Charles Meyer
Office: Wheatley 6-68
Office Phone: 287-6748 (with voice mail)
To get this syllabus on line, go to: http://www.cs.umb.edu/~meyer/courses/apling601.html
E-Mail: meyer [at] cs [dot] umb [dot] edu
Office hours: T: 5:30-7:00, Th: 2:30-4:00, or by appointment.

Course Text

Charles F. Meyer, Introducing English Linguistics (available in the bookstore or from online vendors such as Amazon; all royalties I earn from sales of this book in this class will be donated to Father Bill's Shelter in Quincy, MA). 

Google Group

I have created a Google Group for the class. To join the group, send me an email containing the email address you want to use for the group and the course of mine (Apling 601) you're in. I will then add you to the group. Once you're a member, you can log into the group, post messages to the class, download handouts/assignments, etc. Note: to log into the group, you'll need to create a Google ID (unless you use Gmail, in which case you already have an ID). Check the email sent to you after I enroll you. It will contain a link to a Google page on which you can create an ID.

Course Goals

Apling 601 has two primary goals: (1) to introduce you to the basic linguistic concepts necessary for understanding how sounds, words, sentences, and texts are structured in English; and (2) to help you use these concepts to contrast the structure of English with the structure of other languages. This is a course in language theory, not language pedagogy. Consequently, while this course will indirectly help you teach ESL/EFL, bilingual education, or foreign languages, it will not focus on direct applications of linguistics in the language classroom.

Course Requirements

• Regular attendance
• Participation in class discussions
• Familiarity with UMass-Boston's policies on plagiarism and academic dishonesty
  
• A final exam (a comprehensive open book take-home exam that will count 1/3 towards your final grade)
• Two papers (each 8-10 double-spaced typed pages in length). Both papers will be based on observations you make of language usage at a specific "site" (e.g. the family dinner table, the lunchroom at work, a class, etc.) The first paper will report how language is actually used at the site (e.g. how texts are structured, how conversants take turns speaking, etc). The second paper will describe the actual structure of the language used at the site (e.g. the kinds of vocabulary that individuals use, the structure of the sentences/utterances that they speak, etc.). More details on these assignments will be provided as the semester progresses (Each paper will count 1/3 towards your final grade)

(1) Readings that are underlined and highlighted can be found by going to the online version of the syllabus and clicking on the article title.

(2) IEL = Introducing English Linguistics.

(3) Copyrighted readings are on e-reserve (to obtain an article on e-reserve, go here and then click 'accept' after typing in the course password, which I will give you in class)

(4) A good reference guide for linguistics is the Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that can be searched. Just go to the main page and type in words or phrases that you'd like to read more about. You can also refer to David Crystal's Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics (2003), which is available in the reference section of the library (P29 .C65 2003) and also as a searchable e-book through the library catalog.

Introduction

Sept. 8: Course overview; Course policies and requirements; the functions of language

Language Study

Sept. 15: IEL, Ch. 1, "The Study of Language"; Pinker, "Grammar Puss"; Gee, "Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics" (on e-reserve) 

Language Change, Development, Classification, and Death

Sept. 22: IEL, Ch. 2, "The Development of English"; Nicholas Wade, "What We All Spoke When the World Was Young"; Language families: "Ethnologue Language Family Index" (just browse through this link; we'll take a more focused look in class); O'Hehir, "Excuse me, do you speak Klingon?";  "Chinese Village Struggles to Save Dying Language";  in-class viewing of  "The Linguists"

Pragmatics

Sept. 29: IEL, Ch. 3, "The Social Context of English": Grammatical vs. Pragmatic Meaning (pp. 48-49); Sentence vs. Utterance (pp. 49-50); Speech Acts (pp. 50-55); The Cooperative Principle (pp. 55-62); Politeness ( pp. 62-70); Wikipedia, "T-V Distinction"

Oct. 6: IEL, Ch. 3, "The Social Context of English" (cont.): Speaker Variables (pp. 70-76); IEL, Ch. 4, "The Structure of English Texts": Defining a Text (pp. 80-81); Register or Genre? (pp. 81-82); Spoken and Written Registers (pp. 83-84); Unity of Structure (pp. 84-98)

Oct. 13:  IEL, Ch. 4, "The Structure of English Texts" (cont.): Unity of Texture (pp. 98-108)

Syntax

Oct. 20: IEL, Ch. 5, "English Syntax" : Constituency (pp. 112-113);  Formal vs. Notional Definitions (pp. 113-115); Linear and Hierarchical Structuring of Constitutents (pp. 115-116); Form and Function (pp. 116-117); Word Classes and Phrases (pp. 117-130)

Oct. 27: IEL, Ch. 5, "English Syntax" (cont.): Clauses, Sentences, and Clause Functions (pp. 130-146); Radford, "Grammar" (on e-reserve); Paper #1 due

Morphology

Nov. 3: IEL, Ch. 6, "English Words: Structure and Meaning": Introduction and The Morpheme (pp. 150-156); Rubba, "An Overview of the English Morphological System" 

Semantics

Nov. 10: IEL, Ch. 6, "English Words: Structure and Meaning" (cont.): Lexical Semantics (pp. 157-182); Welby,  "Word Formation Processes" 

Nov. 17: IEL, Ch. 6, "English Words: Structure and Meaning" (cont.): Deixis (pp. 182-192); Colapinto, "The Interpreter"; Petruck, "Frame Semantics"

Phonetics and Phonology

Nov. 24: IEL, Ch. 7, "The Sounds of English": Speech Segments (pp. 196-208); The International Phonetic Alphabet: Consonants and Vowels

Dec. 1:  IEL, Ch. 7, "The Sounds of English" (cont.): Suprasegmentals (pp. 208-216); Paper #2 due

Dec. 8: Catch-up day; Review for Final Comprehensive Exam (an open book take-home exam), which will be distributed by email after class. The final exam is due by 10:00 am on Friday, Dec. 18 (more details later)

This is an ambitious syllabus. We will probably fall behind as the semester progresses. If this happens, some of the later topics may not be covered in as much detail as the earlier topics.

THIS SYLLABUS IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT ANY TIME