This course investigates the relationship between language and culture at the interface of linguistics and anthropology. It examines the ways in which language reflects the perception of the world, ways of life and beliefs of its speakers, creates rituals and maintains social ties, and is used by people of different ages, genders, social classes, and ethnicities.We will discuss hypotheses that try to explain the nature of relationship between language and culture and then turn to a wide variety of topics which are relevant for both linguists and anthropologists. These include, for instance, kinship systems, language of perception (e.g. colors, spatial relations), politeness across languages and cultures, and writing systems.

Location

Gavett Hall Room 310 (TR 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

The course examines the use advertisers make of language in selling their products and how it affects our perceptions of the product and ourselves. The emphasis is on learning about linguistic practice. The course will appeal to those who are curious about the central role language plays in the art of persuasion presented as advertising. The course touches upon the structure of language insofar as it is relevant for understanding advertising as a form of social action. The acquired linguistic tools will help us to understand how commercial messages achieve their effect.

Location

Hylan Building Room 306 (MW 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

Water is on track to be the most pressing environmental issue in the upcoming decades. But beyond its physical substance, what is water? How do we understand its value in our lives? Who controls it? This course will focus on the language and landscape of water, its geography and physical presence on the landscape, to examine how languages shape our actions, understanding and knowledge of what water is in human communities. In the course we’ll examine indigenous points of view around water in the Americas and in Australia and how they embody themselves in their landscapes in relation to water. We’ll examine the language of issues such as access to water, and water rights and the concept of ownership of water. We’ll focus on case studies of current communities coping with the value and role of water in their communities. We’ll touch on aspects of the geography of water: aquifers, rivers, water sources, and practices such as irrigation and mapping to understand the ways that languages embody us in place, using as tools linguistic concepts such place names and toponyms, spacial orientations. The goal of the seminar is to build a base for an informed understanding of how knowledge is coded in languages, and shapes concepts and environmental practices.The course will consist of readings, films and discussion, and final project.

Location

Hutchison Hall Room 473 (MW 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

This course introduces students to the study of the structure of human language. We will cover the six core areas of linguistic investigation: Phonetics (articulation, acoustics, and perception of speech sounds), Phonology (sound patterns), Morphology (internal structure of words and their organization in the mental lexicon), Syntax (internal structure of phrases and sentences), Semantics (word and sentence meaning), and Pragmatics (language use in context). The course focuses on developing skills in the areas of linguistic data analysis and interpretation of linguistic data in ways that aim to address theoretical and empirical issues in the study of language. In addition to the lecture students will need to register for a peer-led workshop.

Location

Hylan Building Room 201 (TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

Peer-led workshop for LING 110-2 (lecture section).

Location

Genesee Hall Room 321 (R 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

Peer-led workshop for LING 110-2 (lecture section).

Location

Lattimore Room 513 (R 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

Peer-led workshop for LING 110-2 (lecture section).

Location

Lattimore Room 513 (R 6:15PM - 7:30PM)

Peer-led workshop for LING 110-2 (lecture section).

Location

Lechase Room 121 (F 9:00AM - 10:15AM)

Peer-led workshop for LING 110-2 (lecture section).

Location

Genesee Hall Room 323 (F 3:25PM - 4:40PM)

This course introduces students to the study of the structure of human language. We will cover the six core areas of linguistic investigation: Phonetics (articulation, acoustics, and perception of speech sounds), Phonology (sound patterns), Morphology (internal structure of words and their organization in the mental lexicon), Syntax (internal structure of phrases and sentences), Semantics (word and sentence meaning), and Pragmatics (language use in context). The course focuses on developing skills in the areas of linguistic data analysis and interpretation of linguistic data in ways that aim to address theoretical and empirical issues in the study of language. In addition to the lecture students will need to register for a peer-led workshop.

Location

Dewey Room 2110D (MW 3:25PM - 4:40PM)

Peer-led workshop for LING 110-1 (lecture section).

Location

Meliora Room 218 (F 9:00AM - 10:15AM)

Peer-led workshop for LING 110-1 (lecture section).

Location

Meliora Room 284 (F 10:25AM - 11:40AM)

Peer-led workshop for LING 110-1 (lecture section).

