Danny Law

This course is an introduction to the typological study of language – the investigation into the nature of human language as informed by cross-linguistic comparison.  Despite the immense variation among the world’s languages, basic patterns emerge through large-scale comparison of linguistic phenomena, allowing the identification of cross-linguistic universals and tendencies. This course will explore these patterns and investigate explanations for their existence, appealing primarily to the communicative  function of language and the historical evolution of languages in doing so.

This one semester introduction to Ancient Maya Hieroglyphics will guide students through the intricacies of one of the oldest and best attested indigenous literary traditions of the Ancient Americas. Students will learn the fundamentals of the script, the complex calendar systems used to keep time by the ancient Maya, and the basic grammar and lexicon of Classic Mayan, the language attested in the hieroglyphic corpus. They will also explore the social and political context in which these inscriptions were created. They will study the kings and queens that commissioned and are the subject of many hieroglyphic texts and learn about the wars waged and alliances forged and broken by these ancient rulers. Students will finish the semester with a basic reading and writing skills in ancient Maya hieroglyphics and a grounding in the grammar of the oldest attested Mayan language. Students from any discipline are welcome. There are no prerequisites for the course and no prior experience of familiarity with the Mayan languages is assumed. 

The principles of language change, reconstruction of earlier linguistic stages, language contact, and language relatedness.

This course will be a combination of discussion and presentations and will cover topics such as recent trends in the documentation and description of the world’s languages, research ethics, research technology, and preparation for research including research design, types of data and how they fit into specific research agendas, funding and IRB proposal writing, presentation and publication of research data and analysis, and dissertation writing. The course will give students the opportunity to pursue their own research in a guided, collegial environment. Graduate students from other departments are welcome!

Course Description

An introduction to the study of how languages change and to the
principles developed by linguists to account for these changes. The
course will investigate the social and linguistic motivations for
change and learn about change in sound systems, word structure, word
meaning, and grammar. Students will also learn the methods linguists
have developed for reconstructing the vocabularies and grammars of  the
prehistoric parent languages of languages which exist today, or  which
have been preserved in writing.

Requirements:
Classes will be a mix of lectures, discussion, and problem solving
using data from a wide range of languages. Grade is based on homework
assignments (60%), two in-class examinations (40%).

Textbook:
"An Introduction to Historical Linguistics" by Terry Crowley and
Claire Bowern (ISBN: 9780195365542), and supplementary readings.

Human language is often hard to separate from the technologies that humans have invented to record and imitate it. The relative permanence these technologies give to language has arguably been central to the development and administration of complex states and empires. That permanence is also crucial to the scientific study of language. In this course, students will become familiar with the diverse human efforts to capture language in durable form. We will consider how writing systems vary across the globe and over time, what those technologies assume about the nature and structure of language, and what social and communicative purpose each form of writing has fulfilled. Topics will include the typology and evolution of writing systems, the psycholinguistics of reading and writing, and the role of writing in contemporary language politics. Using case studies ranging from ancient inscriptions in long- dead languages to efforts by contemporary linguists and language activists to develop new ways of writing previously unwritten languages, we will investigate how language relates to the written word and how linguistic analysis is intertwined with the process of writing. 

This course will be a combination of discussion and presentations and will cover topics such as recent trends in the documentation and description of the world’s languages, research ethics, research technology, and preparation for research including research design, types of data and how they fit into specific research agendas, funding and IRB proposal writing, presentation and publication of research data and analysis, and dissertation writing. The course will give students the opportunity to pursue their own research in a guided, collegial environment. Graduate students from other departments are welcome!

Saussure and many since have argued that, “the linguistic sign is arbitrary”. Iconicity (forms that are not arbitrary, but motivated by similarity between a sign and its meaning) have been noted for certain types of words (e.g. onomatopoeia), or in certain language modalities (signed languages), but these are generally seen as exceptional. This seminar will explore the pervasiveness of iconicity in language. We will look at the effect of modality (speech vs. sign vs. text) on iconicity and the relationship between iconicity in language and iconic forms in other kinds of communication, such as gesture. We will look beyond sound symbolism to consider structural iconicity in syntax, imitation in first language acquisition, the iconic nature of social stereotypes and the projection and performance of sociolinguistic identity. Students will participate in, and occasionally lead, class discussions and will produce a final paper on a relevant topic of their choosing.

Course Description

An introduction to the study of how languages change and to the
principles developed by linguists to account for these changes. The
course will investigate the social and linguistic motivations for
change and learn about change in sound systems, word structure, word
meaning, and grammar. Students will also learn the methods linguists
have developed for reconstructing the vocabularies and grammars of  the
prehistoric parent languages of languages which exist today, or  which
have been preserved in writing.

