Introduction to Linguistics

Description

This basic course in language and linguistics is designed for students of computational linguistics. It is nonetheless an introduction to linguistics as it is also taught to students of language, literature or psychology.

Goals

The focus of the course is on language preceding from general scientific curiosity to the perspective developed by professional linguistics. The goal is provide the motivation for serious study of language.

At the end of this course students should be familiar with all of the following:

the subfields of linguistics and their division of labor;
the major analytical concepts used to describe and analyse language;
a range of ways in which computational linguistics is informing scientific theorizing about language; and
a range of questions of general interest about language and how linguistics -- and especially computational linguistics -- approaches (and answers) these.

Topics

the biological basis of human language vis-à-vis other animal communication systems
sounds, forms and meanings in the world's languages
relations of language to cognition, communication, and social organization
language learning by children and adults
the reconstruction of linguistic history and the ``family tree'' of languages
dialect variation and language standardization
the neurology of language and language disorders
computational linguistics and (artificial) intelligence

Books

LF Department of Linguistics, The Ohio State University. Language Files Columbus, OH, USA: The Ohio State University Press. 6th ed., 1994.
Words George Miller. The Science of Words New York: Scientific American Library. 1996.

Other Sources

No readings are assigned from the books below, but I've used them to prepare my lectures.

Chapters 1-4 of Vater are useful for learning the German terminology.

Heinz Vater. Einführung in die Sprachwissenschaft München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag. 1994.
Steven Pinker. The Language Instinct New York: W.Morrow & Co. 1994.
Geoffrey Sampson Educating Eve London: Cassell. 1997.
David Crystal. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language Cambridge University Press. 1997

Instructor

John Nerbonne, nerbonne@let.rug.nl, IMS 12.3/24
Office Hours: Mon. 13:00-14:00 (after lecture)

Meeting Time

Lecture: Mon. 11:30-13:00 pm

Test

Written Exam (Klausur) on Mon. Feb. 4, 2002 from 11:30-13:00. Example exam available.

Lectures

Reading Assignments are noted by `LF' (Language Files) followed by the file numbers, e.g. 1.2-1.5, meaning 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5, or `W' (The Science of Words), followed by chapter numbers.

Week	Theme	Readings	Sheets	Remarks
1. Nov. 19	Basics	LF 1.2-1.5; W 1	Basic Concepts
2. Nov. 26	Language Origins	LF 2.1-2.3; W,p.74	Evolutionary Speculations	Pinker and Bloom on language as a spandrel
3. Dec. 3	Speech Sounds	LF 3.1-3.6,3.9-3.10; W 2,4	Sounds
4. Dec.10	Phonology	LF 4; W 5	Phonology
5. Dec.17	Morphology	LF 5.0-5.2; W 6-7	Morphology
6. Jan 7	Syntax	LF 6; W 11	Grammar
7. Jan 14	Acquisition	LF 9.2-9.9; W 12	Acquisition
8. Jan 21	Variation & Change	LF 12.1, 12.4, 10.2-3	Variation
9. Jan 28	Applied Linguistics	LF 14.4-5
10. Feb. 4	Exam	LF Appendix B
11. Feb.11	Exam Discussion		Exam Key

Acknowledgements

Besides the material in the books, I've been inspired a lot by the University of Pennsylvania's Introduction to Language Course, given in different versions in the Fall and Spring, and developed by Mark Liberman and Gene Buckley, respectively.

John Nerbonne
Last modified: Mon Nov 26 17:49:05 METDST 1999