Location

Genesee Hall Room 321 (F 3:25PM - 4:40PM)

Peer-led workshop for LING 110-1 (lecture section).

Location

Lattimore Room 513 (M 9:00AM - 10:15AM)

Peer-led workshop for LING 110-1 (lecture section).

Location

Lattimore Room 513 (M 4:50PM - 6:05PM)

Peer-led workshop for LING 110-1 (lecture section).

Location

Meliora Room 284 (T 9:40AM - 10:55AM)

Peer-led workshop for LING 110-2 (lecture section).

Location

Dewey Room 4162 (W 6:15PM - 7:30PM)

All languages change over time, often in predictable patterns. Where did today’s standard English come from, and how is our sense of that standard tied to assumptions about race, class, gender, and nationality? To find out, we will begin roughly 5,000 years ago, studying the common ancestor of languages as different as English, Hindi, and Polish: Proto-Indo-European. We will learn about the prehistoric roots of English, then turn to the earliest written evidence of it: “Anglo-Saxon” or “Old English,” ca. 600-1100.The language was transformed in the wake of the Norman Invasion of 1066, as English became lower in status than both Anglo-Norman French and Latin for a few centuries. Next, we will learn about the growth of English, and its changes, in the age of Chaucer (Middle English) and Shakespeare (Early Modern English). Finally, we will explore processes of standardization, hybridization, and diffusion in the complex effects of English’s spread across the globe over the course of the past 450 years.

Location

Bausch & Lomb Room 270 (TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM)

Introduces children's language development, including the acquisition of phonology, syntax, and semantics. Focuses on the acquisition of a first language by young children, comparing the acquisition of a variety of spoken and signed languages to find possible universal principles of language learning.

Prerequisite: BCSC 152 or LING 110. No ASL background required.

Location

Hylan Building Room 201 (MW 4:50PM - 6:05PM)

The goal of this course is to provide a background for understanding the principles that underlie the structure of sound systems in human languages. Starting with the notion phoneme, the course focuses on acoustic and articulatory phonetics, as a basis for understanding phonological processes and change in linguistic sound forms. Students will acquire skills in the production, recognition, and transcription of sounds in various languages of the world. The course will serve as a foundation for work in language documentation, sociolinguistics and sociophonetics, morphology. This course can be taken as LIN 210 or as LIN 410 and is meant for linguistics majors and non-majors alike. In addition to the lecture students will need to register for a peer-led workshop. Prerequisites: LING 110

Location

Gavett Hall Room 310 (MW 10:25AM - 11:40AM)

Peer led workshop for LING 210-1.

Location

Genesee Hall Room 323 (F 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

Peer led workshop for LING 210-1.

Location

Hylan Room 301 (W 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

Peer-led workshop for LING 210-1.

Location

Lattimore Room 513 (W 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

Peer-led workshop for LING 210-1.

Location

Lattimore Room 513 (W 6:15PM - 7:30PM)

The goal of this course is to provide a background for understanding the principles that underlie the structure of sound systems in human languages. Starting with the notion phoneme, the course focuses on acoustic and articulatory phonetics, as a basis for understanding phonological processes and change in linguistic sound forms. Students will acquire skills in the production, recognition, and transcription of sounds in various languages of the world. The course will serve as a foundation for work in language documentation, sociolinguistics and sociophonetics, morphology. This course can be taken as LING 210 or as LING 410 and is meant for linguistics majors and non-majors alike. In addition to the lecture students will need to register for a peer-led workshop. Prerequisites: LING 110

Location

Gavett Hall Room 310 (MW 10:25AM - 11:40AM)

Peer led workshop for LING 210W-1.

Location

Genesee Hall Room 323 (F 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

Peer led workshop for LING 210W-1.

Location

Hylan Room 301 (W 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

Peer-led workshop for LING 210W-1

Location

Lattimore Room 513 (W 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

Peer led workshop for LING 210W-1.

Location

Lattimore Room 513 (W 6:15PM - 7:30PM)

Overviews the nature and processing of human languages, including comparisons between language and animal communication systems, the biological bases of human language, and the cognitive mechanisms used in producing, understanding, and learning language.

