TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences
2010–11
Course handbook
for
Visiting and Exchange Students
Courses in Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, and Speech Science available to visiting and exchange students
This handbook is also available electronically from the CLCS website:
http://www.tcd.ie/slscs/clcs/visiting.php
A note on this handbook
This handbook lists and describes the CLCS courses that may be taken by visiting and exchange students. Please retain it for future reference.
The information provided in this handbook is accurate at the time of preparation. Any necessary revisions are notified to students via e-mail or by notices on the notice board outside the CLCS office (Arts Building, Room 4091). Please note that in the event of any conflict or inconsistency between the general regulations published in the Calendar of the University of Dublin and the information contained in the course handbook, the provisions contained in the Calendar will prevail.
Introduction
The courses that may be taken by visiting and exchange students fall into three categories:
(i) two courses specially designed for visiting and exchange students (The Applied Linguistics of English Language Teaching I and The Applied Linguistics of English Language Teaching II);
(ii) courses that form part of the B.A. Moderatorship in Computer Science, Linguistics and a Language;
(iii) courses that form part of the M.Phil. programmes in Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Speech and Language Processing, and English Language Teaching.
CLCS’s co-ordinator for visiting and exchange students is Christer Gobl (Arts Building, Room 4038, ). At the beginning of the academic year, in Freshers’ Week, he arranges to see all visiting and exchange students who wish to take CLCS courses (see notice on notice board outside Room 4091 in the Arts Building). Visiting and exchange students who arrive in Dublin at some other time in the academic year should make their own arrangements to see Dr. Gobl as soon as possible after their arrival.
Admission to CLCS courses depends on the availability of places and in some instances on the applicant’s academic background. Note also that some of the M.Phil. courses listed may not be available if they are undersubscribed.
Courses are taught for one term, two hours per week. Timetables are displayed on the notice board outside Room 4091.
All courses are assessed by exercises and/or term essays only. Visiting and exchange students to CLCS do not sit examinations. The grades awarded for exercises/term essays are automatically communicated to the student’s home university via the TCD International Office.
List of courses
Michaelmas Term
LI 1006 (5 ECTS) The Applied Linguistics of English Language TeachingI
LI 233A (5 ECTS) Language Learning
LI 237A (5 ECTS) Aspects of Written Language
LI 2034 (5 ECTS) Syntax and Semantics
LI 2036 (5 ECTS) Computational Morphology and Statistics
LI 4031 (5 ECTS) Speech Analysis and Synthesis
LI 7856 (10 ECTS) Describing Grammar
LI 7861 (10 ECTS) Language Variation and Change
LI 7864 (10 ECTS) Corpus Linguistics
LI 7865 (10 ECTS) History and Globalization of English
LI 7866 (10 ECTS) Bilingualism and the Maintenance of Irish
LI 7872 (10 ECTS) Formal Foundations of Linguistic Theories
LI 7874 (10 ECTS) Speech Production, Hearing and Perception
LI 7878 (10 ECTS) Describing English Grammar
Hilary Term
LI 1007 (5 ECTS) The Applied Linguistics of English Language TeachingII
LI 231A (5 ECTS) Aspects of Vocabulary
LI 234A (5 ECTS) Sociolinguistics
LI 4032 (5 ECTS) Computational Linguistics
LI 7808 (10 ECTS) Lexicology
LI 7857 (10 ECTS) Language Acquisition
LI 7860 (10 ECTS) Technology, Language and Communication
LI 7862 (10 ECTS) Linguistic Pragmatics
LI 7869 (10 ECTS) Describing Meaning
LI 7870 (10 ECTS) Advanced Syntactic Theory
LI 7873 (10 ECTS) Computational Theories of Grammar and Meaning
LI 7876 (10 ECTS) The English Sound System
LI 7877 (10 ECTS) The Pedagogical Grammar of English
Michaelmas Term
(i) Special course for visiting and exchange students
LI1006 (5 ECTS) The Applied Linguistics of English Language TeachingI (Stergiani Kostopoulou) is concerned with communicative approaches to language learning and teaching; English for Specific Purposes; theory and practice of learner needs analysis; different types of language teaching syllabuses; syllabus design; theoretical underpinnings of learner-centredness and learner autonomy; the use of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and the European Language Portfolio in foreign language pedagogy.
(ii) B.A. courses
LI233A (5 ECTS) Language Learning (David Singleton) presents research findings relative to various aspects of language learning and examines their practical implications. Although account is taken of first language acquisition, the main focus is on second language acquisition.
