Spring 2024 Linguistics Courses

LING 150 – Introduction to the Study of Language
On Campus. Two sections.
• TR 8:00-9:15AM
• TR 12:30-1:45PM
Instructor: Carrie Pichan
You use language all the time, but do you know about the structures that make up language? In this course, you will learn how we produce and organize sounds, build words, and understand the difference between “time flies like an arrow” and “fruit flies like a banana.” Here you’ll make sense of why people have accents, what teachers should know about language, and why good AI speech recognition is so darn hard to achieve.
Individual and Society

LING 160 – Language and Society
Online asynchronous. Two sections.
Instructor: Dr. Jill Hallett
Does everyone agree on what “a Karen” does? Can a cartoon penguin be racist? What’s with all the pronouns? Is punctuation passive-aggressive? This course introduces students to language as it socially constructs place, status, gender, ethnicity, and other aspects of identity through intimate conversations all the way to national language policies. Bring your lived experiences and learn to process them through current sociolinguistic lenses.
Individual and Society & US Society

LING 210 – Introduction to Natural Language Syntax
On Campus. TR 2:00-3:15PM
Instructor: Dr. Shane Ebert
Syntactic analysis is crucial for linguistic data processing and  building linguistic data structure. This course gives you introduction to the hidden nature of even simple sentences using a scientific approach to data analysis. We will also make connections to other areas of linguistics and human cognition more generally, and we will touch on real world applications of syntactic analysis.
• Prerequisite(s): LING 150; or consent of the instructor.

LING 220 – Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology 
On Campus. TR 11:00AM-12:15PM
Instructor: Carrie Pichan
What sounds exist in the world’s languages? What are the mechanics behind speech production and perception? How can we analyze human speech and categorize sounds to understand underlying patterns? How do we acquire the sounds of our languages, whether as children or later in life? What do the sound systems of bilinguals look like, and why? In this course, we’ll explore these key questions about the sounds of human language and more.
• Prerequisite(s): LING 150; or consent of the instructor.

LING 230 – Semantics, Pragmatics, and Discourse
On Campus. MW 3:00-4:15
Instructor: Dr. David Miller
What is meaning? How is meaning communicated? How does meaning change in context? How does meaning change according to genre, style and modes of communication? Does new technology create new meaning? How do chatbots understand human language? Should chatbots be made polite? This course will explore these questions and more. We will study a range of linguistic approaches to meaning and look at real world examples.
• Prerequisite(s): LING 150; or consent of the instructor.

LING 260 – Language Acquisition, Language Contact and Bilingualism
On Campus. TR 9:30-10:45AM
Instructor: Dr. Liliana Sánchez
Have you ever wondered why human language acquisition is so complex? Some of us are multilingual, but have different proficiency levels in each  language. Some of us understand the main ideas in a language, but we cannot produce them with the same ease. In some cases, we are in contact with speakers of languages other than English, but we do not interact with them in those languages. In other cases, we speak languages other than English, especially at home, but our interactions in those languages diminish as we grow up. In this course, we will look at the social and cognitive aspects involved in child and adult language acquisition with particular emphasis on heritage languages and the complexities of language contact situations within the framework of language as a human right.
Individual and Society & US Society
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LING 300 – Introduction to Computational Linguistics*
On Campus. TR 12:30-1:45PM
Instructor: Dr. Gyu-Ho Shin
This course explores how computers process data for language research, specifically focusing on how to apply NLP techniques to language-data-related tasks using Python.
• Prerequisite(s): LING 150; or consent of the instructor.
* LING300 is a topics course – its general title is Seminar in Linguistic Analysis. Students can take LING 300 twice up to 6 credits when the topics are different.
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LING 310 – Language and Discrimination
On Campus. TR 11:00AM-12:15PM
Instructor: Dr. Jill Hallett

Judgments of language are judgments of speakers. This course examines how language is used to discriminate, from the middle school teacher punishing her students for speaking Navajo to alt-right “dog-whistles” to the public persecution of the main witness in the Trayvon Martin murder trial. We’ll study academic and legal texts, news articles, policies, blogs, images, and videos, unpacking instances of linguistic discrimination. Students will engage in authentic work to critique and interrupt discriminatory language practices we encounter every day.

• Prerequisite(s): LING 150; or consent of the instructor. Recommended background: LING 160 Language and Society.

LING/LCSL 459 – Basic Statistics for Language Research**
On Campus. TR 11:00AM-12:15PM
Instructor: Dr. Gyu-Ho Shin
This course introduces basic statistical techniques and procedures for quantitative research in language science working with R under the RStudio environment.
• Prerequisite(s): LING 150; or consent of the instructor.
* *LING459 is a topics course – its general title is Topics in Linguistics. Students can take LING 459 twice up to 6 credits when the topics are different.
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