Prerequisite: BCSC 110, BCSC 111, or LING 110

Location

Bausch & Lomb Room 109 (TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

Syntax is the system of rules that we subconsciously follow when we construct sentences. The course is designed to introduce the grammatical principles that guide the building of structures. The students will acquire and apply the tools necessary for linguistic analysis of phrases and sentences. Built on data puzzles from English and some lesser studied non-Indo European languages, the students will gain insights into state of the art syntactic theory and lingering questions.

Location

Hylan Building Room 201 (TR 3:25PM - 4:40PM)

This is a required peer-led workshop for LING 220-1.

Location

Wegmans Room 1005 (R 4:50PM - 6:05PM)

This is a required peer-led workshop for LING 220-1.

Location

Lattimore Room 413 (W 6:15PM - 7:30PM)

This is a required peer-led workshop for LING 220-1.

Location

Genesee Hall Room 323 (W 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

This is a required peer-led workshop for LING 220-1.

Location

Lattimore Room 210 (R 6:15PM - 7:30PM)

This is a required peer-led workshop for LING 220-1.

Location

Hylan Building Room 206 (F 9:00AM - 10:15AM)

This is a required peer-led workshop for LING 220-1.

Location

Hylan Building Room 306 (F 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

This course introduces students to the basics of the analysis of meaning in natural language. The first section focuses on devices that motivate certain forms to take on the meanings they have. The second section of the course moves on to discuss how meanings combine to form meanings for larger unitshow words and phrases combine to form sentences meanings. Using logical notation we illustrate the formal analysis of natural language meaning in terms of truth-conditions. We will discuss the basics of set theory, and investigate how meanings represented in these terms correlate with the syntactic and lexical structures of sentences of natural language. Students of graduate standing or those with strong formal backgrounds may consider starting with LING 265/465 instead, for which this course is ordinarily a prerequisite. This course counts towards satisfying the core course requirement for majors. Prerequisites: LING 110

Location

Morey Room 525 (MW 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

Peer led workshop for LING 225-1.

Location

Genesee Hall Room 308 (R 9:40AM - 10:55AM)

Peer led workshop for LING 225-1.

Location

Lechase Room 124 (R 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

Peer led workshop for LING 225-1.

Location

Meliora Room 284 (R 6:15PM - 7:30PM)

Peer-led workshop for LING 225-1.

Location

Frederick Douglass Room 302 (F 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

The course examines the structure and definition of the linguistic unit 'word'' its typology and the relationship of the morphological component to other levels in the grammar. The course includes an introduction to analytical techniques with emphasis placed on an examination of data from a range of languages. The building blocks of words will be analyzed and topics such as affixation, reduplication and inflectional and derivational morphology will be covered. We will examine the properties of words and how they fit into the larger structure of linguistic knowledge, including the relationship between words and syntactic structure (ex., phrases and sentences) and the relationship between words and phonological structure (ex., phonological rules and prosodic structure).

Location

Lattimore Room 513 (MW 3:25PM - 4:40PM)

This course offers an overview of the study of language variation and change. We will examine some of the ways that spoken language varies according to the social characteristics and social motivations of its speakers. Methods for quantitative analysis of linguistic variation will be introduced. Prerequisites: LIN 110. LIN 210 or 220 recommended but not required

Location

Lattimore Room 513 (MW 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

[Prerequisite: One previous course in Philosophy]

General nature of language and specific puzzles about language: the nature of truth and meaning, speech acts, reference, propositional attitudes, metaphor, understanding, interpretation, indeterminacy, etc.

(PHIL 110 is recommended prior to taking this course.)  

Location

Morey Room 525 (TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM)

This course addresses issues of representing computing meaning from natural language, especially issues of understanding language in context using commonsense knowledge of the world. Topics will include a survey of English phrase structure and parsing, semantic representation (e.g., events, semantic roles, time, causality and speech acts), and theories and techniques for understanding language in context, including intention recognition, text understanding using knowledge of scripts and plans, and models of spoken dialogue systems (e.g., conversational agents such as Siri). CSC447, the graduate level version of the course, requires a substantial individual project.

