Language and Ethnicity examines how groups of people living in the United States define and express their identities through the use of varieties of English, and how people exploit language variation to regulate power relations. The major axes for linguistic variation we will investigate are ethnicity, nationality, locale, and social-class membership. Case studies include the English of rural Appalachia and the Ozark Mountains; language variation in Eastern New England and its history; Hiberno-English; African-American Vernacular English; and languages and language use among Native Americans. We will also examine the debate about language endangerment in the context of US language policy, and learn about language in the Deaf community in America. The emphasis is on the interplay of language and ethnicity in contemporary United States, but the histories of specific speech communities is critical to understanding their present-day contexts.

Previous coursework in linguistics is not required. The course provides Cultural Diversity credit for undergraduates, and counts as a General Topics course for Linguistics majors and minors.

Syntax and Semantics (also offered as ENGL3392) introduces students to modern generative grammatical theory and to basic concepts in semantics, with greater attention paid to syntax than to semantics. Our goal is to acquire a working knowledge of contemporary syntactic theory, and a sense of how linguists analyze grammatical phenomena and construct syntactic arguments.

Generative theory is a work in progress, so that we will rarely be able to converge on a wholly satisfactory solution to a syntactic puzzle. Nevertheless, the hope is that the course will expand your awareness of the structure of human language, and equip you with tools which you can apply in trying to making sense of how human languages both differ and resemble each other. A generous capacity to tolerate volatility and ambiguity is a prime virtue in this class; so is the ability to evaluate competing proposals against sometimes uncertain criteria.

We will focus on the analysis of English, but will also use data from other languages (both familiar and exotic). I will often ask students to test the applicability of principles we have discussed in class to whatever (non-English) languages they know or have studied. Previous coursework in linguistics is strongly recommended. LING3102 is a Required course for Linguistics majors and minors.

Language and Language Types examines research on the diversity of human languages and on the limits of that diversity: how are languages similar, and how are they different? What attempts have been made to typologize languages or the individual properties of languages, in western linguistics? Our focus is on morphology and syntax, with some reference to other domains in which typological comparison has been carried out. Integral to the course is assessment of various proposals that account for why languages both differ and resemble each other.

Language and Language Types is a Required course of Linguistics majors. Students should have already completed LING3101 General Linguistics, and ideally at least one other course in Linguistics: LING3102 Syntax and Semantics, LING3377 Linguistic Analysis and Field Methods, and/or LING3323 The Linguistic Structure of English.

LING3104 Formalism and Functionalism in Linguistics may substitute for LING3103 as the third Required course for Linguistics majors, or both may be taken, with one serving as the Required course, and the other as an Upper-Division Topics course.

Formalism & Functionalism in Linguistics is semester-long discussion about a single far-reaching issue in the analysis of language that is the topic of considerable ongoing debate.

Stated as a question, that issue is: ‘How should we approach the study of language?’ The two conjuncts that make up the title of this course label two contrasting answers to this question, namely, ‘We should approach the study of language by analyzing its structural properties’ (a ‘formalist’ position), versus ‘We should approach the study of language by examining the purposes to which human language is put’ (a ‘functionalist’ position).

The goal of LING3104 is not to resolve the debate between formalism and functionalism, but to come to understand differences between formalist and functionalist linguistic theories (and their various combinations); to appreciate the strengths and limits of each approach; and to learn to recognize how these two approaches influence public as well as professional discussion of language matters. At a more abstract level, the goals of the course include exercising your ability to read, argue, and write with precision; gaining a deeper and more sophisticated understanding of how to analyze human language; and extending your skills of oral communication, both listening and speaking.

Formalism & Functionalism is an advanced course, which expects students to have in-depth training in field. Majors in Linguistics must complete either LING3104 or LING3013, ideally in their junior or senior years. Majors in Linguistics are required to take either Formalism & Functionalism or LING3103 Language and Language Types (or both).

The Linguistic Structure of English (also offered as ENGL2121 and EDUC6323) is an analysis of the structure and resources of the English language.  Our focus is on modern forms of the language, with some reference to earlier versions of English. We will analyze the major features of English, including the sound system, the structure and meanings of words, syntax, and the properties of discourse.  LING3323 takes a descriptive approach (looking closely at the facts of the language) rather than a theoretical approach (focusing on why the facts of the language are what they are). An important part of the course involves the analysis, and in some cases the collection, of original language data: data based on students’ own intuitions about linguistic forms and meanings; data about usage patterns among groups of speakers; and data regarding speakers’ attitudes toward language.  No previous study of Linguistics is assumed.

The course is designed with two groups in mind: students who want to know more about how English works as a means of strengthening their control over its intricacies and in general expanding their linguistic horizons; and students who are interested in teaching English to either native or non-native speakers. LING3323 does not address pedagogical issues, but serves as an essential course for prospective teachers of English.

Classics in Linguistics is a seminar on the history of linguistics, organized chronologically from ancient India to the present day. Our emphasis is on the development of the language sciences in cultures with historical roots in Europe, but there is some treatment of language study in non-western societies. I expect students to take an active role in leading discussion, and to prepare thoughtfully for each class. Assignments include two short papers on linguistic-historiographical topics, to be defined jointly by students and instructor, which display original insight and expert use of both primary and secondary sources. A final assignment is an all-class, collaborative, project. One year, this project led to the production of a documentary video and its presentation at the Linguistic Society of America annual meeting in January the following year. In another year, the class assessed Jesuit missionary grammars from the 1600s held by Boston College’s Burns Rare Book Library, and eventually produced an exhibit about these texts mounted at the Burns Library. In still another year, each student conceived, wrote, and posted an original article for Wikipedia that introduced readers to an important figure in the history of linguistics.

