Anthony C. Woodbury

This course will introduce you to linguistics, the scientific study of language. How are human languages structured? Do humans have an innate capacity for language? How do children learn language? How is adult language learning different? How did the languages of the world evolve? What are the differences between verbal and non-verbal communication? Is there a "universal grammar"? How diverse and different are the languages of the world? How much does "language endangerment" and language extinction around the world affect global cultural diversity? Should every country have one "official" language? Are standard languages preferable to regional dialects? In short, this class is about everything you always wanted to know about language, and maybe a few things you never even thought to ask.

This course shows you how to document a language by interacting with a person who speaks it natively. Linguistic documentation is an ever more urgent necessity. It is estimated that as many as 80% of the world's 6500 or so languages will be extinct by the year 2100. Most of these are poorly documented or else undocumented. This work is crucial for linguistics. At present our theories still perform poorly, or else are vague or silent, when asked to make predictions about new languages. They are likely to do better once informed by more of the human languages that have actually evolved over history. This work is also important for a wider spectrum of people. The maintenance of an ancestral language is a heartfelt issue in many communities under pressure (of one kind or another) to abandon it. While linguists cannot "save" endangered languages-only individual speakers and communities can do that-our experience as educators, documenters, archivists, lexicographers, grammarians, and sociolinguists help. The preservation of worldwide linguistic diversity is often linked to the preservation of cultural and intellectual diversity because language and speaking are emblems of cultural identity, and because culturally significant linguistic practices (including verbal art) often depend on lexical and grammatical details of the original language. We will learn about documentation by documenting as much as we can of one particular language through consultation with a native speaker-consultant. I will find someone whose language is little studied and beyond my own personal experience. Our consultant will be available for in-class and small-group consultation each week. Our work will be aimed toward the production of a (very!) preliminary lexicon, grammar, and set of texts, which we will present to our consultant at the end of the class.

Grading Policy:  Assignments (80%), Class Participation (20%)

Prerequisite: MUST be second year Linguistics graduate student or equivalent

Among the world's 7000 languages, more than half are poised for extinction in the next century. How does it happen? Is language loss forced or is it chosen? Are languages storehouses of environmental, cultural, philosophical, and spiritual knowledge, and if so, is that knowledge bound to be lost when languages die? Are oral and written literatures in a language lost even when they are translated? Does a culture disappear when a language dies? This course delves into the work of indigenous language activists and documentary linguists around the world and here at UT--as they describe and preserve endangered languages, identify what is special about them, and use them to ask new questions about cognition, social behavior, human origins, literary expression, and more. In the class, students will learn how to hear the sounds of an unfamiliar language and describe its grammar and vocabulary; and they will hear from and meet speakers of endangered languages who will visit the class.

This course will introduce you to linguistics, the scientific study of language. How are human languages structured? Do humans have an innate capacity for language? How do children learn language? How is adult language learning different? How did the languages of the world evolve? What are the differences between verbal and non-verbal communication? Is there a "universal grammar"? How diverse and different are the languages of the world? How much does "language endangerment" and language extinction around the world affect global cultural diversity? Should every country have one "official" language? Are standard languages preferable to regional dialects? In short, this class is about everything you always wanted to know about language, and maybe a few things you never even thought to ask.

This course shows you how to document a language by interacting with a person who speaks it natively. Linguistic documentation is an ever more urgent necessity. It is estimated that as many as 80% of the world's 6500 or so languages will be extinct by the year 2100. Most of these are poorly documented or else undocumented. This work is crucial for linguistics. At present our theories still perform poorly, or else are vague or silent, when asked to make predictions about new languages. They are likely to do better once informed by more of the human languages that have actually evolved over history. This work is also important for a wider spectrum of people. The maintenance of an ancestral language is a heartfelt issue in many communities under pressure (of one kind or another) to abandon it. While linguists cannot "save" endangered languages-only individual speakers and communities can do that-our experience as educators, documenters, archivists, lexicographers, grammarians, and sociolinguists help. The preservation of worldwide linguistic diversity is often linked to the preservation of cultural and intellectual diversity because language and speaking are emblems of cultural identity, and because culturally significant linguistic practices (including verbal art) often depend on lexical and grammatical details of the original language. We will learn about documentation by documenting as much as we can of one particular language through consultation with a native speaker-consultant. I will find someone whose language is little studied and beyond my own personal experience. Our consultant will be available for in-class and small-group consultation each week. Our work will be aimed toward the production of a (very!) preliminary lexicon, grammar, and set of texts, which we will present to our consultant at the end of the class.

Grading Policy:  Assignments (80%), Class Participation (20%)

Prerequisite: MUST be second year Linguistics graduate student or equivalent

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!

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

This course will introduce you to linguistics, the scientific study of language. How are human languages structured? Do humans have an innate capacity for language? How do children learn language? How is adult language learning different? How did the languages of the world evolve? What are the differences between verbal and non-verbal communication? Is there a "universal grammar"? How diverse and different are the languages of the world? How much does "language endangerment" and language extinction around the world affect global cultural diversity? Should every country have one "official" language? Are standard languages preferable to regional dialects? In short, this class is about everything you always wanted to know about language, and maybe a few things you never even thought to ask.