Prerequisite: CSC 242

Location

Computer Studies Room 209 (MW 4:50PM - 6:05PM)

This course picks up where LIN 220 leaves off, though focusing more on topics in natural language syntax from a cross-linguistic perspective. The goal of the course is an approach to syntax that accounts for both language-particular as well as universal constraints on language. Among the topics studied are head and phrase movement, constraints on co-reference (anaphora), elipsis, and agreement (phi features).

Location

Lattimore Room 513 (TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM)

This course builds on LING 220, introducing more advanced topics in syntactic theory from a cross-linguistic perspective. The goals are (i) to gaina better understanding of what aspects of natural language syntax are universal and what aspects are subject to cross-linguistic variation, and ii) to develop a theorythat explains why the observed variation is exactly what is it. Some topics covered include: wh-movement, A-movement, case, ergativity, agreement (phi features), embedding, ellipsis, nominalization. Prerequisites: LING 110, LING 220 or permission of instructor.

Location

Lattimore Room 513 (TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM)

This syntactic theory course examines syntactic phenomena from the perspective of phrase structure and lexicalist grammar as opposed to transformational grammar. The course will examine and develop phrase structure grammar (specifically Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar) approaches to standard syntactic problems, contrasting them where appropriate with transformational approaches. No background in non-transformational approaches will be assumed. This course can be taken as LIN 261 or as LIN 461 and is meant for linguistics majors and non-majors alike.

Prerequisites: LING 110 & LING 220 or instructor permission.

Location

Lattimore Room 513 (TR 9:40AM - 10:55AM)

This course is a hands-on exploration of recent advances in computational models of meaning. The first part of the course will focus on implementing traditional rule-based compositional semantics in the functional programming language Haskell. We will construct a sophisticated model of formal semantics, culminating in examining the use of monads to model types of natural language meaning phenomena. The second part of the course explores distributional semantic models and their implementation, where lexical meaning is defined in terms of lexical co-occurrence, estimating meaning from large-scale corpus resources.

Location

Lattimore Room 513 (MW 10:25AM - 11:40AM)

This class is addressed to anyone interested in fieldwork involving data collection of spoken language, including for instance linguists, anthropologists, or historians. Languages and cultures are currently disappearing on an unprecedented level due to the effects of globalization and displacement of people. Minority groups are often the most affected. As languages and cultures die, we lose entire knowledge systems and communities an integral part of their identity. This class introduces you to major techniques and tools of collecting and curating language data, using it for your research purposes, and making it useful to speech communities and other scholars. We will investigate the importance of language as a social convention from an interdisciplinary perspective, including, e.g., issues in intercultural research and ethics in fieldwork. Students will design their own projects, depending on their personal interests, and receive hands-on training in audio and video recording, time-aligned annotations, data management, and archiving. Prerequisites: LING 110 or permission from instructor.

Location

Lattimore Room 513 (TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

This class is addressed to anyone interested in fieldwork involving data collection of spoken language, including for instance linguists, anthropologists, or historians. Languages and cultures are currently disappearing on an unprecedented level due to the effects of globalization and displacement of people. Minority groups are often the most affected. As languages and cultures die, we lose entire knowledge systems and communities an integral part of their identity. This class introduces you to major techniques and tools of collecting and curating language data, using it for your research purposes, and making it useful to speech communities and other scholars. We will investigate the importance of language as a social convention from an interdisciplinary perspective, including, e.g., issues in intercultural research and ethics in fieldwork. Students will design their own projects, depending on their personal interests, and receive hands-on training in audio and video recording, time-aligned annotations, data management, and archiving. Prerequisites: LING 110 or permission from instructor.

Location

Lattimore Room 513 (TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

This course covers advanced topics in computational linguistics, with a focus on the deployment of deep learning methods for advancing linguistic theory as well as the use of linguistic theory for designing deep learning models. Topics include phonotactic, morphological, and syntactic grammar induction as well as morphological, syntactic and semantic parsing. Prerequisites: LING 224 or CSC 247, Recommended Prerequisites: LING 281 or CSC 248

Location

Lattimore Room 513 (TR 3:25PM - 4:40PM)