LING3356 is an Upper-Division Topics course designed for advanced Linguistics majors and graduate students in Linguistics. It presupposes exposure to the major subfields, analytic tools, and conceptual vocabulary of the modern discipline.

LING3358 is an introduction to the linguistic analysis of the Japanese language.  It is intended primarily for two groups of students: those who are now studying or who have studied the Japanese language (and / or literature, culture, history, arts, etc.); and those with background in linguistics who wish to gain familiarity with the structure of an important non-Indo-European language.  Students with previous knowledge of neither Japanese nor linguistics are not excluded from the course, but should consult with the instructor before enrolling.  The Linguistic Structure of Japanese addresses both technical linguistic features of the Japanese language (i.e. phonology; the structure of words; grammar; historical change; genetic relationships to other languages), and those relating to social and cultural issues (i.e. orthographic conventions; Japanese beliefs about their language; sociolinguistics of Japanese-speaking communities).  The emphasis overall is on how the language has evolved over time.

For majors in Linguistics, LING3358 serves as a course under the rubric of ‘Analysis of specific languages’; it may serve as a Topics Course.

LING3361, offered biennially, surveys classic issues at the interface of language and mind.  After introducing some of the assumptions, terms, and analytic tools of modern linguistics, we will examine research on language and the brain; speech perception; language and memory; sentence processing; speech production; language development in children; and the psycholinguistics of reading.

Assignments include readings, mid-term and final exams, three written exercises involving collection and analysis of psycholinguistic data, then a longer paper based on original empirical research.  Throughout the semester we will assess psycholinguistic hypotheses by examining the nature of the data used to support them, and discuss how those data were gathered and interpreted.  After mid-semester each student will semi-collaboratively carry out a small psycholinguistic study, with the instructor guidance as needed. 

Although this course is an introduction to psycholinguistics, students should have background in either linguistics or psychology.  Speak with the instructor if you do not meet this criterion but want to enroll in LING3361.

This course is an introduction to sociolinguistics, that is, to the study of language in its social context.  It is cross-registered in the Departments of Eastern, Slavic, and German Studies, English, and Sociology.  We will examine a number of classic issues in sociolinguistics including varieties of language associated with social class, ethnicity, and locale; bilingualism and code-switching; the construction and social role of slang and of swearing; the sociolinguistics of sign languages; pidgin and creole languages; proposals about the relationship of language, thought, and culture; and the structure and role of discourse in different cultures.  The course concludes by investigating several sociolinguistic issues of contemporary interest: language and gender; the ‘U.S. English’ controversy; language and the law.  

In addition to several shorter exploratory papers, students will carry out a small semi-collaborative empirical project that analyses original sociolinguistic data, under close supervision by the instructor.

Undergraduates receive Cultural Diversity credit. For Linguistics major and minors, LING3361 / ENGL2122 / SOCY3362 counts as a General Topics course.

The focus of this course is the analysis of a foreign language through direct interaction with a native speaker, who will work with students inside and outside class.  We will read about, discover, and practice strategies for eliciting, transcribing, interpreting, analyzing, and organizing linguistic data.  Students will study the sound patterns, morphology, words, syntax, and pragmatics of the target language, with attention to cultural and ethnographic matters.  The course also addresses the complex ethical issues raised by contemporary debate about language preservation.

Much of the work that we will do will be performed collaboratively, in that students will meet in groups with the course informant (and also cull information about the target language from other sources).  Groups then pool their findings and share them with the class.  Students also take active responsibility for presenting to the class information they have gathered about field methods and about the target language culture.  The overall goal of the course is to develop linguistic-analytic skills and to exercise the capacity to make informed inferences about the structure of a novel language.

In earlier years, target languages of the course have been Indonesian, Vietnamese, Quechua or Tagalog.

LING3377 is designed for advanced undergraduate Linguistics majors and minors, for whom it counts as an Upper-Division Topics course.  No knowledge of the target language is presupposed.

This course is an introduction to the study of what it means to learn, and secondarily how to teach, a language other than one’s native tongue.  I assume that language teachers first and foremost need to understand how non-native languages are acquired.  The majority of the course focuses on research carried out since the development of the interlanguage hypothesis in the mid 1970s.  We will examine a number of proposals about second language (L2) acquisition, among them generative grammar-based hypotheses; typological and functional analyses of learner language; psycholinguistic research that studies how learners process and organize L2 knowledge; and the debate about ‘input and interaction’.

Second Language Acquisition includes discussion of the acquisition of a sound system (phonology); the structure of words (morphology); vocabulary; grammar; and pragmatics.  We will also read and talk about—from various points of view—the role of the native language in L2 acquisition and how to conceptualize similarities and differences between the two; child first and second language acquisition; and research on the affective and social factors that bear on language learning.

As an integral part of the course, students will spend two hours a week working with a second language learner (e.g. as a tutor, assistant teacher, or teacher).  This component of the course gives students the opportunity to assess first-hand the validity of proposals about L2 acquisition.  It will also sharpen students’ observational and analytic skills.  The instructor will help students find positions to fulfill the tutoring requirement, if they cannot do so independently.