LINGUISTICS 20 – LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS
SPRINGQUARTER2015- UCR
Lecture Hall: MSE 104
Instructor: Dr. Heidi Waltz Teaching Assistants:
Office: HMSS 2612 Cetin, Gulin
Office hours: T 11:15a.m. - 12:45p.m. Ryan Harte
R 12:15p.m.-1:45 p.m. Andrew Turner
and by appointment 1 Reader
E-mail:
Note: All teaching assistants will post their office locations, e-mail addresses, and office hours on Blackboard.
Required text:
Finegan, Edward. 2015 (7th edition).Language: Its Structure and Use. Boston: Wadsworth/ Cengage Learning.
Books can be purchased at: University Book Exchange, 229 W. Big Springs Road: (951) 682-3634.
Please check Publisher’s web site for purchase of selected chapters. ONLY THIS SEVENTH EDITION CAN BE USED FOR CLASS. NO ELECTRONIC COPIES WILL BE ALLOWED IN THE LECTURE HALL.
Cell phones, laptops, or any other electronic devices are not allowed in class. If you purchase e-chapters of the book, you will not be able to use them in lecture but you can print out the relevant data sections before class.
Please put your cell phones on ‘silent’ before class. They should be put away in book bags unless you notify me of an emergency.
Content:
The first part of the course will discuss the core concepts of linguistic analysis, e.g. the structure of words and their smallest meaningful units, the places and manners of sound articulation, the sound pattern of English, the structure of sentences, and the structure of meaning. The second part takes a closer look at various sub-disciplines of linguistics. We will learn that L1 acquisition is intuitive and L2 acquisition is “learned” and that there are shared traits in the acquisition of linguistic rules across genetically unrelated languages. A look at the historical development of languages will situate English within the Indo-European language family and illustrate its drastic loss of inflectional endings through time. Finally, we will discuss the notions of “standard dialect” vs. “non-standard dialect” and summarize our findings about the nature of human language.
Lectures: Readings by chapter: Chapter #:
3/31, 4/2 discussion of syllabus; what is linguistics? 1,2
introduction to linguistic study;
morphology (word-formation), parts-of-speech tests
4/7, 4/9 lexical categories, morphemes types, trees, derivation, 2
inflection, enrichment of lexicon, typology
4/14,4/16 phonetics (sound articulation): spelling discrepancies 3
consonant and vowel articulation; transcription,
International Phonetics Alphabet
4/21, 4/23 phonemes, allophones, minimal pairs 4
complementary distribution
4/28, 4/30 morphophonology, syllable structure; 1 - 4
MIDTERM REVIEW
5/5, 5/7 MIDTERM: May 5; syntax: sentence types, verb types 5
5/12, 5/14 phrase structure rules, trees, syntactic operations 5
5/19, 5/21 semantics (structure of meaning): lexical semantics, 6
semantic roles and argument structure;
5/26, 5/28 first and second language acquisition 14
historical development of English 13
6/2, 6/4 language variation; FINAL EXAM REVIEW 11
Grading:
Homework 120 points
Midterm 100 points
Final exam 180 points
FINAL EXAM DATE: Thursday, June 11, 2015,11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
There will be ABSOLUTELY NO MAKE-UP EXAMS! Please plan accordingly.
Recommended study habits for this class:
Read each chapter at least three times: once before class discussion, write down all questions you have,second time before you do your homework,third time when you prepare for the test. Study all terms in boldface and do not hesitate to ask questions in class. Some chapters require re-reading beyond three times.
Homework assignments:
There will be eight homework assignments throughout the quarter (no freebies, no extra credit). All homework exercises can be found in the textbook or on handouts posted on Blackboard. Some exercises are based on foreign languages – you are NOT expected to know the languages but will use your acquired linguistic skills to tackle foreign language tasks.
Homework is collectedat the BEGINNING of class andis considered LATE if turned in after 2:20 p.m. on the due date. NO CREDIT will be given for late homework and NO CREDIT will be given for e-mailed homework. You need to be in lecture to turn in your homework.
Homework will be returned at the END of class every Tuesday. If you miss class, you have to see YOUR ASSIGNED TA in order to pick up your work. All homework groups will be posted on Blackboard before the first assignment is due.
If you need help, please see us during office hours (there are no discussion sections for this lecture).You can see any T.A. for tutoring - you are not expected to see your assigned T.A. for help. However, you need to make sure that you turn in your assignments to the correct T.A. once homework groups have been posted on Blackboard.
You do not need to make an appointment to see me if you come during office hours. If my office hours do not work for you, please contact me.
All homework needs to be done INDEPENDENTLY!
Test format:short answers, exercises, multiple-choice questions
Courtesy policy:
1. I consider it common courtesy for students to sit close to an exit if they need to leave early. Please make every attempt to stay for the entire lecture and do not disrupt class by leaving and entering the lecture hall during instruction.
2. Please do not carry on conversations unless you are directed to do group work.
Your cooperation in these matters is extremely appreciated.
3. Regular attendance is crucial!
This course is listed as a UCR Blackboard course. Please check that web site ( every day. Major announcements as well as homework assignments will be posted there. All regularly enrolled students have access to this web site.
You must abide by the University's academic honesty policy. This is available online at:
Accommodations for Students with Disabilities
Students requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Academic Support Center which will provide documentation. The student is then responsible for providing this documentation to the Instructor when requesting accommodation.