Linguistics (LING)

An exploration of significant questions and concepts, beliefs and creative visions, theories and discoveries in linguistics for first-year students. Although topics vary, the courses also seek to improve students' communication skills beyond the written word.

An exploration of a specific topic in Linguistics. A grade of C- or better fulfills the COLL 150 requirement. Although topics vary, the courses emphasize academic writing skills, reading and analysis of texts, and discussion.

An introduction to linguistics, the scientific study of human language. Considers languages as structured systems of form and meaning, with attention also to the biological, psychological, cultural and social aspects of language and language use. Course is open to freshmen and sophomores. Co-enrollment in LING 221 is encouraged but not required.

This 1-credit course introduces students to hands-on methods in Linguistics through an exploration of mini-case studies across a range of Linguistics subfields. Methods include experimental, corpus, and typological investigations among others. Students will gain skills in Excel and other tools for Linguistic data collection and analysis. Pairs well with LING 220 Study of Language but may be taken independently.

An exploration of an introductory topic in linguistics. If there is no duplication of topic, may be repeated for credit.

This course explores the sociolinguistics of English spoken by African-Americans in the United States. We examine the relationship of African-American English to linguistic theory, education praxis, and American culture.

This course connects the acoustic signal of speech sounds to sound patterns within different human languages. Students will learn to use freely-available phonetics software to examine, measure, and analyze human speech sounds. The acoustic differences between different speech sounds, such as what distinguishes consonants from vowels, will be introduced and explored. We'll look at how both the length and the articulation of a sound can often be different in ways we're not conscious of but that we can find, measure, and then quantify using statistical software that's free through W&M. We'll examine what influences people's perceptions of sounds: that in some cases humans can perceive two very different sounds as the same and in other cases can perceive two very similar sounds as quite different. There are no prerequisites for this course.

In this course, we will explore United States varieties of English by applying sociolinguistic methods to language in everyday settings, such as social media, street signs, and television shows.

A study of the history of the English language from Old English to the present. Some attention is given to contemporary developments in "World English."

This introduction to syntax investigates the structures and operations underlying sentence formation. The course focuses on one linguistic model, with attention given to linguistic theory, alternative models and issues in syntax and semantics.

This course is an introduction to the study of meaning in natural language, focusing primarily on compositional semantics — the study of how phrasal and sentential meanings are computed from their pieces. We will explore the empirical and conceptual issues that compositional semantic theories must grapple with, along with some formal tools that have been developed to deal with them.

A study of common segment-level sound patterns across languages. Class focuses on analysis of novel data from particular languages using evolving phonological formalism.

In this course, we study the interrelations between language and language users with interdisciplinary approaches from sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, and discourse analysis. We conduct linguistic fieldwork and practice ethical research with human participants.

A survey of common patterns and constructions in language ranging from word order to case, agreement, voice, aspect, relative clauses, interrogation and negation. Major themes include the unity and diversity of language and the techniques used to measure it.

An exploration of a topic in Linguistics. If there is no duplication of topic, the course may be repeated for credit.

How are foreign languages acquired? Factors influencing individual variation in skill and fluency include language transfer, optimal input, age, learning styles and language dysfunction. Focus on foreign language acquisition with respect to learning theory, and physical, cognitive and social development.

Introduction to the study of how children acquire their first language. Topics include: the perception and production of speech; word learning; combining words into sentences; communicative competence; theories and methods of investigation.

This course will examine the social, economic, and educational ramifications of language attitudes including: the linguistic intersection of race, gender, and social class; comparisons of standardized and Standard English; and the role of linguistics in the formation of language policy.

This course combines the study of psycholinguistics—how humans acquire, produce, and comprehend components of the human language system—with a hands-on overview of the experimental methods used to study human language. This includes components of experimental design, implementation, data analysis, and statistical modeling.

In this hands-on course, students will learn to work with computational tools for analyzing linguistic datasets and for building computational models of linguistic behavior (these include statistical regression models as well as computational models of the mental grammar that instantiate insights based on linguistic theory). We will work mainly with R and associated libraries, though other tools may be introduced as needed. No prior math/programming experience is required or assumed.

Why is it that upon hearing, “It’s cold in here,” you might close the window even though no one actually asked you to? What makes one person’s apology more authentic than another? And how come it can sometimes be rude to say “please”? Pragmatics examines how context (i.e. both linguistic and non-language-related information) informs the meaning of linguistic forms. This class introduces the core concepts and theories that help answer these questions and explain how we manage to understand each other despite the fact that what we say is often not fully transparent. Some of these ideas and theories include: speech acts and felicity conditions, conversational maxims and implicature, presuppositions, indirectness and politeness. Examination of some semantic concepts, like entailment, will be included so as to appreciate the difference between pragmatic and semantic meaning. Students will complete and present reports on observed speech behavior. There will be an interim test and a final exam.