This course shows you how to document a language by interacting with a person who speaks it natively. Linguistic documentation is an ever more urgent necessity. It is estimated that as many as 80% of the world's 6500 or so languages will be extinct by the year 2100. Most of these are poorly documented or else undocumented. This work is crucial for linguistics. At present our theories still perform poorly, or else are vague or silent, when asked to make predictions about new languages. They are likely to do better once informed by more of the human languages that have actually evolved over history. This work is also important for a wider spectrum of people. The maintenance of an ancestral language is a heartfelt issue in many communities under pressure (of one kind or another) to abandon it. While linguists cannot "save" endangered languages-only individual speakers and communities can do that-our experience as educators, documenters, archivists, lexicographers, grammarians, and sociolinguists help. The preservation of worldwide linguistic diversity is often linked to the preservation of cultural and intellectual diversity because language and speaking are emblems of cultural identity, and because culturally significant linguistic practices (including verbal art) often depend on lexical and grammatical details of the original language. We will learn about documentation by documenting as much as we can of one particular language through consultation with a native speaker-consultant. I will find someone whose language is little studied and beyond my own personal experience. Our consultant will be available for in-class and small-group consultation each week. Our work will be aimed toward the production of a (very!) preliminary lexicon, grammar, and set of texts, which we will present to our consultant at the end of the class.

Grading Policy:  Assignments (80%), Class Participation (20%)

Prerequisite: MUST be second year Linguistics graduate student or equivalent

Co-taught by Patience Epps and Anthony Woodbury. Course Description TBA

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

This course will introduce you to linguistics, the scientific study of language. How are human languages structured? Do humans have an innate capacity for language? How do children learn language? How is adult language learning different? How did the languages of the world evolve? What are the differences between verbal and non-verbal communication? Is there a "universal grammar"? How diverse and different are the languages of the world? How much does "language endangerment" and language extinction around the world affect global cultural diversity? Should every country have one "official" language? Are standard languages preferable to regional dialects? In short, this class is about everything you always wanted to know about language, and maybe a few things you never even thought to ask.

This course shows you how to document a language by interacting with a person who speaks it natively. Linguistic documentation is an ever more urgent necessity. It is estimated that as many as 80% of the world's 6500 or so languages will be extinct by the year 2100. Most of these are poorly documented or else undocumented. This work is crucial for linguistics. At present our theories still perform poorly, or else are vague or silent, when asked to make predictions about new languages. They are likely to do better once informed by more of the human languages that have actually evolved over history. This work is also important for a wider spectrum of people. The maintenance of an ancestral language is a heartfelt issue in many communities under pressure (of one kind or another) to abandon it. While linguists cannot "save" endangered languages-only individual speakers and communities can do that-our experience as educators, documenters, archivists, lexicographers, grammarians, and sociolinguists help. The preservation of worldwide linguistic diversity is often linked to the preservation of cultural and intellectual diversity because language and speaking are emblems of cultural identity, and because culturally significant linguistic practices (including verbal art) often depend on lexical and grammatical details of the original language. We will learn about documentation by documenting as much as we can of one particular language through consultation with a native speaker-consultant. I will find someone whose language is little studied and beyond my own personal experience. Our consultant will be available for in-class and small-group consultation each week. Our work will be aimed toward the production of a (very!) preliminary lexicon, grammar, and set of texts, which we will present to our consultant at the end of the class.

Grading Policy:  Assignments (80%), Class Participation (20%)

Prerequisite: MUST be second year Linguistics graduate student or equivalent

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!

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

This course will introduce you to linguistics, the scientific study of language. How are human languages structured? Do humans have an innate capacity for language? How do children learn language? How is adult language learning different? How did the languages of the world evolve? What are the differences between verbal and non-verbal communication? Is there a "universal grammar"? How diverse and different are the languages of the world? How much does "language endangerment" and language extinction around the world affect global cultural diversity? Should every country have one "official" language? Are standard languages preferable to regional dialects? In short, this class is about everything you always wanted to know about language, and maybe a few things you never even thought to ask.

This course shows you how to document a language by interacting with a person who speaks it natively. Linguistic documentation is an ever more urgent necessity. It is estimated that as many as 80% of the world's 6500 or so languages will be extinct by the year 2100. Most of these are poorly documented or else undocumented. This work is crucial for linguistics. At present our theories still perform poorly, or else are vague or silent, when asked to make predictions about new languages. They are likely to do better once informed by more of the human languages that have actually evolved over history. This work is also important for a wider spectrum of people. The maintenance of an ancestral language is a heartfelt issue in many communities under pressure (of one kind or another) to abandon it. While linguists cannot "save" endangered languages-only individual speakers and communities can do that-our experience as educators, documenters, archivists, lexicographers, grammarians, and sociolinguists help. The preservation of worldwide linguistic diversity is often linked to the preservation of cultural and intellectual diversity because language and speaking are emblems of cultural identity, and because culturally significant linguistic practices (including verbal art) often depend on lexical and grammatical details of the original language. We will learn about documentation by documenting as much as we can of one particular language through consultation with a native speaker-consultant. I will find someone whose language is little studied and beyond my own personal experience. Our consultant will be available for in-class and small-group consultation each week. Our work will be aimed toward the production of a (very!) preliminary lexicon, grammar, and set of texts, which we will present to our consultant at the end of the class.

Grading Policy:  Assignments (80%), Class Participation (20%)

Prerequisite: MUST be second year Linguistics graduate student or equivalent

Instructors: Patience Epps, Anthony Webster, & Anthony Woodbury

Description

This course is jointly labeled Lin 393 and Ant 393, and will be taught by a team of three instructors, Patience Epps, Anthony Webster, and Anthony Woodbury.

