Welcome!

     Welcome to your first linguistics class! I hope you enjoy it half as much as I enjoyed my first ling course. You don’t need to know anything about linguistics or any foreign languages to enjoy and/or do well in this class – you only need curiosity, a little flexibility of thought, and a knowledge of some language (presumably English and possibly others as well).

Goals

 This class will introduce you to some of the major (and minor) fields of linguistics, hone your critical thinking and problem solving skills, and increase your understanding, awareness, and enjoyment of language.

 Very Tentative Schedule – Subject to change

Project/final paper due no later than Tuesday, 5/15 at noon.

Final exam place & time TBA.

 Grading Breakdown

 Homeworks (small assignments) and class participation: 50 %

Tests 1 & 2: 25%

Presentation: 10%

Final Project or Final Exam: 15% 

Course Policies

Late work policy:  I will not accept late homework assignments under any circumstances. If you miss class for a legitimate reason (i.e. documented illness, death in the family, etc.) and are as a result not able to get the homework to me in time, you must contact me as soon as possible (i.e. usually before you return to class) to arrange for a make-up assignment and a due date for that make-up assignment. Please keep in mind that zeros on homeworks can seriously affect your grade. Each semester, I have at least one student who fails my class because of a number of missing assignments. In a class of this size in which we’re covering this much material, I can not and will not make exceptions to this policy.

 Attendance policy:  Although I do not have a strict attendance policy for this course, it is definitely to your advantage to come to class on a regular basis. Much of what we go over is only partially covered in the text, and you will find it difficult if not impossible to do well on some of the assignments without attending class. Also, if you are often absent from class (or often significantly late for class), that can have a serious effect on your class participation grade. If you are absent from class, it is your responsibility to contact another student or me to find out what you missed and what the homework is.

 Plagiarism:  As you all know, plagiarism is a violation of the honor code. I take cases of plagiarism very seriously; I failed a student of mine who plagiarized a paper this past fall. In this class, I will allow you to talk over homework assignments, but each of you must turn in your own work, and it should be clear that each of you has done work on your own. For exams and the final paper, you may not get help from classmates. (If you have questions about exams or papers, come to me.) Needless to say, any work which is not your own (assignments, papers, etc.) which you turn in as your own work will be considered plagiarism. Plagiarized work may lead to an F in the course, and will at least result in an F for that assignment.  

Assignments 

Homework

 You will have many small homework assignments for this class. Although many will be graded, at times we will simply go over them during class (needless to say, I won’t be telling you ahead of time which ones are which). Homework assignments should normally be typed. This does not apply to assignments which involve syntactic trees – I’m not cruel enough to make you type those. For assignments that require the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), you can get free fonts from the web which allow you to type the symbols not in Word, Word Perfect, etc. Go to http://www.sil.org/computing/fonts/ipareadme.html and follow the instructions they provide. I’ll be happy to help if you have any trouble. If you can’t type IPA fonts due to some computer problems, you’re welcome to write out those assignments which use IPA symbols.

 You may submit homework to me electronically if you wish (instead of handing in a print out). If you choose to do so, the assignment must be emailed to me by 10 am the day it is due, and if you have not gotten an email confirmation from me by the evening of the day it is due, you need to get in contact with me to make sure I received it. It is your responsibility to make sure your assignments reach me; I can’t tell if I didn’t get an assignment from you if that’s because you didn’t turn it in or because there was some problem in cyberspace.

 Some of the assignments will be tricky. If you have questions on the homework and I’m not in my office, you should send me email – that’s the best way to get a hold of me. If you’re stuck on the homework, ask me or consult a classmate for help – don’t just give up!  

Presentations 

All students are required to make one oral presentation during the semester. The presentation will be on a topic chosen from a list given out on the first day of class. You must sign up for a topic by noon on 2/1/01. This presentation should last about 10 - 12 minutes. You will be graded on how clearly and completely you cover the information and how well you present the material (use of handouts, overheads, audiovisuals, etc. is encouraged). If you are absent on the day you are supposed to present, you will receive a zero for the presentation unless you can provide documentation of severe illness or other emergency.

 Final paper/exam

 All students are required to do one of the following:

 -         write a paper on some aspect of linguistics,

-         do a linguistic project/experiment and write up the results, or

-         take a final exam.

 The topic of the project/paper is up to you, although you need to get it approved by me in advance. If you plan to do a project or paper, you need to schedule a conference with me to discuss your topic no later than Tuesday March 13. If you choose to take the final exam, be aware that it is cumulative (though it will focus more on the material covered since test 2).

 More on final papers/projects:

 Here’s a sampling of some of the more interesting/fun topics students have looked into in recent semesters:

 -         slang in the English language

-         the Boston dialect (project involved tape recording conversations of Boston speakers)

-         the Maine dialect (based in part on recordings of Maine humorists)

-         Esperanto and other invented languages

-         Should ASL count towards foreign language requirements?

-         What languages contributed to the American English vocabulary?

-         dialect in the movie The Color Purple

-         What kind of language/communication systems do dolphins and whales have?

-         Can people correctly identify the age and sex of anonymous authors? (interesting experiment where student had subject match quotes to descriptions of their speakers/authors)

-         Based on what’s happening in English today and historical linguistics, what will English look like in the future?

 If you’re interested in doing a final paper/project, I have a good book on doing linguistics projects and a number of pages of project ideas you can look at. 

A few details on the paper/project:

 ·        if you’re writing a research paper, I expect the paper to be at least 6 -8 pages, and I expect you to use at least several reputable sources (which means you must check your sources with me ahead of time).

·        if you’re doing a project, your written version should be at least 5-6 pages long, and you should have done some preliminary research using approved, reputable sources. 

Other stuff you should know

 Check email often! I’ll be sending out information over email from time to time that you’ll need to know. Make sure you check your email regularly (say, once a day at least). I’ll also post messages to the discussion board on WebCT, so you can check there if you’re having any trouble with your email.

 Linguistics is probably a lot different than most of the subjects you’ve studied until now. Some of you will find some of the units pretty difficult. Please come see me if you find yourself feeling at all confused or frustrated – I want to make sure everyone enjoys the class, or at the very least isn’t frustrated by it. I’m in my office Tuesdays and Thursdays from about 9:45 to 1:15, so feel free to drop by or send me email any time if you need some help with any aspect of the class.  One good thing to keep in mind: if you don’t enjoy one topic, just wait a week or two, and we’ll move on to something different that you may like a lot more.