A critical approach to the history of Western thinking about meaning, understanding, language and mind: tracing the integration of these topics into Western cultural and intellectual traditions, from Classical Greece and Rome up to modern developments in 20th-century European and American thought.

A study of the kinds of change which languages may undergo. Covers the nature and motivation of linguistic evolution, and the methods by which unattested early stages of known languages may be reconstructed.

A study of the place of language in society and of how our understanding of social structure, conflict and change affect our understanding of the nature of language. *(In 2013-14, LING/ANTH 308 can serve as a substitute for 303/415.)

Development of a research project in phonetics and phonology in conjunction with LING 407.

This course will introduce students to the history and theories of linguistic anthropology with emphasis on North American languages. Students will approach these subjects through readings, class discussions and problem sets.

This course introduces students to the history, structure, and sociocultural aspects of Anglophone languages of the expanded Caribbean. Topics include: current views on the formation of pidgin and creole languages, definitive characteristics of these languages, and the relationships among them.

In this course, we will use the linguistic methods of discourse analysis to understand language in its linguistic and social contexts. We will pay particular attention to applying the methods to real-world settings such as marketing, political, and legal discourse.

In this course, we will study primary texts from contemporary scholars on the motivations for and linguistic “rules” governing language mixing (also called “code-switching” and “borrowing”). We will consider these theories in light of our own observations, experiences as bilinguals and language learners to discover what is likely and what is possible in bilingual speech. There will be a guided research project during the semester in which students will collect data using sociolinguistic interviews and analyze it with respect to course concepts and theories. 

In this advanced linguistics course, students work closely with a speaker of another language to discover the structure of that language and to describe different aspects of its grammar: phonetics, phonology, morphology, and syntax.

This course provides hands-on experience with studying language in its social context, drawing on sociolinguistic methods such as participant observation and sociolinguistic interviews. Students will gain substantial experience working on a sociolinguistic fieldwork project. The course addresses major topics related to field work, including recording, transcribing, and coding data, ethical involvement with the community, and the purposes, strengths, and weaknesses of various approaches.

In this course, students learn how to design, conduct, analyze, and present experiments on the acquisition and processing of human language. We will first identify a research topic of common interest, which will become the focus of the course. We will then conduct a replication of a published experiment on our research topic to gain hands-on experience in experiment design, data collection, and data analysis. Students will then design and conduct an original experiment that extends the replication study in a novel direction.

A Linguistics capstone seminar investigating interdisciplinary research carried out on the evolutionary origins and development of human language. Questions to be addressed include: How are forms of primate communication similar to and different from human communication? What anatomical, cognitive, and social abilities underlie human language? When might they have emerged? What social and ecological conditions may have facilitated the emergence of distinctively human communication and language in hominins? What different kinds of evidence do we have for hypotheses about language evolution: biological, archaeological, genetic, ontogenetic, grammatical, psychological, sociocultural, primatological, etc.? When and how might particular components of human languages have emerged, developed, and diversified? What are the main issues which today divide the leading theories of language evolution?

This course will examine competing theories of language acquisition in infancy and early childhood. Specifically, we will be exploring arguments for and against the presence of Universal Grammar as a critical component of language acquisition. We will read competing and conflicting theories, and discuss how various researchers interpret evidence through the lens of their own language acquisition frameworks. We will attempt to directly compare arguments that language acquisition researchers have presented about the role of UG in human language learning.

Investigation of a major sub-field of linguistics.

Study in depth and independent research/writing about a topic in linguistics. Students who are not linguistics majors may enroll with instructor’s permission.

A tutorial course on a topic agreed upon by the student and instructor and approved in advance by the departmental Undergraduate Program Committee

A tutorial designed for students wishing to pursue independent community-based research under the supervision of an instructor. Prior to registration, the student must submit a course proposal to the instructor and the Program Director. A successful proposal will describe a coherent program of study built around a research trip of at least a week. That research trip must result in a person-to-person, cross-cultural experience, and should therefore include a self-reflective assignment. The course satisfies the COLL 300 requirement.

Individually supervised empirical investigations in the various areas of linguistics. A student must have permission of a faculty supervisor before registering and a plan must be submitted to, and approved by, the Linguistics director.Course may be repeated, contents and credit each time may vary according to an agreement reached between supervisor and student at the time of registration.

Students seeking admission to Honors in Linguistics are required to prepare a thesis proposal in consultation with an adviser who is a member of the Linguistics faculty. The proposal, along with the adviser's recommendation, must be submitted to the Linguistics Program Honors Committee by May of the student's junior year. For College provisions governing the Admission to Honors, see catalog section titled Honors and Special Programs.

Students seeking admission to Honors in Linguistics are required to prepare a thesis proposal in consultation with an adviser who is a member of the Linguistics faculty. The proposal, along with the adviser's recommendation, must be submitted to the Linguistics Program Honors Committee by May of the student's junior year. For College provisions governing the Admission to Honors, see catalog section titled Honors and Special Programs.