Linguistics Minor

Offered autumn and spring.  An introduction to the field of modern linguistics and to the nature of language. Emphasis on the ways different cultures develop symbol systems for representing meaning.

Offered intermittently. Survey of endangered languages and the communities in which those endangered languages are spoken. Topics to be addressed include linguistic diversity, language endangerment, language shift and loss, language maintenance efforts, and prospects for the future of these languages.

Offered once per year. The development of the English language from a historical perspective contrasted with the phonological and grammatical structure of English from a modern linguistic point of view; specifically designed for teachers.

Offered autumn. Prereq., LING 470.  A study of phonetic and phonological systems from as many as 20 languages, most of them non–Indo–European; training in how to do linguistic analysis as well as linguistic theory. This course co-convenes with LING 571.

Offered autumn. Prereq., LING 470. A study of the human language sentence–formation system, the means for expressing semantic information as propositional content. Emphasis on the abstraction of utterances in the form of mathematical objects. This course co-convenes with LING 572.

Offered spring. Prereq., LING 470.  Technical study of the relationships between grammatical categories and world view. This course co-convenes with LING 573.

Offered spring even-numbered years. Prereq., LING 470. An introduction to the study of language change over time. Topics include: methods for studying language change (the comparative method and internal reconstruction); types of language change (sound change, borrowing, analogical change, lexical, syntactic, and semantic change); and explanations for language change. The principles of historical reconstruction and comparative method in the analysis of linguistic variation and change. This course co-convenes with LING 574.

Offered spring odd-numbered years.  Prereq., LING 470.  Writing up linguistic data; developing techniques for eliciting linguistic data by working with a native speaker of a less commonly taught language. This course co-convenes with LING 575.

Offered autumn. Prereq., LING 270S or equiv. Societal and individual bilingualism:  topics include language policy, maintenance, interference, code-switching and mixting, and bilingual education.

Offered spring. Prereq., LING 270S or equivalent. Observing/describing language learners' behaviors and, to a degree, advances toward proficiency (i.e., fluency plus accuracy); the presence of error as conditioned by a priori knowledge of language and implications for child and adult development; and applying typical methods of linguistic analysis to the (non-) systematic variants in language form characterizing developmental processes as a way of trying to explain variable behavior.

Offered autumn odd-numbered years. Prereq. LING 470. Description and analysis of grammatical features of Indigenous languages of North America. This course co-convenes with LING 584.

Offered spring.  Prereq., LING 470.  A survey of the morphological features of several unrelated languages to provide the student with a broad overview of how languages compare and contrast. This course co-convenes with LING 589.