The class deals with speech play, poetics, and verbal art from a linguistic and anthropological point of view and in the context of language documentation. The speech types involved typically include punning, joking, play languages, proverbs, riddles, verbal dueling, narrative, myth, song, poetry, and ritual and theatrical performance; they employ such formal features as parallelism, rhyme, alliteration, meter, prosodic distortion, and versification; and they draw on such literary tropes as iconicity, imagery, metaphor, metonymy, and quotation.  The view is taken that these elements and structures of artful or special language production are characteristic of all speech, including even conversation and expository prose; and that their study in heightened, artistic or playful contexts provides a grounding framework for any linguistic or anthropological approach to both form and content in naturally-occurring speech activity.

Although the disciplinary focus is linguistics and anthropology, we are not assuming a background in linguistics or anthropology and we are hoping that class members will come from other disciplines, including especially ethnomusicology and language/areal studies. The only prerequisite is a willingness to work on and eventually present interesting recorded material to the class for discussion and analysis.

The class will have an analytic, empirical orientation.  Apart from discussions of weekly readings, classes will concentrate on the analysis of oral, videotaped, and written materials provided at first by the instructors but later by students, from their own research.  Issues of transcription, written representation, and translation will be addressed.  The approach will be cross-cultural and ethnographic in orientation. 

Requirements

Homework (30%), Presentations (30%), Final paper (40%)

Textbook

None (articles and resources as offered in class)

This course will introduce you to linguistics, the scientific study of language. How are human languages structured? Do humans have an innate capacity for language? How do children learn language? How is adult language learning different? How did the languages of the world evolve? What are the differences between verbal and non-verbal communication? Is there a "universal grammar"? How diverse and different are the languages of the world? How much does "language endangerment" and language extinction around the world affect global cultural diversity? Should every country have one "official" language? Are standard languages preferable to regional dialects? In short, this class is about everything you always wanted to know about language, and maybe a few things you never even thought to ask.

This course shows you how to document a language by interacting with a person who speaks it natively. Linguistic documentation is an ever more urgent necessity. It is estimated that as many as 80% of the world's 6500 or so languages will be extinct by the year 2100. Most of these are poorly documented or else undocumented. This work is crucial for linguistics. At present our theories still perform poorly, or else are vague or silent, when asked to make predictions about new languages. They are likely to do better once informed by more of the human languages that have actually evolved over history. This work is also important for a wider spectrum of people. The maintenance of an ancestral language is a heartfelt issue in many communities under pressure (of one kind or another) to abandon it. While linguists cannot "save" endangered languages-only individual speakers and communities can do that-our experience as educators, documenters, archivists, lexicographers, grammarians, and sociolinguists help. The preservation of worldwide linguistic diversity is often linked to the preservation of cultural and intellectual diversity because language and speaking are emblems of cultural identity, and because culturally significant linguistic practices (including verbal art) often depend on lexical and grammatical details of the original language. We will learn about documentation by documenting as much as we can of one particular language through consultation with a native speaker-consultant. I will find someone whose language is little studied and beyond my own personal experience. Our consultant will be available for in-class and small-group consultation each week. Our work will be aimed toward the production of a (very!) preliminary lexicon, grammar, and set of texts, which we will present to our consultant at the end of the class.

Grading Policy:  Assignments (80%), Class Participation (20%)

Prerequisite: MUST be second year Linguistics graduate student or equivalent

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

This course will introduce you to linguistics, the scientific study of language. How are human languages structured? Do humans have an innate capacity for language? How do children learn language? How is adult language learning different? How did the languages of the world evolve? What are the differences between verbal and non-verbal communication? Is there a "universal grammar"? How diverse and different are the languages of the world? How much does "language endangerment" and language extinction around the world affect global cultural diversity? Should every country have one "official" language? Are standard languages preferable to regional dialects? In short, this class is about everything you always wanted to know about language, and maybe a few things you never even thought to ask.

Co-taught by Tony Woodbury and Pattie Epps

How complex is a given language? Linguists have fielded the question for decades, and in recent years have brought it under closer scrutiny. In this graduate-level seminar, we consider how linguistic complexity may be measured and defined, and how the comparison of complexity across languages and linguistic domains may inform our understanding of human language and cognition more generally. We explore the wide range of linguistic categories, domains, and processes over which complexity may be evaluated; these relate to form (e.g., phonological inventories, morphological templates),  meaning (e.g. multiple exponence, polysemy and synonymy), and form-meaning mapping (e.g., irregularity in inflectional morphology, argument structure, complementation, or elaboration of lexical sets). They also include grammatical categories (such as person, number, tense, and evidentiality), outcomes of language change (e.g. grammaticalization chains), and processes of acquisition. To what extent does complexity in these different areas vary from language to language? And does complexity in particular areas tend to be complementary within a given language? In phonology, for example, does a simpler segmental inventory imply a more complex prosodic domain? Similarly, for a given structure or category, does relative economy of form (i.e. fewer words or morphemes) imply greater structural complexity, and/or more challenges for cognitive processing? Does complexity across domains tend to average out within a given language, such that all languages are of equivalent overall complexity, or are some languages notably more complex than others? Finally, where complexity in particular domains exists, can we identify correlations with social structures (e.g. population size, subsistence pattern), language contact (including creole status), or other non-linguistic factors, and now might these inform our understanding of linguistic diversity?

