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Course Catalog
Course Descriptions
Introductory
Courses
PI 3. Language, Culture, and Society. Ms.
Strauss. How speech and writing reflect and create social
and cultural differences (and universals). Consider ration
of factors that can lead to miscommunication between
speakers with different cultural expectations, including
speakers who seem to share the same language but use it
differently; whether language shapes thought; how social
ideologies and relations of status and power are reflected
in language use; and the politics of language use.
10. Introduction to the Study of Language
Linguistics. Ms. Fought, Ms. Harves, Ms. Paster. For students wishing to
learn about the nature of language, including how language
is structured at the levels of sound, form, and
meaning; how does language determine our thoughts,
our perception of the world; can animals learn to talk; and
how our language reflects our culture, gender, and ethnicity.
Each semester.
11. Introduction to Cognitive Science. Ms.
Burke, Mr. Hackl, Mr. Thornton. Historical
and contemporary views of the mind, from the perspectives
of philosophy, linguistics, psychology, neuropsychology,
and logic and computer science. How does the mind acquire,
structure, and make use of language? How does it make sense
of emotional and sensory experience? What is consciousness?
Topics include language, meaning, knowledge, thinking,
remembering, self, and consciousness. Each semester.
Core Courses and Electives
30. Computation and Cognition. Staff. Introduction to computer programming methods for
cognitive science and the computational modeling of human
intelligence. The nature of computation, the relation
between computation and intelligence, and a selection of
approaches from artificial intelligence will be explored.
Intensive programming practice emphasizing data structures
and their application to modeling cognitive processes. No
previous programming experience is required. Identical to
Computer Science 30.
60. Logic. Mr. Atlas. Introduction
to elementary logic through the development of proof
techniques (natural deduction and semantic tableaux) and
model theory for sentential logic and quantification
theory. Properties of logical systems, such as consistency,
completeness, and decidability. Lecture and discussion.
100. Languages of the World. Staff. Did you know that the richness and diversity of
today’s languages descends from only a handful of
language families? We will study features shared across
languages (language universals) and differing language
systems (linguistic typology) through detailed case studies
and demonstrations of representative individual languages.
Prerequisite: Ling/CogSci 10 or permission of instructor.
101. Language Change and Variation. Staff.
An introduction to different ways in which languages
change. We will discuss methods and goals of linguistics
reconstruction. Some of the topics will be the regularity
of sound change, types of linguistic change, pidgin and
creole languages, language contact and borrowing, and
language death. We will discuss basic techniques for
recovering earlier linguistic stages: philology, internal
reconstruction, the comparative method. Examples will be
drawn from a variety of languages and language families.
Prerequisite: Ling/CogSci 10 or permission of the
instructor.
103. Comparative and Historical
Linguistics. Staff. Did you know that richness and
diversity of today’s languages descents from only a
handful of language families? We will study features shared
across languages (language universals) and differing
language systems (linguistic typology), and discuss how
languages change over time through case studies and
demonstrations of representative individual languages.
Prerequisite: Ling/CogSci 10 or permission of the
instructor.
PI 104. Phonetics. Ms. Fought.
Introduction to the physical characteristics of speech
sounds and the physiological mechanisms of speech
production and perception. Students develop and
understanding of their own pronunciation while learning to
recognize and produce the variety of sounds found in the
languages of the world.
105. Syntax. Ms. Harves. What determines
the sequencing of words in human languages? How can we
explain syntactic variation within and across languages?
Course emphasizes skills in critical thinking and syntactic
argumentation in the framework of contemporary theories of
syntax. Attention to Chomskyan revolution in theoretical
linguistics and its recent developments.
106. Semantics. Mr. Hackl. Language
meaning is central to human knowledge and action, yet also
seemingly forever elusive and contextual. What is the
relationship between meaning and linguistic form and
meaning and thought? How does meaning relate to inferences
and logic?
107. Pragmatics: How to Do Things with
Words. Mr. Atlas. A philosophical and linguistic
introduction to discussion of language use and
non-truth-conditional aspects of meaning. Topics from
philosophy of language and linguistics: speech acts,
presupposition, conversational implicature, context, and
common ground, demonstratives and indexicals, topic/comment
and focus, with applications to law and to psychology.
108. Introduction to Phonology. Ms. Paster. Analyses of the organization of sounds in the
world’s languages. Fundamental concepts in
phonological theory and their relation to issues in
articulatory and acoustic phonetics. The course focuses on
distinctive features and the structure of feature systems,
underlying representations and underspecification,
phonological rules and derivations, syllable structure,
accentual systems, and the morphology-phonology interface.
Examples and exercises from a variety of languages.
PI 110. Language and Gender. Ms. Fought.
