Courses

2011-12 Courses in the Department of Linguistics

Offered: 
2012

For a complete list of all Department of Linguistics offerings, please visit the Registrar's website.

For Spring Course Schedule Chart click on "2011-12 Courses in the Department of Linguistics" and open pdf. file

Linguistics 97r, Sophomore Tutorials

Semester: 
Spring
Offered: 
2012

Linguistic 2012 Sophomore Tutorial Schedule

Linguistics 101 (formerly Linguistics 110):The Science of Language: An Introduction

Semester: 
Spring
Offered: 
2012
iSite
Spring, 2012
Half course; Mondays & Wednesdays, 10-11, Emerson Hall, 307; Instructor: Nina Radkevich
This course introduces components of study of language: phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. It presents the view that knowledge of language is best characterized as an unconsciously internalized set of abstract rules and principles. Evidence is drawn from a variety of signed and spoken languages, language universals, child language acquisition, language change, language games, and language disorders.

Linguistics 102 (formerly Linguistics 112a): Sentence Structure

Semester: 
Spring
Offered: 
2012
iSite

Half course;  Tuesday & Thursdays,10-11, Memorial Hall, 028; Instructor: Nina Radkevich

Linguistics 106 (formerly Linguistics 116a): Knowledge of Meaning

Semester: 
Spring
Offered: 
2012
iSite

Half course . Tuesdays & Thursdays,11-12, Boylston Hall 104; Instructor: Gennaro Chierchia
An introductory course on semantic interpretation in natural language. What does it mean to "know the meaning" of an utterance? This course provides the tools to characterize and study the meanings of sentences. Topics covered include the relation between form and meaning, ambiguity, reference, context dependency, and the role of logic vs. pragmatics in communication.

Linguistics 118 (formerly Linguistics 224):Historical & Comparative Linguistics

Semester: 
Spring
Offered: 
2012
iSite

Half course. Thursdays., 3–5, Boylston 303; Instructor: Jay Jasanoff
An introduction to diachronic linguistics at the graduate level. Theory of language change: sound change and analogy, syntactic and semantic change, change in progress. The comparative method: proving genetic relationship, reconstruction, and subgrouping.

Linguistics 123: Intermediate Indo-European

Semester: 
Spring
Offered: 
2012
iSite

Half course. Mondays & Wednesdays, 11-12, Boylston Hall 303; Instructor: Jay Jasanoff
Designed as a sequel to Linguistics 122. A detailed overview of Indo-European comparative grammar, with emphasis on recent developments and discoveries.

Linguistics 174: Tense & Aspect in Japanese

Semester: 
Spring
Offered: 
2012
iSite

Half course. Mondays, 3–5, Northwest Building, B110;  Instructor: Wesley Jacobsen
Examination of phenomena of tense and aspect in Japanese, with special attention to verbal semantics and the interaction of temporal categories with modality and transitivity.
Prerequisite: Knowledge of Japanese equivalent to Japanese 120b, or familiarity with the linguistic structure of a non-Indo-European language, or permission of instructor.

Linguistics 212 (formerly 202r): Syntactic Theory II

Semester: 
Spring
Offered: 
2012
iSite

Half course. Tuesdays, 1–3, Boylston 303; Instructor: C.-T. James Huang
This course is designed to enable students to follow current research in syntax. Topics vary from year to year; may include head movement, case and agreement, anaphora, functional categories, ellipsis, argument structure, constraints on movement and derivations, and on form-meaning mappings.
Prerequisite: Linguistics 102, equivalent, or permission of instructor.

Linguistics 215: Phonological Theory

Semester: 
Spring
Offered: 
2012
iSite

Half course. Mondays, 1–3, Boylston 303; Instructor: Kevin Ryan
This course addresses topics of current interest in phonological theory, potentially including competing constraint grammar frameworks, learnability, naturalness biases, prosody, quantitative approaches (experimental or corpus-driven), variation, gradience, and the morphological interface.
Prerequisite: Linguistics 115.

Linguistics 216 (formerly Linguistics 207r): Semantic Theory II

Semester: 
Spring
Offered: 
2012
iSite

Half course. Thursdays, 1–3, Boylston 303; Instructor: Gennaro Chierchia
Continuation of Linguistics 116. Designed to enable students to follow current research in semantics. Topics covered include: intensional contexts, indexicals, modalities, event based semantics, presuppositions, and formal theories of implicatures.
Prerequisite: Linguistics 116, equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

Linguistics 241r: Practicum in Linguistics

Semester: 
Spring
Offered: 
2012
iSite

Half course. Wednesdays., 3-5, Boylston 303, Instructor: Kevin Ryan & members of the department
Presentation of reports on current research or assigned topics.
Note: Required of second- and third-year Linguistics graduate students.