Requirements:
Classes will be a mix of lectures, discussion, and problem solving
using data from a wide range of languages. Grade is based on homework
assignments (60%), two in-class examinations (40%).

Textbook:
"An Introduction to Historical Linguistics" by Terry Crowley and
Claire Bowern (ISBN: 9780195365542), and supplementary readings.

This course will be a combination of discussion and presentations and will cover topics such as recent trends in the documentation and description of the world’s languages, research ethics, research technology, and preparation for research including research design, types of data and how they fit into specific research agendas, funding and IRB proposal writing, presentation and publication of research data and analysis, and dissertation writing. The course will give students the opportunity to pursue their own research in a guided, collegial environment. Graduate students from other departments are welcome!

Human language is often hard to separate from the technologies that humans have invented to record and imitate it. The relative permanence these technologies give to language has arguably been central to the development and
administration of complex states and empires. That permanence is also crucial to the scientific study of language. In
this course, students will become familiar with the diverse human efforts to capture language in durable form. We
will consider how writing systems vary across the globe and over time, what those technologies assume about the
nature and structure of language, and what social and communicative purpose each form of writing has fulfilled.
Topics will include the typology and evolution of writing systems, the psycholinguistics of reading and writing, and
the role of writing in contemporary language politics. Using case studies ranging from ancient inscriptions in longdead
languages to efforts by contemporary linguists and language activists to develop new ways of writing
previously unwritten languages, we will investigate how language relates to the written word and how linguistic
analysis is intertwined with the process of writing.

Course Description

An introduction to the study of how languages change and to the
principles developed by linguists to account for these changes. The
course will investigate the social and linguistic motivations for
change and learn about change in sound systems, word structure, word
meaning, and grammar. Students will also learn the methods linguists
have developed for reconstructing the vocabularies and grammars of  the
prehistoric parent languages of languages which exist today, or  which
have been preserved in writing.

Requirements:
Classes will be a mix of lectures, discussion, and problem solving
using data from a wide range of languages. Grade is based on homework
assignments (60%), two in-class examinations (40%).

Textbook:
"An Introduction to Historical Linguistics" by Terry Crowley and
Claire Bowern (ISBN: 9780195365542), and supplementary readings.

This course will be a combination of discussion and presentations and will cover topics such as recent trends in the documentation and description of the world’s languages, research ethics, research technology, and preparation for research including research design, types of data and how they fit into specific research agendas, funding and IRB proposal writing, presentation and publication of research data and analysis, and dissertation writing. The course will give students the opportunity to pursue their own research in a guided, collegial environment. Graduate students from other departments are welcome!

Course Description

An introduction to the study of how languages change and to the
principles developed by linguists to account for these changes. The
course will investigate the social and linguistic motivations for
change and learn about change in sound systems, word structure, word
meaning, and grammar. Students will also learn the methods linguists
have developed for reconstructing the vocabularies and grammars of  the
prehistoric parent languages of languages which exist today, or  which
have been preserved in writing.

Requirements:
Classes will be a mix of lectures, discussion, and problem solving
using data from a wide range of languages. Grade is based on homework
assignments (60%), two in-class examinations (40%).

Textbook:
"An Introduction to Historical Linguistics" by Terry Crowley and
Claire Bowern (ISBN: 9780195365542), and supplementary readings.

This course explores traditional and contemporary approaches to historical linguistics, the study of language change. We will address various types of change - phonological, morphological (particularly involving analogy), semantic, and syntactic - and the methods used to investigate these changes, most notably the Comparative Method and internal reconstruction. We will also explore the social and linguistic motivations for change, and the role of synchronic variation. Finally, the course will consider the effects of language contact, the genetic/genealogical classification of languages, and the insights historical linguistics brings to understanding prehistory.

An introduction to the study of how languages change and to the principles developed by linguists to account for these changes. The course will investigate the social and linguistic motivations for change and learn about change in sound systems, word structure, word meaning, and grammar. Students will also learn the methods linguists have developed for reconstructing the vocabularies and grammars of  the prehistoric parent languages of languages which exist today, or  which have been preserved in writing.

In this graduate-level course, we will examine the phenomenon of language contact from both structural and sociocultural angles. We will investigate lexical borrowing and language shift, the formation of pidgins, creoles, and koines and grammaticalization in response to contact influence. We will also hone and question methodologies for tracing borrowing and other contact-related influences in a given language. We will discuss the concept of a ‘linguistic area’ and look at examples of linguistic areas, in particular the Maya lowlands of Guatemala and southern Mexico. Finally, we will consider the role of discourse strategies and norms, bilingualism, and code-switching, and cultural practices in determining the nature of the contact that takes place and its effects on the languages involved. Texts: Winford, Donald. 2003. An Introduction to Contact Linguistics, Blackwell. Other readings available on Canvas.