The relation between cultural attitudes and language. How
gender socialization is reflected in the structure of
language at all levels, and the extent to which male/female
patterns of language use might contribute to the creation
and/or maintenance of given structures of power and
solidarity. Students develop their own field work-based
project.
PI 112. Language in Society. Ms. Fought.
How language reflects social patterns, including class,
gender, ethnic, regional, and other differences. How these
differences can lead to conflicts in interaction. Also, how
children are socialized to use language in particular ways.
Students will do a fieldwork project. Prerequisite:
Ling/CogSci 10 or permission of instructor. Prerequisite:
Ling/CogSci 10 or permission of instructor.
115. Bilingualism. Ms. Fought. How is the
bilingual experience different from the monolingual one?
How does the bilingual brain store and process language?
How is the simultaneous acquisition of two languages
different from acquiring a second language later? Is
language mixing bad? Also investigates the special identity
of bilingual speakers from social and psychological
perspectives. Prerequisites: Ling/CogSci 10, 11 or
Psychology 51.
PI 116. Languages in American Ethnic Minority
Groups. Ms. Fought. Explore the language patterns
of four American ethnic minority groups (African Americans,
Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, and Asian Americans)
with a focus on inter-ethnic communication. Topics include
the role of language in defining identity, language use in
the classroom, non-verbal elements of communications,
traditions of joking, and bilingualism.
121. Psycholinguistics. Mr. Hackl, Staff.
How are we seemingly effortlessly able to produce and
comprehend language in all of its complexity? Course
provides introduction to research and theory on language
processing. Focus on empirical studies of word recognition,
sentence processing, discourse, and semantic
interpretation, as well as language acquisition and
breakdown. Prerequisite: Ling/CogSci 11 or Psychology 51.
Identical to Psychology 121.
123. Acquisition of Language. Ms. Harves, Ms. Smiley. Surveys the normal course of and variation in
language development, as well as theoretical accounts of
how development occurs. Focuses particularly on
communicative, phonological, semantic, and syntactic
development in very young children, touching on bilingual
acquisition. Social uses of language, including
conversation and narrative in older children, are also a
focus. Prerequisite: Ling/CogSci 10, 11 or Psychology 51.
Identical to Psychology 123.
PI Phil 123. Perspectives on Mind and
Brain. Mr. Keeley. An exploration into the
relationship between mind and brain that investigates three
perspectives: contemporary philosophy, contemporary brain
science, and first-person narratives from people with
conditions such as chronic depression, autism, and
Tourette’s syndrome. This comparison of perspectives
should result in a deeper understanding not only of
philosophy and neuroscience but also of our own
minds/brains.
124. Second Language Acquisition. Staff. Introduction to current research in SLA. Issues
such as differences between 1st and 2nd language
acquisition, influence from 1st language and typological
effects on 2nd language acquisition. Learning, strategies
and ultimate attainment in a 2nd language, considered in
light of recent advances in linguistics and
psycholinguistic research and neuroimaging technologies.
Potential implications for teaching methodologies and
instructional strategies in the second language classroom.
Prerequisite: Ling/Cog Sci 10 or11 or permission of
instructor.
125. Language in the Field. Ms. Paster. A
language unfamiliar to the class will be analyzed from data
elicited in class from a speaker of the language. Students learn techniques of linguistic elicitation and analysis. Languages
vary from year to year. May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisite: Ling/CogSci 10 and 108 or permission of instructor.
149. Music Perception and Cognition. Mr.
Cramer. Perceptual and cognitive processes involved in the
hearing of music. Emphasis on concepts from music theory,
criticism, history, and ethnomusicolgy that may be
understood in terms of cognition. Topics include the
perception of sound; pitch, rhythm, and other features as
they figure in the perception of musical organization;
melody; harmony; musical meaingmeaning and affect.
Prerequisite: Ling/CogSci 11 or Psychology 160 or Music 80.
Identical to Music 149.
PI 151. Methods of Discourse Analysis. Ms.
Strauss. A hands-on course designed to learn and practice
analysis of extended discourse, both oral and written
(e.g., life histories, interviews, conversations, magazine
and newspaper articles, historical documents, and fiction.)
Focuses on subtle ways in which discourse reveals and
recreates ideologies, social relations, and shared as well
as conflicting cultural assumptions.
160. Perception and Cognition. Mr. Banks.
Investigates the question of how we use patterns of
physical energy to perceive the world. Covers topics from
sensation to cognition, including music, language
communication, disorders of perception, attention,
unconscious perception, and brain mechanisms in cognition.
Laboratory arranged. Prerequisite: Psychology 51,
Linguistics/Cognitive Science 11, or equivalent. Identical
to Psychology 160.
