English Linguistics - Final Project/Paper and Presentation Information James Madison University

GUIDELINES:

Length of written report -- no less than 9 full pages (not counting bibliography), 10-11 average, a bit longer okay.

Content of written report -- Your work should build on something you've learned in this course, involving additional reading of secondary sources and, in most cases, some direct use of language data. Reports should be organized, well-argued and clearly written. For example, be very clear about your linguistic context, your thesis, your methodology, your results, and your conclusions. Reports based largely on secondary research must still involve some analysis and critical thinking; form a hypothesis/point of view and argue for it in some depth. Background context and any other ideas borrowed from other sources must be cited properly and included in a bibliography. (You can use any well-known citation style of your choice as long as you are consistent.)

Additional Content Tips -- Use references that are as up-to-date as possible. Don't use the web as a reliable source unless you can provide strong evidence for me in advance that the particular webpage source you want to use is authoritative for the information you want to use. (Many sources on the web are not authorities on the topic they discuss. Even when an individual writes something in the style of a scholarly article, this is most definitely not evidence that his/her work has been subject to scholarly scrutiny.) Plan out the stages of your research. Determine what resources you need and see me early on if you don't know how to get them. IN GENERAL, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COME TO ME WITH QUESTIONS.

SOME SAMPLE SUBJECT AREAS THAT YOU MIGHT CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING A THESIS: (These subjects are meant to appeal to a variety of different interests and academic backgrounds; the ones that sound hard to you may be the right ones for someone else. :-))

• A Study of how males and females do/do not differ in some aspect of language use.
• Using linguistic features to analyse (one or some) of the works of your favorite author/poet. (AKA Linguistic Criticism)
• Looking at regional or social differences in word choice.
• Evaluating a teaching method in ESL based on linguistic principles or comparing comprehension of a particular detail of English syntax by non-native speakers at two or more different levels of overall proficiency.
• Comparing the way native English speakers talk to other native speakers and the way they talk to non-native speakers.
• Comparing non-native speaker comprehension of spoken English in a well defined context vs. without context, with an analysis of how these results do or do not reflect what has been said about non-native phonological processes.
• Characteristics of language in some very specific register (recipes, email, Pats and Darts, etc.)
• Linguistic features of some board game or other game that has a language focus (Mad Gab, Boggle (?), etc.)
• Linguistic features of humor (perhaps the humor of a specific comedian or a specific comedy)
• A study of the function of discourse markers like "um" and "uh". Do they help or hurt listener comprehension? How many "ums" do we use in various sitations and is there a pattern to their use?
• The subtle effect of word connotations or uncertain presuppositions on hearer/reader attitudes and beliefs -- perhaps some sort of examination of a political or advertising context?
• A comparison of actual vs perceived syntactic or lexical ambiguity (ie. how aware are we of ambiguity?).
• A comparison of some pragmatic or sociolinguistic feature in English and another language or an examination of how/if the phonological, morphological or syntactic system of two different languages affects the nature of poetry in those languages.
• A test of the ability of children of a certain linguistic age to understand some linguistic construction.
• A comparison of the oral storytelling ability of children of two different linguistic ages.
• An evaluation of the communicative methods of some animal compared to humans, or of how humans perceive themselves to communicate with pets using language.
• A comparative study of different attempts to artificially create a universal human language.
• Implementation of a computer program that finds the possible antecedents of pronouns or that tracks topics.
• A test of whether a natural language interface is better or worse than some other interface (eg. graphical) for some specific task.
• Characterizing the specific differences in the language of a speech or language-impaired person.
• A study of the use of new compounds in everyday language. When do we do it and why?
• Contrast slang from different groups, from different decades or from different languages.

Consider the types of metonymy or metaphor commonly found in two different languages/cultures.

INFORMATION ON PRESENTATIONS:

Time has been set aside in the last week of class for everyone to give a brief presentation of the results of his/her individual research efforts. You should bring a visual or auditory aid (ie., a poster or some alternative such as a handouts, overhead slides, taped data samples, or whatever will work best for your subject) and plan to talk for 5 minutes. Let me know at least a week in advance if you require any equipment that is not already in our room.

IMPORTANT --The presentation is NOT optional (not doing the presentation or not adequately preparing for it lowers your paper grade by 10 points!) . To be acceptable, your presentation must show reasonable preparation and completion of research. A VERY polished, well-timed presentation can raise your paper grade by up to five points.) Presentation times will be assigned. You are expected to attend BOTH days, not just the day you're presenting, and missing the other day without permission can result in a reduction in your course participation grade of two full grade levels. Papers must be submitted by the last class meeting (Wednesday, Dec. 6).

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