James Madison University
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ENG418: English Linguistics James Madison University |
| Professor: EMAIL: Office: |
Dr. Sharon Cote cotesa@jmu.edu Keezell 209, Ext. 82510 |
Availability: | I am available during my office hours and by appointment. |
Description: Language is an essential part of who we are as human beings. It has been described as a biological imperative, as a communicative tool, and as an art. We all have very extensive and subtle language skills and, indeed, we all have opinions about what is good or bad language. Few of us, however, really understand what language is. This course is a broad survey of the theoretical, the historical, the psychological, and the sociocultural issues related to human language in general and English in particular. Objectives for this course
include the following: for students to become aware of how important language is to
understanding human cognition, behavior and society; for students to learn that knowing
the "structure" or grammar of a language requires much more than just knowing a set of rules
for good and bad sentences and to understand that the study of language is more than just the
study of grammar; for students to recognize some general types of variation in different human languages; for students to recognize syntax, semantics, phonetics, language acquisition, sociolinguistics, and other subfields of linguistics and to understand basic concepts and issues in these subfields; for students to gain some perpective both on how much has been learned about language and on how many more questions there still are to be answered; for students to be able to apply general linguistic concepts and vocabulary to particular examples and to related fields of research; and for students to have gained a novice ability to read additional linguistic sources and apply the information in these sources to language as they find it in the real world.
Required Materials: Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, and Nina Hyams (2003). An Introduction to
Language, Eighth Edition. Other readings may be distributed.
Work and Grading: Class Participation (5%), Assignments (20%), Midterm (25%), Research Project(s) (25%), Final Exam (25%).
All work must be turned in on time unless I give explicit you permission otherwise, and all graded work except for group assignments, if permitted, should be done independently.
You may skip one "ungraded" assignment without affecting your overall grade for assignments. (I
suggest you save this option for emergencies or sicknesses, but the choice is yours!) If an assignment is described as "ungraded", this means that you must
make an acceptable effort on all parts of the assignment, but you won't be penalized for incorrect answers.
A good participation grade requires regular advance reading of materials
to be covered, and overall preparation and willingness to ask and answer questions and
contribute to class discussions.
Of course, all your work for this course is subject to the JMU Honor Code.
If you have any questions about what constitutes plagiarism or about other aspects of the honor code,see me for clarification.
Make sure you know the information contained in this reminder from the Registrar's Office about course registration policies and deadlines:
Daily Schedule: (Note that this is a tentative schedule of what will be discussed
in each class period. Changes are possible. Check for revisions.) You should have readings
done before the first class date on which they will be discussed.
| Date | Topic | Text Readings |
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| 8/28 | The Animal that Talks - An introduction to the course | |
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8/30 |
Do Cats Do It? - Characterizing Human Language and Animal Communication |
Chapter 1 |
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9/4 |
Brain and Language |
Chapter 2 |
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9/6 |
Did they tell ghost stories around the first campfire? |
Chapter 2 |
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9/11 |
"Cheating at Scrabble" -- Intro. Morphology |
Chapter 3 |
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9/13 |
Hey, we need a word for that |
Chapter 3 |
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9/18 |
"Look Mom, I made a sentence!" - Intro. to Syntax |
Chapter 4 |
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9/20 |
That's one twisted tree ... - More Syntax and What if you're Not a Gardener? |
Chapter 4 |
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9/25 |
"Do You See What I Mean?" --Semantics |
Chapter 5 |
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9/27 |
Let the "truth" be told --Semantics |
Chapter 5 |
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10/2 |
Meanings within Meanings -- Pragmatics and Discourse |
Chapter 5 |
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10/4 |
"It was all out of context" and "I hereby have a million dollars" - More Pragmatics |
Chapter 5 |
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10/9 |
"Listen Up"-- Phonetics |
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10/11 |
"Sounds okay to me!" and "It's all in the tone" -- More Phonetics |
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10/16 |
catch-up and Review |
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10/18 |
MIDTERM |
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10/23 |
Midterm results + Mumbling and other skills - Phonology |
Chapter 7 |
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10/25 |
"Not another sound!" -- Phonology Conclusion |
Chapter 7 |
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10/30 |
"He said 'Mama'!" -- Language Acquisition |
Chapter 8 |
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11/1 |
"It's all Greek to me." -- Second Language Acquisition |
Chapter 8 |
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11/6 |
"You say PotAYto" - Sociolinguistics |
Chapter 10 |
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11/8 |
"Groovy, Man" and Tops and Bottoms - A bit more Sociolinguistics and a look at Language Processing |
Chapters 10 and 9 |
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11/13 |
"Are you real or are you a computer?" -- Processing by man and machine |
Chapter 9 |
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11/15 |
More Computational Linguistics and Project Discussions |
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11/20 |
Way Back When -- Historical Linguistics |
Chapter 11 |
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11/22 |
THANKSGIVING -- CLASS NO, TURKEY YES |
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11/27 |
More Historical Linguistics and "Would you put that in writing?" - Written Language |
Chapters 11 and 12 |
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11/29 |
Reading into it -- More on Written Language |
Chapter 12 |
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12/4 |
Presentation Day |
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12/6 |
More Presentations, if needed, plus Some Perspective [FINAL DATE TO TURN IN PROJECT PAPERS] |
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12/13 (WEDNESDAY - |
FINAL EXAM: 1:30-3:30, usual classroom |
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"The English language is the sea which receives tributaries from every region under heaven." Ralph Waldo Emerson
Look here for assignments:
ENG418, FALL 2006, © JMU