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

This course will introduce you to linguistics, the scientific study of language. How are human languages structured? Do humans have an innate capacity for language? How do children learn language? How is adult language learning different? How did the languages of the world evolve? What are the differences between verbal and non-verbal communication? Is there a "universal grammar"? How diverse and different are the languages of the world? How much does "language endangerment" and language extinction around the world affect global cultural diversity? Should every country have one "official" language? Are standard languages preferable to regional dialects? In short, this class is about everything you always wanted to know about language, and maybe a few things you never even thought to ask.

This course will cover advanced topics in the documentation of Chatino, an indigenous language of Mexico. Students must have prior documentary linguistic field experience in Chatino communities. The class will be conducted in part as a workshop for grammar-writing, because it is anticipated that several students will be in the process of writing grammars of different Chatino varieties. It will also serve as a training course for all course members  in several Chatino varieties, including those of Zenzontepec, Tataltepec, Teotepec, Tataltepec, and Quiahije, as well as in emergent sign systems  in Chatino communities.

Prerequisites

Graduate standing, consent of the instructor, and prior documentary linguistic field experience in Chatino communities.

Grading

Assignments and presentations (50%); final written paper that may serve as a portion of a grammar or other descriptive work on a Chatino spoken or signed variety.

This course shows you how to document a language by interacting with a person who speaks it natively. Linguistic documentation is an ever more urgent necessity. It is estimated that as many as 80% of the world's 6500 or so languages will be extinct by the year 2100. Most of these are poorly documented or else undocumented. This work is crucial for linguistics. At present our theories still perform poorly, or else are vague or silent, when asked to make predictions about new languages. They are likely to do better once informed by more of the human languages that have actually evolved over history. This work is also important for a wider spectrum of people. The maintenance of an ancestral language is a heartfelt issue in many communities under pressure (of one kind or another) to abandon it. While linguists cannot "save" endangered languages-only individual speakers and communities can do that-our experience as educators, documenters, archivists, lexicographers, grammarians, and sociolinguists help. The preservation of worldwide linguistic diversity is often linked to the preservation of cultural and intellectual diversity because language and speaking are emblems of cultural identity, and because culturally significant linguistic practices (including verbal art) often depend on lexical and grammatical details of the original language. We will learn about documentation by documenting as much as we can of one particular language through consultation with a native speaker-consultant. I will find someone whose language is little studied and beyond my own personal experience. Our consultant will be available for in-class and small-group consultation each week. Our work will be aimed toward the production of a (very!) preliminary lexicon, grammar, and set of texts, which we will present to our consultant at the end of the class.

Grading Policy:  Assignments (80%), Class Participation (20%)

Prerequisite: MUST be second year Linguistics graduate student or equivalent

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

This course will introduce you to linguistics, the scientific study of language. How are human languages structured? Do humans have an innate capacity for language? How do children learn language? How is adult language learning different? How did the languages of the world evolve? What are the differences between verbal and non-verbal communication? Is there a "universal grammar"? How diverse and different are the languages of the world? How much does "language endangerment" and language extinction around the world affect global cultural diversity? Should every country have one "official" language? Are standard languages preferable to regional dialects? In short, this class is about everything you always wanted to know about language, and maybe a few things you never even thought to ask.

Lin 393: Poetics, music, and verbal art in language documentation

This class deals with poetics, music, and verbal art from a linguistic point of view and in the context of language documentation. The speech types involved typically include punning, joking, play languages, proverbs, riddles, verbal dueling, narrative, myth, song, poetry, and ritual and theatrical performance; they employ such formal features as parallelism, rhyme, alliteration, meter, prosodic distortion, and versification; and they draw on such literary tropes as iconicity, imagery, metaphor, metonymy, and quotation.  The view is taken that these elements and structures of artful or special language production are characteristic of all speech, including even conversation and expository prose; and that their study in heightened, artistic or playful contexts provides a grounding framework for any linguistic or anthropological approach to both form and content in naturally-occurring speech activity. For linguistics, such a framework raises the crucial issue of the limits of grammatical knowledge and competence, as against a more general competence for poetics and discourse. Have our grammatical theories attempted to account for elements more properly belonging to poetics, such as parallelism in gapping and respectively constructions;  meter/versification in the postlexical ‘prosodic hierarchy’; or imagistic tropes in reduplicative and echo forms?  And can we do better by accounting for these phenomena alongside related poetic phenomena?  For anthropology and the study of speech activity as social behavior, this approach offers a framework within which to organize the formal structures discovered in empirical investigations, running a gamut from the unconscious poetic organization found in natural conversation (e.g., turn-taking systems) to the highly conscious poetic organization of a Shakespearian sonnet, or of a disguised speech game, or of various musical genres.More broadly, the topic is timely as ever-larger naturalistic corpora of linguistic and musical performance are being assembled, especially with an eye toward documenting and preserving endangered languages and language use. This makes it especially crucial that we develop and extend the tools for analyzing these materials, for understanding and appreciating them, and for conveying what we have learned to other scholars, to speaker and heritage communities, and to a wider public.Although the disciplinary focus is linguistics, I am not assuming a background in linguistics and I am hoping that class members will come from other disciplines, including especially ethnomusicology and anthropology. The only prerequisite is a willingness to work on and eventually present interesting recorded material to the class for discussion and analysis.The class will have an analytic, empirical orientation.  Apart from discussions of weekly readings, classes will concentrate on the analysis of oral, videotaped, and written materials provided at first by the instructor but later by students, from their own research.  Issues of transcription, written representation, and translation will be addressed.  The approach will be cross-cultural and ethnographic in orientation.  