Textbook:
Littlewood, W., 1998: Foreign and Second Language Learning: Language Acquisition Research and its Implications for the Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
LI237A (5 ECTS) Aspects of Written Language (Breffni O’Rourke) is concerned with the study of written texts as communicative acts. It begins with an exploration of the criteria by which we may determine the cohesion and coherence of a text, and goes on to consider some of the central psychological and psycholinguistic issues in the comprehension and production of written texts. Finally, the development of written language and its relation to thought, society and culture are considered. There is no textbook: instead, students will be recommended selected readings for the different topics covered.
LI2034 (5 ECTS) Syntax and Semantics. This module is composed of two components: LI2034A Introduction to Formal Syntax (Jennifer Foster), which gives students a grounding in syntactic theory and some experience of syntactic analysis, and LI2034B Introduction to Formal Semantics (Carl Vogel) which introduces students to the application of logical (or truth-conditional) semantics to natural language.
LI2036 (5 ECTS) Computational Morphology and Statistics. This module is composed of two components:
(1) LI2036A Introduction to Computational Morphology (Elaine Uí Dhonnchadha) which introduces students to the theory of finite-state methods for NLP and their use in analysing and generating natural language morphologies and practical experience of using the Xerox Finite-State Tools to analyse and generate the morphology of English and other languages.
Textbook:
Beesley, K., & Karttunen, L., 2003: Finite state morphology. Stanford, CA : CSLI Publications.
Sproat, R., 1992: Morphology and Computation. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Major references:
Jurafsky, D. & Martin, J, 2000: Speech and Language Processing. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall
(2) LI2036B (Denise O’Leary) Introduction to Statistics for Linguistics, which is an introduction to the design and analysis of survey data and the analysis of data collected in experimental studies, through a hands-on, practical introduction to data analysis using SPSS.
LI4031 (5 ECTS) Speech Analysis and Synthesis (Christer Gobl) introduces students to a range of speech analysis and synthesis techniques. Some of the topics dealt with are DFT and LPC analysis, acoustic theory of speech production, inverse filtering and voice source model matching, voice quality description and modelling, text-to-speech conversion, speech generation based on formant, articulatory and concatenative synthesis.
Textbook:
Hayward, Katrina, (2000) Experimental Phonetics. Longman Linguistics Library.
(iii) M.Phil. courses
LI 7856 (10 ECTS) Describing Grammar (Brian Nolan)
Aims
The course’s main aims are (i) to introduce students to the ideas and principles of generative grammar; (ii) to familiarize students with one important current theoretical framework – Lexical Functional Grammar; (iii) to give students experience of the practical description of the grammatical structures of languages; and (iv), to familiarize students with the tasks of formulating and evaluating syntactic argumentation.
Working methods
The topics of the course are introduced in lectures and explored and developed in workshops and seminars. Exercises and discussion will focus on a range of languages in addition to English.
Syllabus
The course topics include the basic features of sentence structure: syntactic categories, constituency, dependency, agreement, the subordination and co-ordination of sentences. The course also covers relationships within sentences (word order, grammatical relations and case systems) and valency processes (for example, passives, causatives and applicatives). A major theme is the relationships between syntactic and lexical rules. The course includes exercises in the syntactic description of English and other languages.
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of the module, students should be able to:
· Demonstrate a knowledge of the basic theoretical framework of generative grammar (L1, L2, L4)
· Apply the tools of Lexical Functional Grammar to the description of simple sentences in English and one or more other languages (L1, L2, L4)
· Explain how competing syntactic analyses may be evaluated (L1, L2, L3, L4, L5)
· Analyse how syntactic rules and processes interface with other levels of linguistic knowledge, in particular with the semantics of verbal argument structure. (L1, L2, L3)
Assessment
Students write an assignment of 3-4,000 words developing themes introduced in the course and applying them to the syntactic description of one or more languages.
Suggested reading
Kroeger, P. R., 2004: Analyzing Syntax: a Lexical-Functional Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (textbook)
Payne, Thomas E. 2006: Exploring Language Structure: A Student's Guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (textbook)
Tallerman, Maggie. 2005. Understanding Syntax. Second edition. London: Hodder Arnold
Van Valin Jr., R. D., 2001: Introduction to Syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Van Valin Jr., R. D, 2005: Exploring the Syntax-Semantics Interface. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
LI 7861 (10 ECTS) Language Variation and Change
(Jeffrey Kallen)
Aims
This module has three main aims: (i) to examine the principles of language change, including both internally- and externally-motivated change, (ii) to understand language change in relation to linguistic variation, and (iii) to explore the insights arising from different methods in studying language variation. Assignments encourage students to gain first-hand experience in the observation of language variation.
