studies of bilingualism. Students will research, present, and write on such topics as switching languages, translation, critical period, and simultaneous interpretation. Franco Fabbro’s Neuroinguistics of Bilingualism: An Introduction will be among the texts studied.

Language is one of the most important resources in the conduct of our social life. Linguistic behavior is the central focus of many social settings, and it is also on linguistic evidence that we base many of our evaluations of the world around us. Yet attitudes toward language and how we use language are highly dependent on social and cultural factors, which also influence how and why language changes. This course is an introduction to linguistic anthropology (the study of the relationship between language and culture and of the use of languages in socio-cultural context). We will examine the nature of language, its role in our social life, and linguistic and anthropological theory and methodology through reading ethnographic and sociolinguistic case studies and discourse analyses. Topics examined include: linguistic and communicative competence, linguistic structure and use, language universals, linguistic relativity, language acquisition and socialization, verbal politeness, the relationship between language change and variation, gender, ethnicity and nationalism, language and political economy, bilingualism, and linguistic ideology.

The course description will be uploaded shortly. Stay tuned.

The course description will be uploaded shortly. Stay tuned.

This course introduces basic mathematical concepts which are used in the formalization of theoretical linguistics.  After an introduction to logic and the foundations of set theory, we will focus on the theory of types and predicate calculus, and explore how these and other tools are used in formal semantics.  The mastery of these formal methods will be put to use exploring further linguistic topics such as modality, tense, events, dynamic semantics, or other topics of interest to the participants.  The goal of this course is to help students be more comfortable with formalisms in linguistics and equip them to employ mathematical methods in their own work.  No math prerequisite is assumed other than basic high school math, although Semantics I is strongly suggested.

Students wishing to take this course will register for a 3-credit Independent Study. Please see Prof McClure for details