RequirementsHomework (30%), Presentations (30%), Final paper (40%)

Prerequisites: Students should consult with the instructors before registering for the course.  Students are expected bring to bear on classwork a background in either Linguistics, Music or Ethnomusicology, or Anthropology (any one of these will do!)

TextbookNone (articles and resources on Blackboard)

Prerequisite: LIN 344K Phonetics: Production/Perception of Speech Sounds

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 (50%), two in-class examinations (40%), and class participation (10%).

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

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

This course will introduce you to linguistics, the scientific study of language. How are human languages structured? Do humans have an innate capacity for language? How do children learn language? How is adult language learning different? How did the languages of the world evolve? What are the differences between verbal and non-verbal communication? Is there a "universal grammar"? How diverse and different are the languages of the world? How much does "language endangerment" and language extinction around the world affect global cultural diversity? Should every country have one "official" language? Are standard languages preferable to regional dialects? In short, this class is about everything you always wanted to know about language, and maybe a few things you never even thought to ask!

This course shows you how to document a language by interacting with a person who speaks it natively. Linguistic documentation is an ever more urgent necessity. It is estimated that as many as 80% of the world's 6500 or so languages will be extinct by the year 2100. Most of these are poorly documented or else undocumented. This work is crucial for linguistics. At present our theories still perform poorly, or else are vague or silent, when asked to make predictions about new languages. They are likely to do better once informed by more of the human languages that have actually evolved over history. This work is also important for a wider spectrum of people. The maintenance of an ancestral language is a heartfelt issue in many communities under pressure (of one kind or another) to abandon it. While linguists cannot "save" endangered languages-only individual speakers and communities can do that-our experience as educators, documenters, archivists, lexicographers, grammarians, and sociolinguists help. The preservation of worldwide linguistic diversity is often linked to the preservation of cultural and intellectual diversity because language and speaking are emblems of cultural identity, and because culturally significant linguistic practices (including verbal art) often depend on lexical and grammatical details of the original language. We will learn about documentation by documenting as much as we can of one particular language through consultation with a native speaker-consultant. I will find someone whose language is little studied and beyond my own personal experience. Our consultant will be available for in-class and small-group consultation each week. Our work will be aimed toward the production of a (very!) preliminary lexicon, grammar, and set of texts, which we will present to our consultant at the end of the class.
Grading Policy

Assignments (80%), Class Participation (20%)

This course introduces you to the study of human language: how human languages are structured, how they function in society, how language is acquired by both children and adults, how the languages of the world evolved, how the world's languages are both different and similar, how language ties in with human biology and culture, and how linguistic diversity and multilingualism are factors in politics and society. In short, everything you always wanted to know about language, and maybe a few things you never even thought to ask!

Communication

Office hours. You are welcome to visit me, Vijay, or Niamh during our office hours, which are indicated at the top of the page. You are also encouraged to e-mail us at any time. 

Whenever you communicate with us by e-mail, please include “306” in the Subject header. It will ensure we keep track! If you e-mail us via Blackboard, this will happen automatically.

Announcements and correspondence about the class will be made by e-mail. It is your responsibility to receive them, so… (a) Be sure UT has your current e-mail address; (b) Check your e-mail; and (c) Don’t let your mailbox overflow!

Textbook

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, and Nina Hyams, Introduction to Language, 8th edition. Publisher: Thomson-Heinle. ISBN 1-4130-1773-8. [Be sure to get the 8th edition.]

Blackboard

Keep a close eye on Blackboard: https://courses.utexas.edu/ I will post handouts in the “Course Documents” section at least 24 hours or more before the class in which I use them; it’s up to you to download what’s there and bring it with you to class. 

This syllabus is in the “Syllabus” section. There are also some useful web resources in the “External Links” section.

Also, one request: Please do not use the Blackboard e-mail system for mass e-mailings, of any kind, to your classmates!

Grading

There will be three scheduled in-class examinations. For your final grade, the first two in-class exams count 25% each; the third in-class exam counts 20%; unscheduled pop quizzes will count 10%, and homework counts the remaining 20%. +/- grades will be assigned for the final grade.

Homework

This is a homework-intensive course. Homework is assigned almost every week. It must be turned in at the beginning of the class session when it’s due. The assignment and due date--normally each Friday--is indicated on the syllabus.

No homework will be accepted by e-mail; it must be submitted on paper.

Don’t miss a homework! And don’t fail to do ALL THE PROBLEMS! A poorly done homework assignment is better than none. If turned in complete, the homeworks will be graded 8 (below average), 9 (average), or 10 (above average); but 0 if not done. So please, do it!

Pop quizzes

I will give frequent, very short pop quizzes in class. They will be closed-book unless I indicate otherwise. They may occur at any point during the class. Always have a blank sheet of paper available for pop quizzes. And always come to class!

Attendance

Attendance is mandatory. If you are ill, or are participating on a UT sports team, or have a religious holiday, you need to (a) let me or Vijay or Niamh know by e-mail BEFOREHAND; and then (b) Document your absence (if you are unsure how to handle documentation, consult us). Only if you do both these things can your absence be considered an excused absence.