Syllabus
Specific themes addressed in the module include:
· Linguistic structure and language variation
· Dialectology: models of language change and variation
· Real- and apparent-time indications of change
· Speaker variables: age, gender, social class, ethnicity
· Social networks and communities of practice
· Standardization as a social process
· Dialect convergence and divergence
· Language contact and language change
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of the module, students should be able to:
· Understand the relationships between linguistic theory and language variation
· Identify socially-significant variables within languages and to examine these in the light of hypotheses on historical change
· Critically discuss language standardization as a social process
· Critically discuss processes of language contact, creolisation, diffusion, and death
Assignment
Students write an assignment of 3,000 to 4,000 words that presents and analyses a problem in (a) internal and external factors in historical change, (b) conflicts between standard and 'non-standard' realizations of a sociolinguistic variable, or (c) the outcome of dialect or language contact in a particular setting. Direct observation will be encouraged for any of these essay topics.
Suggested readings
Chambers, J. K. and Peter Trudgill. 1998. Dialectology. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Chambers, J. K. et al. (eds.). 2002. The Handbook of Language Variation and Change. Oxford: Blackwell.
Labov, William. 1972. Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Milroy, Lesley and Matthew Gordon. 2003. Sociolinguistics: Method and Interpretation. Oxford: Blackwell.
LI 7864 (10 ECTS) Corpus Linguistics (Elaine Uí Dhonnchadha)
Aims
Corpus Linguistics is a methodology which touches on all aspects linguistics, both theoretical and applied. A corpus consists of a large body of language samples which is held electronically in text, audio or video form. Corpora can be used to provide evidence for linguistic research (in syntax, morphology, stylistics, pragmatics etc.), they can be used to generate authentic language teaching materials and language testing materials, and they are widely used in the generation and testing of natural language processing tools.
This course will introduce students to the principles of corpus design and annotation. Students will gain experience of using a variety of existing corpora as well as having the opportunity to create and automatically annotate their own corpus.
Syllabus
The module will cover:
· corpus design, and collection and preparation of corpus materials
· various levels of linguistic annotation, e.g. part-of-speech, phrase structure, phonetic, prosodic, gesture, etc.
· manual and automatic methods of annotation, and the evaluation of annotations
· practical work on various corpora using various corpus query tools
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of the module, students should be able to:
· Identify the benefits and limitations of using corpora in various linguistic domains.
· Use various types of corpora and corpus query tools
· Analyse requirements in order to formulate a corpus creation plan
· Examine the current annotation standards and tools and select/develop appropriate standards and annotation tools for a particular annotation task.
Assessment
Assessment for this module will consist of a written assignment (amounting to approximately 3-4,000 words) which elaborates on a specific aspect of the course or on an aspect of corpus linguistics which is of particular interest to the student
Suggested readings
Abeillé, A., 2003. Treebanks: Building and Using Parsed Corpora. Dordrecht, Boston, London: Kluwer Academic Publishers
Biber, Douglas, Susan Conrad, and Randi Reppen. 1998. Corpus Linguistics: Investigating Language Structure and Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kennedy, G. 1998. An Introduction to Corpus Linguistics. Harlow: Addison Wesley Longman.
Meyer, Charles F. 2002. English Corpus Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McEnery, T. & A. Wilson. 1996, 2001. Corpus Linguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
McEnery, T. Xiao & Tono. 2006. Corpus-based Language Studies. Edinburgh: Routledge.
Renouf, A. & A. Kehoe. 2006. The Changing Face of Corpus Linguistics. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Sinclair, John M. 2004. Trust the Text: Language, Corpus and Discourse. London: Routledge.
http://www.corpus-linguistics.de/
http://www.ahds.ac.uk/creating/guides/linguistic-corpora/index.htm
LI 7865 (10 ECTS) History and Globalization of English
(Jeffrey Kallen)
Aims
This module has four principal aims: (i) to give an overview of the linguistic history of English, covering the major developments in syntax, phonology, the lexicon, and aspects of the writing system, (ii) to show the relationship between variation within English and the historical development of the language, (iii) to survey the spread of English as a world language, and (iv) to examine world Englishes within the context of social, historical, and linguistic theory. Throughout the course, students are encouraged to provide relevant examples of variation in English from their experience of English as a world language.