An introduction to the study of how languages change and to the principles developed by linguists to account for these changes. The course will investigate the social and linguistic motivations for change and learn about change in sound systems, word structure, word meaning, and grammar. Students will also learn the methods linguists have developed for reconstructing the vocabularies and grammars of  the prehistoric parent languages of languages which exist today, or  which have been preserved in writing.Requirements:Classes will be a mix of lectures, discussion, and problem solving using data from a wide range of languages. Grade is based on homework assignments (60%), two in-class examinations (40%).Textbook:"An Introduction to Historical Linguistics" by Terry Crowley and

Saussure and many since have argued that, “the linguistic sign is arbitrary”. Iconicity (forms that are not arbitrary, but motivated by similarity between a sign and its meaning) have been noted for certain types of words (e.g. onomatopoeia), or in certain language modalities (signed languages), but these are generally seen as exceptional. This seminar will explore the pervasiveness of iconicity in language. We will look at the effect of modality (speech vs. sign vs. text) on iconicity and the relationship between iconicity in language and iconic forms in other kinds of communication, such as gesture. We will look beyond sound symbolism to consider structural iconicity in syntax, imitation in first language acquisition, the iconic nature of social stereotypes and the projection and performance of sociolinguistic identity. Students will participate in, and occasionally lead, class discussions and will produce a final paper on a relevant topic of their choosing.

Human language is often hard to separate from the technologies that humans have invented to record and imitate it. The relative permanence these technologies give to language has arguably been central to the development and administration of complex states and empires. That permanence is also crucial to the scientific study of language. In this course, students will become familiar with the diverse human efforts to capture language in permanent form. We will consider how writing systems vary across the globe and over time, what those technologies assume about the nature and structure of language, and what social and communicative purpose each form of writing has fulfilled. Topics will include the typology and evolution of writing systems, the psycholinguistics of reading and writing, and the role of writing in contemporary language politics. Using case studies ranging from ancient inscriptions in long-dead languages to efforts by contemporary linguists and language activists to develop new ways of writing previously unwritten languages, we will investigate how language relates to the written word and how linguistic analysis is intertwined with the process of writing.Basis of Grading: Grades will be based on in-class quizzes, three short analysis essays and a final paper on a writing system of the student’s choice.Required Text: Writing Systems: A Linguistic Approach (2004, Blackwell) by Henry Rogers

This course explores traditional and contemporary approaches to historical linguistics, the study of language change. We will address various types of change - phonological, morphological (particularly involving analogy), semantic, and syntactic - and the methods used to investigate these changes, most notably the Comparative Method and internal reconstruction. We will also explore the social and linguistic motivations for change, and the role of synchronic variation. Finally, the course will consider the effects of language contact, the genetic/genealogical classification of languages, and the insights historical linguistics brings to understanding prehistory.

Course Description

An introduction to the study of how languages change and to the
principles developed by linguists to account for these changes. The
course will investigate the social and linguistic motivations for
change and learn about change in sound systems, word structure, word
meaning, and grammar. Students will also learn the methods linguists
have developed for reconstructing the vocabularies and grammars of  the
prehistoric parent languages of languages which exist today, or  which
have been preserved in writing.

Requirements:
Classes will be a mix of lectures, discussion, and problem solving
using data from a wide range of languages. Grade is based on homework
assignments (60%), two in-class examinations (40%).

Textbook:
"An Introduction to Historical Linguistics" by Terry Crowley and
Claire Bowern (ISBN: 9780195365542), and supplementary readings.

This course focuses on "classic" themes in anthropology such as ethnicity, language, adaptation, marriage, kinship, gender, religion, and social stratification.  We will consider anthropological theory from its 19th-century origins to the present.  The course also explores the nature of ethnographic field work, especially the relationship between the anthropologist and the field community.  
The lectures, readings, and films for this course have been selected with the objective of exploring the social meanings with which diverse groups invest their life.  By comparing and analyzing the similarities and differences between "us" and "others," both within the borders of the U.S. and abroad, the anthropological perspective can expose some of our own cultural assumptions and enable us to better understand diverse cultures.

The ability to learn and use language is a quintessentially human characteristic—one that distinguishes homo sapiens from other animal species. Language is simultaneously generated through and generative of social life; the former is a primary resource that we humans use in both the structuring and accomplishment of the latter. These dynamics form the subject of study of linguistic anthropology.

This course is an introduction to linguistic anthropology. It is impossible in a single semester to provide a complete overview of all topics that linguistic anthropologists address, so this course covers selected topics, the selection of which is aimed to illustrate how linguistic anthropologists go about doing their work: the range of topics they examine, the kinds of questions they ask, the types of approaches and methods they utilize, and the sorts of conclusions they reach.