No homework will be accepted late and no make-up exams will be given, except in the case of an excused absence. There will be no make-up for pop quizzes. A missed pop quiz gets a grade of zero, except if you had an excused absence that day, in which case it simply won't count.

Students with disabilities

I am available to discuss any academic accommodations for disabilities you may need. For such accommodations to be made, you must get authorization from the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, Services for Students with Disabilities: call 512-471-6259 or visit http://www.utexas.edu/diversity/ddce/ssd/.

Classroom participation

Please be 100% present for class. That mean not...

• Whispering/talking/giggling with each other
• Doing things with your phone (letting it ring; texting; games...)
• Doing things with your laptop aside from taking notes and looking at class material (e-mailing, IM-ing, Skyping, finishing your chemistry, playing solitaire...)
• Coming to class late; leaving class early
• Sleeping; snoring; achieving meditative states...

Academic integrity

You can discuss homework assignments with each other, but do all your own work. We do not want to find two homeworks that are similar in ways that suggest copying. Don’t share information during tests or pop quizzes. Students who violate University rules on scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of failure in the course and/or dismissal from the University. For more info please visit the Student Judicial Services website at http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs/.

For detailed Course Schedule, download attachment.

Course Description

This course will cover advanced topics in the documentation of Chatino, an indigenous language of Mexico. Students must have prior experience documenting Chatino in the field. Students will archive Chatino natural texts and linguistic data from the variety or varieties they have worked on, produce transcriptions, translations into Spanish or English, and grammatical analyses. We will also review and extend, for all Chatino varieties under consideration, current efforts toward: (a) Speaker training at all levels; (b) Understanding and representing phonological, grammatical and lexical systems; (c) The comparative study of segmental phonology, tonal phonology, and inflectional morphology; (d) Thematic study of natural discourse materials.

Prerequisites

Graduate standing, consent of the instructor, and prior experience documenting Chatino in the field.

Grading

Assignments and presentations (40%), final submissions of archivable documentary data and metadata (40%); Writings for the “Preface” to the (digital) collection of materials arising from the Chatino Language Documentation Project (20%)

This course will introduce you to linguistics, the scientific study of language. How are human languages structured? Do humans have an innate capacity for language? How do children learn language? How is adult language learning different? How did the languages of the world evolve? What are the differences between verbal and non-verbal communication? Is there a "universal grammar"? How diverse and different are the languages of the world? How much does "language endangerment" and language extinction around the world affect global cultural diversity? Should every country have one "official" language? Are standard languages preferable to regional dialects? In short, this class is about everything you always wanted to know about language, and maybe a few things you never even thought to ask.

This course shows you how to document a language by interacting with a person who speaks it natively. Linguistic documentation is an ever more urgent necessity. It is estimated that as many as 80% of the world's 6500 or so languages will be extinct by the year 2100. Most of these are poorly documented or else undocumented. This work is crucial for linguistics. At present our theories still perform poorly, or else are vague or silent, when asked to make predictions about new languages. They are likely to do better once informed by more of the human languages that have actually evolved over history. This work is also important for a wider spectrum of people. The maintenance of an ancestral language is a heartfelt issue in many communities under pressure (of one kind or another) to abandon it. While linguists cannot "save" endangered languages-only individual speakers and communities can do that-our experience as educators, documenters, archivists, lexicographers, grammarians, and sociolinguists help. The preservation of worldwide linguistic diversity is often linked to the preservation of cultural and intellectual diversity because language and speaking are emblems of cultural identity, and because culturally significant linguistic practices (including verbal art) often depend on lexical and grammatical details of the original language. We will learn about documentation by documenting as much as we can of one particular language through consultation with a native speaker-consultant. I will find someone whose language is little studied and beyond my own personal experience. Our consultant will be available for in-class and small-group consultation each week. Our work will be aimed toward the production of a (very!) preliminary lexicon, grammar, and set of texts, which we will present to our consultant at the end of the class.

Grading Policy:  Assignments (80%), Class Participation (20%)

Prerequisite: MUST be second year Linguistics graduate student or equivalent

We will survey the syntax of English, and some issues in the semanticinterpretation of English, with the two goals of (i) understanding thestructure of English syntax and (ii) acquiring the basic tools of syntacticanalysis, which can be applied to any language.

Required text:  C. L. Baker, English Syntax.

This course will introduce you to linguistics, the scientific study of language. How are human languages structured? Do humans have an innate capacity for language? How do children learn language? How is adult language learning different? How did the languages of the world evolve? What are the differences between verbal and non-verbal communication? Is there a "universal grammar"? How diverse and different are the languages of the world? How much does "language endangerment" and language extinction around the world affect global cultural diversity? Should every country have one "official" language? Are standard languages preferable to regional dialects? In short, this class is about everything you always wanted to know about language, and maybe a few things you never even thought to ask.

This course shows you how to document a language by interacting with a person who speaks it natively. Linguistic documentation is an ever more urgent necessity. It is estimated that as many as 80% of the world's 6500 or so languages will be extinct by the year 2100. Most of these are poorly documented or else undocumented. This work is crucial for linguistics. At present our theories still perform poorly, or else are vague or silent, when asked to make predictions about new languages. They are likely to do better once informed by more of the human languages that have actually evolved over history. This work is also important for a wider spectrum of people. The maintenance of an ancestral language is a heartfelt issue in many communities under pressure (of one kind or another) to abandon it. While linguists cannot "save" endangered languages-only individual speakers and communities can do that-our experience as educators, documenters, archivists, lexicographers, grammarians, and sociolinguists help. The preservation of worldwide linguistic diversity is often linked to the preservation of cultural and intellectual diversity because language and speaking are emblems of cultural identity, and because culturally significant linguistic practices (including verbal art) often depend on lexical and grammatical details of the original language. We will learn about documentation by documenting as much as we can of one particular language through consultation with a native speaker-consultant. I will find someone whose language is little studied and beyond my own personal experience. Our consultant will be available for in-class and small-group consultation each week. Our work will be aimed toward the production of a (very!) preliminary lexicon, grammar, and set of texts, which we will present to our consultant at the end of the class.