160. Perception and Cognition. Mr. Banks.
Investigates the question of how we use patterns of
physical energy to perceive the world. Covers topics from
sensation to cognition, including music, language
communication, disorders of perception, attention,
unconscious perception, and brain mechanisms in cognition.
Laboratory arranged. Prerequisite: Psychology 51,
Linguistics/Cognitive Science 11, or equivalent. Identical
to Psychology 160.
162. Memory and Language. Ms. Burke.
Investigates the nature of human memory and how it
interacts with language. Emphasis on architecture of memory
and language systems and on memory processes in language
comprehension and production. Evaluates research on how we
remember, why we forget, memory without awareness, and
language and memory disorders. Laboratory. Prerequisite:
Psych 51 or Linguistics/Cognitive Science 11. Identical to
Psychology 162.
175. Seminar in Cognitive Science. Mr.
Atlas. A philosophical, linguistic, and psychological
examination of a central topic in cognitive science, e.g.
metaphor, language and thought, modularity of the mind,
concepts. Normally to be taken in the junior year. Topics
vary from year to year. May be repeated for credit.
Advanced Courses
PI 166. Topics in Sociolinguistics: Media
Representations of Language and Ethnicity. Ms.
Fought. [formerly PI 160] This advanced seminar will
examine the representation of people of different
ethnicities in the media (films, television, commercials)
focusing on dialects and language use patterns. Students
will apply quantitative sociolinguistic methods to the
analysis of these representations. Prerequisites:
Ling/CogSci 10, and either 112 or 116.
175. Seminar in Cognitive Science. Mr.
Atlas. A philosophical, linguistic, and psychological
examination of a central topic in cognitive science, e.g.
metaphor, language and thought, modularity of the mind,
concepts. Normally to be taken in the junior year.
185L. Topics in Psycholinguistics. Mr.
Thornton. Language production. Research and theory related
to how we produce language. Focus on lexical and syntactic
production. Topics also include conversation, disfluency
and speech errors, and age-related changes in processing.
Topics vary from year to year. Prerequisite: Ling/CogSci
121, 123, or permission of the instructor. May be repeated
for credit.
185M. Topics in Mind and Language. Mr.
Atlas. A philosophical introduction to theories of
language, cognition, truth, meaning, reference, mind/body,
and intentionality. Linguistics and Cognitive Science 133
Prerequisite: Philosophy 42, 60, or permission of
instructor. Topics vary from year to year. May be repeated
for credit.
185P. Topics in Phonology. Ms. Paster. Advanced
topics in phonological theory, for majors and non-majors
who completed Introduction to Phonology or an equivalent.
Familiarizes students with current original research in phonology. The topics vary considerably from
year to year. Some examples include: Optimality Theory; the phonetics-phonology interface; phonological typology.
185T. Topics in Syntax and Semantics. Mr.
Hackl. Advanced topics in syntax and semantics. Topics vary
from year to year. (Examples: the language of space and
time, quantification, focus, plural, mass versus count.)
Ms. Harves. Investigates various “hot topics”
in current Syntactic theory with an empirical focus on
comparing a variety of different languages. Topics vary
from year to year, in part depending on student intrest.
Possible topics include: Argument Structure, Case and
Agreement, the Syntax of Scope, Economy, Head-Movement,
WH-movement, Topics/Focus structure, and Syntactic
Reconstruction. Prerequisiste: Ling/CogSci 105 or 106. May
be repeated for credit.
187A,B. Tutorial in Linguistics and Cognitive
Science. Mr. Atlas, Staff. Selected topics,
determined jointly by the student and the tutor, conducted
through frequent student papers evaluated in Oxford-style
tutorial sessions. Prerequisite: written permission of
instructor. 187A, Full course; 187B, half-course. May be
repeated.
191. Senior Thesis in Linguistics and Cognitive
Science. Staff. Individual theoretical research,
or laboratory experiment, for fourth-year students under
faculty supervision. Course or half-course. Each semester.
199. Reading and Research in Linguistics and Cognitive
Science. Staff. Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
Course or half-course. May be repeated. Each semester.
Related Courses
ENGL 85. History of English Language. Ms. Worley.
PI ANTH 3. Language, Culture, and Society. Ms. Strauss.
PI ANTH 151. Methods of Discourse Analysis. Ms. Strauss.
CMC SPAN 134. Introduction to Hispanic Linguistics. Ms.
Greth.
CMC SPAN 138. Spanish Morphology and Syntax. Ms. Greth.
CMC SPAN 139. Spanish Phonetics and Phonology. Ms. Greth.
CMC SPAN 149. History of the Spanish Language. Ms. Greth.