Spring 2023 Linguistics Upper Division Course Descriptions

Dr. Sheryl Bernardo-Hinesley

• Credits: 5
• Prerequisites: One course from: LING 201, ANTH 247, ENG 370, TESL 401 or HNRS 217; or instructor permission.

Description

Exploration of the outcomes and mechanisms of language contact by surveying cases around the world from the past and the present. Examination of whether certain levels of linguistic structure such as sounds, words, or phrases are more susceptible to contact-induced language change than others. Investigation of the extent to which outcomes of language contact are universal and inevitable, and conversely, the ways in which each contact situation must be understood uniquely as the complex result of interacting historical, societal, social, and linguistic factors. 

Dr. Masanori Deguchi

• Credits: 5
• Prerequisites: LING 310; one course from: LING 204, LING 207, or ANTH 347.

Description  

This course is a survey of the main subfields in Japanese Linguistics, such as Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology, and Syntax. Both students of Japanese as well as students of Linguistics will benefit from the course. You do not need to have any proficiency in or previous exposure to the Japanese language as long as you have a solid foundation in general linguistics (e.g., Ling310) and a desire to learn about the structure of Japanese. 

By the end of the quarter, students of Japanese will have had many questions that they had in their Japanese language courses answered (e.g., phonological changes that you just had to memorize). Students of Linguistics will have developed skills to analyze a language that is typologically different from English as well as acquiring a well-balanced understanding of the structure of Japanese.  

Dr. Emily Curtis

• Credits: 5
• Prerequisites: LING 310
• WP3

Description

Language ideologies are beliefs and conceptualizations of what language is, what languages are, and how they are used and situated in the world. They are products of social, political, and cultural systems, and while many are unconscious, they nevertheless affect our behaviors and perpetuate inequitable systems of power and real-life discrimination. In this class, we explore language ideologies with respect to indigeneity, immigration, colonization/colonialism and multilingualism; language and education policies; dialect and region, social class, race and ethnicity, gender-sexualities, and other intersectional identities, as well as language change and current social movements. Students will develop academic reading, discussion, and summary skills, and will develop and write a research paper.

Dr. Judith Pine

• Credits: 5
• Prerequisites: LING 310

Description

In this course, you will develop an understanding of the way that utterance and context interact to produce meaning, and the variety of ways in which meaning-making is essential to being human. You will develop a basic understanding of both Saussurian and Peircean semiotics, with an emphasis on the development of Peirce’s framework within linguistic anthropology in conjunction with Saussure’s influence on anthropology more broadly. We will explore the use of semiotic analysis to gain insight into the frames we use to make sense of the world around us. Students will have the opportunity to reflect on the potential of semiotic analysis for making sense of data collected through linguistic, ethnographic and archaeological research. In this class, we will discover the wide range of linguistic anthropology’s exploration of the way that language, meaning and mind interact.

Although the class has a linguistic anthropology focus, we will explore the value and uses of semiotics within other disciplines and subdisciplines, in particular the use of semiotic archaeology in the analysis of archaeological artifacts, the way in which semiotic analysis can illuminate understandings of our physical selves, and the use of a semiotic lens to understand the complexity of the sounds of language (phonology) .

You will have the opportunity to use the tools of semiotic anthropology in an analysis of a symbolic system with which you feel comfortable and familiar.

Dr. Jordan Sandoval

• Credits: 5
• Prerequisites: LING 310 or instructor permission
• WP3

Description 

LING 411 (Advanced topics in Phonetics and Phonology) will explore how we learn and teach second language pronunciation. From segments to suprasegmental characteristics of a learned language, we'll explore what can make the sound system difficult to learn. By reading and discussing journal articles and edited volumes, we'll consider what the theories regarding second language learning hypothesize, and what evidence shows about how to effectively learn and teach pronunciation of a second language. Students can expect, through a lot of reading and discussion, to become familiar with the academic conversation regarding pronunciation in second language learning and teaching. In groups, students will have the opportunity to develop some targeted pronunciation teaching for a language of choice, and then present that work to others.

Dr. McNeel Jantzen

• Credits: 5
• Prerequisites: LING 315
• WP3

Description

Provides students with the structural components and organization of the central and peripheral nervous systems and their conduction pathways and functions, with specific emphasis on those structures that subserve normal speech, language and hearing processes.

Dr. Ginny Dawson

• Credits: 5
• Prerequisites: LING 311 and LING 321.
• WP3

Description

Development of skills in linguistic fieldwork, including eliciting, recording, transcribing and analyzing data by working with a native speaker of a language unfamiliar to the students.