Grading Policy:  Assignments (80%), Class Participation (20%)

Prerequisite: MUST be second year Linguistics graduate student or equivalent

This course will introduce you to linguistics, the scientific study of language. How are human languages structured? Do humans have an innate capacity for language? How do children learn language? How is adult language learning different? How did the languages of the world evolve? What are the differences between verbal and non-verbal communication? Is there a "universal grammar"? How diverse and different are the languages of the world? How much does "language endangerment" and language extinction around the world affect global cultural diversity? Should every country have one "official" language? Are standard languages preferable to regional dialects? In short, this class is about everything you always wanted to know about language, and maybe a few things you never even thought to ask.

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.

Teaching under supervision of the course instructor; weekly group meetings with instructor, individual consultations, and reports throughout the teaching period.

This course shows you how to document a language by interacting with a person who speaks it natively. Linguistic documentation is an ever more urgent necessity. It is estimated that as many as 80% of the world's 6500 or so languages will be extinct by the year 2100. Most of these are poorly documented or else undocumented. This work is crucial for linguistics. At present our theories still perform poorly, or else are vague or silent, when asked to make predictions about new languages. They are likely to do better once informed by more of the human languages that have actually evolved over history. This work is also important for a wider spectrum of people. The maintenance of an ancestral language is a heartfelt issue in many communities under pressure (of one kind or another) to abandon it. While linguists cannot "save" endangered languages-only individual speakers and communities can do that-our experience as educators, documenters, archivists, lexicographers, grammarians, and sociolinguists help. The preservation of worldwide linguistic diversity is often linked to the preservation of cultural and intellectual diversity because language and speaking are emblems of cultural identity, and because culturally significant linguistic practices (including verbal art) often depend on lexical and grammatical details of the original language. We will learn about documentation by documenting as much as we can of one particular language through consultation with a native speaker-consultant. I will find someone whose language is little studied and beyond my own personal experience. Our consultant will be available for in-class and small-group consultation each week. Our work will be aimed toward the production of a (very!) preliminary lexicon, grammar, and set of texts, which we will present to our consultant at the end of the class.

Grading Policy:  Assignments (80%), Class Participation (20%)

Prerequisite: MUST be second year Linguistics graduate student or equivalent

This course will introduce you to linguistics, the scientific study of language. How are human languages structured? Do humans have an innate capacity for language? How do children learn language? How is adult language learning different? How did the languages of the world evolve? What are the differences between verbal and non-verbal communication? Is there a "universal grammar"? How diverse and different are the languages of the world? How much does "language endangerment" and language extinction around the world affect global cultural diversity? Should every country have one "official" language? Are standard languages preferable to regional dialects? In short, this class is about everything you always wanted to know about language, and maybe a few things you never even thought to ask.

Teaching under supervision of the course instructor; weekly group meetings with instructor, individual consultations, and reports throughout the teaching period.

This course will introduce you to linguistics, the scientific study of language. How are human languages structured? Do humans have an innate capacity for language? How do children learn language? How is adult language learning different? How did the languages of the world evolve? What are the differences between verbal and non-verbal communication? Is there a "universal grammar"? How diverse and different are the languages of the world? How much does "language endangerment" and language extinction around the world affect global cultural diversity? Should every country have one "official" language? Are standard languages preferable to regional dialects? In short, this class is about everything you always wanted to know about language, and maybe a few things you never even thought to ask.

Students involved in such projects can (if they wish) receive class credit for LIN 357, an upper division elective course.  LIN 357 is offered on a pass/fail basis only.  If you register for LIN 357, you will be expected to devote 9-10 hours per week to the research project.  Taking LIN 357 will give you an opportunity to work closely with faculty and/or advanced doctoral students.

This course shows you how to document a language by interacting with a person who speaks it natively. Linguistic documentation is an ever more urgent necessity. It is estimated that as many as 80% of the world's 6500 or so languages will be extinct by the year 2100. Most of these are poorly documented or else undocumented. This work is crucial for linguistics. At present our theories still perform poorly, or else are vague or silent, when asked to make predictions about new languages. They are likely to do better once informed by more of the human languages that have actually evolved over history. This work is also important for a wider spectrum of people. The maintenance of an ancestral language is a heartfelt issue in many communities under pressure (of one kind or another) to abandon it. While linguists cannot "save" endangered languages-only individual speakers and communities can do that-our experience as educators, documenters, archivists, lexicographers, grammarians, and sociolinguists help. The preservation of worldwide linguistic diversity is often linked to the preservation of cultural and intellectual diversity because language and speaking are emblems of cultural identity, and because culturally significant linguistic practices (including verbal art) often depend on lexical and grammatical details of the original language. We will learn about documentation by documenting as much as we can of one particular language through consultation with a native speaker-consultant. I will find someone whose language is little studied and beyond my own personal experience. Our consultant will be available for in-class and small-group consultation each week. Our work will be aimed toward the production of a (very!) preliminary lexicon, grammar, and set of texts, which we will present to our consultant at the end of the class.

