printer friendly pageLINGUIST 55N: Language in the City
Language communicates a great deal more than the meaning of our words. Our regional accents, for example, offer clues about where we grew up. And even though accents are usually labeled in geographical terms, their symbolic meanings extend far beyond mere coordinates on a map. When we hear a New Yorker, we not only wonder whether they¿re from Brooklyn, but also conjecture about the kind of person they are: they might prefer to walk down the street quickly over strolling, they might enjoy lively conversations where people talk over one another, and they might tend to express their opinions bluntly. This seminar explores the linguistic practices and social meaning of accents spoken in San Francisco. nClass participants will collectively choose a neighborhood in San Francisco for in-depth examination. Through a series of field trips (once every two or three weeks), students will document the varieties of English spoken by lifelong residents of the neighborhood. Field assignments will consist primarily of observation and audio-recorded interviews. Interviews will serve as data for linguistic analysis (transcription, quantitative analysis of a linguistic feature of interest) throughout the term. Linguistic patterns will be analyzed in relation to salient social issues in the community, which will be identified in both interview content and historical records.nUpon completing the seminar, students will have (a) learned how to treat language as an object of scientific analysis, (b) developed an understanding of the social ramifications of linguistic practice, (c) gained fieldwork skills in general and interviewing skills in particular, and (d) come to appreciate the diversity of experiences in an urban community near Stanford.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Podesva, R. (PI)
LINGUIST 65: African American Vernacular English (AFRICAAM 21, CSRE 21, LINGUIST 265)
Vocabulary, pronunciation and grammatical features of the systematic and vibrant vernacular English [AAVE] spoken by African Americans in the US, its historical relation to British dialects, and to English creoles spoken on the S. Carolina Sea Islands (Gullah), in the Caribbean, and in W. Africa. The course will also explore the role of AAVE in the Living Arts of African Americans, as exemplified by writers, preachers, comedians and actors, singers, toasters and rappers, and its connections with challenges that AAVE speakers face in the classroom and courtroom. Service Learning Course (certified by Haas Center). UNITS: 3-5 units. Most students should register for 4 units. Students willing and able to tutor an AAVE speaking child in East Palo Alto and write an additional paper about the experience may register for 5 units, but should consult the instructor first. Students who, for exceptional reasons, need a reduced course load, may request a reduction to 3 units, but more of their course grade will come from exams, and they will be excluded from group participation in the popular AAVE Happenin at the end of the course.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:EC-AmerCul, GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Rickford, J. (PI)
LINGUIST 90: Teaching Spoken English
Practical approach to teaching English to non-native speakers. Teaching principles and the features of English which present difficulties. Preparation of lessons, practice teaching in class, and tutoring of non-native speaker.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-4
Instructors:
Geda, K. (PI)
LINGUIST 112: Seminar in Phonology: Stress, Tone, and Accent
Stress, tone, and accent systems vary widely, sometimes even within closely related language groups. Adding to their linguistic allure are their interactions with morphology and syntax, and with one another. Stress, tone, and accent are often also closely linked to phonological quantity and syllable structure. nnThis course will survey the different behaviors of stress, tone, and accent systems in the languages of the world. Decades of work on this topic has led to fundamental changes in how we represent phonological structure. While we will analyze a few systems deeply in order to get at the heart of the topic, an even bigger aim will be breadth of coverage. The result will be a better empirical grasp of the underpinnings of the typology of accentual systems.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
Instructors:
Leben, W. (PI)
LINGUIST 121B: Crosslinguistic Syntax
A data-driven introduction to the study of syntax through the investigation of a diverse array of the world's languages, including but not limited to English. Emphasis is on understanding how languages are systematically alike and different in their basic sentence structure. The course focuses on building up syntactic argumentation skills via the collective development of a partial formal theory of sentence structure, which attempts to model native speaker knowledge. Satisfies the WIM requirement for Linguistics and the WAY-FR requirement. Prerequisites: none (can be taken before or after Linguistics 121A). The discussion section is mandatory.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-FR
Instructors:
Harizanov, B. (PI)
;
Grimberg, S. (TA)
LINGUIST 140: Learning to Speak: An introduction to child language acquisition
None of us were born talking. We all had to learn it. How did we do that? We start the journey by looking at the perception of sounds before birth. We follow infants as they discover the sounds of their native languages. We talk about how the infant mind breaks the speech stream into words, phrases, and sentences; how it makes sense of language and uses it to convey thoughts and feelings. We finish by discussing how the majority of children in the world learn two or more languages at once. The course content will introduce you to major topics in child language acquisition. Assignments will help you develop skills in collecting, analyzing, and reporting empirical data. The class project involves collecting data from children at the Bing Nursery school on campus as well as the analysis of a large dataset of children's speech online. Class discussion and projects focus on giving you a hands-on experience with critical and scientific thinking.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci
Instructors:
Jasbi, M. (PI)
LINGUIST 156: Language and Gender (FEMGEN 156X)
The role of language in the construction of gender, the maintenance of the gender order, and social change. Field projects explore hypotheses about the interaction of language and gender. No knowledge of linguistics required.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:EC-Gender, GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-SI, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Eckert, P. (PI)
;
Xu, R. (TA)
LINGUIST 188: Natural Language Understanding (CS 224U, LINGUIST 288)
Project-oriented class focused on developing systems and algorithms for robust machine understanding of human language. Draws on theoretical concepts from linguistics, natural language processing, and machine learning. Topics include lexical semantics, distributed representations of meaning, relation extraction, semantic parsing, sentiment analysis, and dialogue agents, with special lectures on developing projects, presenting research results, and making connections with industry. Prerequisites: one of
LINGUIST 180,
CS 124,
CS 224N,
CS224S, or
CS221; and logical/semantics such as
LINGUIST 130A or B,
CS 157, or
PHIL150
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-4
Instructors:
MacCartney, B. (PI)
;
Potts, C. (PI)
;
Jiang, H. (TA)
...
more instructors for LINGUIST 188 »
Instructors:
MacCartney, B. (PI)
;
Potts, C. (PI)
;
Jiang, H. (TA)
;
Josund, K. (TA)
;
Maurer, Z. (TA)
;
Nie, A. (TA)
;
Wang, S. (TA)
;
Zhou, X. (TA)
LINGUIST 195A: Undergraduate Research Workshop
Designed for undergraduates beginning or working on research projects in linguistics. Participants present and receive feedback on their projects and receive tips on the research and writing process.
Terms: Win, Spr
| Units: 1
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 2 units total)
Instructors:
Jasbi, M. (PI)
LINGUIST 198: Honors Research
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 1-15
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors:
Anttila, A. (PI)
;
Bresnan, J. (PI)
;
Clark, E. (PI)
...
more instructors for LINGUIST 198 »
Instructors:
Anttila, A. (PI)
;
Bresnan, J. (PI)
;
Clark, E. (PI)
;
Condoravdi, C. (PI)
;
Degen, J. (PI)
;
Eckert, P. (PI)
;
Frank, M. (PI)
;
Gribanov, V. (PI)
;
Harizanov, B. (PI)
;
Jurafsky, D. (PI)
;
Kay, M. (PI)
;
Kiparsky, P. (PI)
;
Lassiter, D. (PI)
;
Levin, B. (PI)
;
Manning, C. (PI)
;
Peters, S. (PI)
;
Podesva, R. (PI)
;
Potts, C. (PI)
;
Rickford, J. (PI)
;
Sumner, M. (PI)
;
Wasow, T. (PI)
;
Zwicky, A. (PI)
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