Grading Policy:  Assignments (80%), Class Participation (20%)

Prerequisite: MUST be second year Linguistics graduate student or equivalent

Hour(s) to be arranged. Offered on credit/no credit basis only. Prerequisite: For 698A, graduate standing in linguistics and consent of the graduate adviser.

This course will introduce you to linguistics, the scientific study of language. How are human languages structured? Do humans have an innate capacity for language? How do children learn language? How is adult language learning different? How did the languages of the world evolve? What are the differences between verbal and non-verbal communication? Is there a "universal grammar"? How diverse and different are the languages of the world? How much does "language endangerment" and language extinction around the world affect global cultural diversity? Should every country have one "official" language? Are standard languages preferable to regional dialects? In short, this class is about everything you always wanted to know about language, and maybe a few things you never even thought to ask.

Supervised individual reading for one semester, followed by research andwriting to produce a substantial paper.

Prerequisite: For 679HA, admission to the Linguistics Honors Program; for 679HB, Linguistics 679HA.

Hour(s) to be arranged. May be repeated for credit.

Teaching under supervision of the course instructor; weekly group meetings with instructor, individual consultations, and reports throughout the teaching period.

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 course shows you how to document a language by interacting with a person who speaks it natively. Linguistic documentation is an ever more urgent necessity. It is estimated that as many as 80% of the world's 6500 or so languages will be extinct by the year 2100. Most of these are poorly documented or else undocumented. This work is crucial for linguistics. At present our theories still perform poorly, or else are vague or silent, when asked to make predictions about new languages. They are likely to do better once informed by more of the human languages that have actually evolved over history. This work is also important for a wider spectrum of people. The maintenance of an ancestral language is a heartfelt issue in many communities under pressure (of one kind or another) to abandon it. While linguists cannot "save" endangered languages-only individual speakers and communities can do that-our experience as educators, documenters, archivists, lexicographers, grammarians, and sociolinguists help. The preservation of worldwide linguistic diversity is often linked to the preservation of cultural and intellectual diversity because language and speaking are emblems of cultural identity, and because culturally significant linguistic practices (including verbal art) often depend on lexical and grammatical details of the original language. We will learn about documentation by documenting as much as we can of one particular language through consultation with a native speaker-consultant. I will find someone whose language is little studied and beyond my own personal experience. Our consultant will be available for in-class and small-group consultation each week. Our work will be aimed toward the production of a (very!) preliminary lexicon, grammar, and set of texts, which we will present to our consultant at the end of the class.

Grading Policy:  Assignments (80%), Class Participation (20%)

Prerequisite: MUST be second year Linguistics graduate student or equivalent

This course will introduce you to linguistics, the scientific study of language. How are human languages structured? Do humans have an innate capacity for language? How do children learn language? How is adult language learning different? How did the languages of the world evolve? What are the differences between verbal and non-verbal communication? Is there a "universal grammar"? How diverse and different are the languages of the world? How much does "language endangerment" and language extinction around the world affect global cultural diversity? Should every country have one "official" language? Are standard languages preferable to regional dialects? In short, this class is about everything you always wanted to know about language, and maybe a few things you never even thought to ask.

Teaching under supervision of the course instructor; weekly group meetings with instructor, individual consultations, and reports throughout the teaching period.

This course will introduce you to linguistics, the scientific study of language. How are human languages structured? Do humans have an innate capacity for language? How do children learn language? How is adult language learning different? How did the languages of the world evolve? What are the differences between verbal and non-verbal communication? Is there a "universal grammar"? How diverse and different are the languages of the world? How much does "language endangerment" and language extinction around the world affect global cultural diversity? Should every country have one "official" language? Are standard languages preferable to regional dialects? In short, this class is about everything you always wanted to know about language, and maybe a few things you never even thought to ask.

This course shows you how to document a language by interacting with a person who speaks it natively. Linguistic documentation is an ever more urgent necessity. It is estimated that as many as 80% of the world's 6500 or so languages will be extinct by the year 2100. Most of these are poorly documented or else undocumented. This work is crucial for linguistics. At present our theories still perform poorly, or else are vague or silent, when asked to make predictions about new languages. They are likely to do better once informed by more of the human languages that have actually evolved over history. This work is also important for a wider spectrum of people. The maintenance of an ancestral language is a heartfelt issue in many communities under pressure (of one kind or another) to abandon it. While linguists cannot "save" endangered languages-only individual speakers and communities can do that-our experience as educators, documenters, archivists, lexicographers, grammarians, and sociolinguists help. The preservation of worldwide linguistic diversity is often linked to the preservation of cultural and intellectual diversity because language and speaking are emblems of cultural identity, and because culturally significant linguistic practices (including verbal art) often depend on lexical and grammatical details of the original language. We will learn about documentation by documenting as much as we can of one particular language through consultation with a native speaker-consultant. I will find someone whose language is little studied and beyond my own personal experience. Our consultant will be available for in-class and small-group consultation each week. Our work will be aimed toward the production of a (very!) preliminary lexicon, grammar, and set of texts, which we will present to our consultant at the end of the class.

Grading Policy:  Assignments (80%), Class Participation (20%)

Prerequisite: MUST be second year Linguistics graduate student or equivalent