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| E-mail Dr. E. at reng {at} rice.edu | E-mail Haowen at haowen {at} rice.edu |
This class serves as an introduction to morphology and syntax, presented from a functional-typological perspective. We will be examining how languages around the world construct words and sentences. We will explore the similarities and differences in the ways languages do this, and we will consider how grammar is shaped by human cognition, culture, and speakers’ communicative goals. This class will focus heavily on the hands-on analysis of language data. Students will gain linguistic problem-solving skills, and the foundations necessary for pursuing grammatical description.
* Note: Linguistics 200 is a prerequisite for this class and is strictly enforced.
* Note: If you require course material in an alternative format or need special accommodations due to a disability, please contact the instructor and the Disability Support Services Office (111 Allen Center).
| Top 11 scores from 12 homework assignments | 55% |
| Three short 'language reports' | 21% |
| Final Exam (Take-home, open-book, open-note) | 24% |
| Total | 100% |
* Note: There is no midterm exam for this course.
There are twelve homework assignments for this class, due on Fridays as shown on the course schedule. Your lowest of these 12 scores will be dropped, thus leaving 11 scores to be calculated into your overall course grade. Because you have one “free” assignment, late homework will not be accepted under any circumstances. Homework answers must be submitted electronically on the Owlspace system before 11:00am on the day they are due. Acceptable file formats are .RTF (rich text format), .DOC or .DOCX (Microsoft Word), or .PDF (Adobe Portable Document Format). Hand-written or hardcopy answers will not be accepted. We will always discuss homework on the day it is due; for this reason, please bring an extra hardcopy of your answers to refer to during class discussion. I encourage students to form study groups and to talk through the assignments together, but you must always write up your answers alone.
By Monday, Sept. 28, choose a language which you are interested in learning more about, and which has reference grammars available. I suggest that you find a grammar from the list in Appendix 2 of the textbook (Payne 1997), or else go browsing through the stacks of the grammars section of Fondren Library. If you know speakers of that language, you may consult them for language data as well. The language you choose should not be a language you have studied previously in a classroom setting, although students with fieldwork experience may use a field language. (Talk with me if you have concerns about this.) There are three books on reserve in Fondren Library which present grammatical sketches of a number of languages; consult these references for ideas for your reports and sources of additional data. Please clear your choice of language with me by Sept. 28. Ideally, you should stick with this language for all three reports—but it’s also fine to choose a different language for the second or third report if you want. You have two options for each of these three short reports. Whichever one you choose should be interesting and relevant in terms of the material we have covered in that section of the course.
(Option 1) Write a 1-3 page discussion of how this language expresses one of the grammatical phenomena discussed in the current section of the course. Support your discussion with lots of data from the language. Your examples must be in romanization or IPA, and should conform to the three-line glossing conventions used in this class.
(Option 2) Design a homework problem using data from the language, and give the solution. (If you choose this option, you might be rewarded by seeing “your” problem on the final exam!)
The combined score of these three reports counts as 21% of your overall course grade. I will only accept late reports under extenuating circumstances, and you must clear it with me ahead of time. Late reports which are not cleared with me in advance will lose 10% of their grade for every day they are late.
The final exam will consist of problems similar to those you will have encountered on homework assignments. It is worth 24% of your overall course grade. The exam will be take-home, open-book, open-note, will be handed out on the last day of class, and is due no later than 5pm on December 16. Students who do not turn in the exam by the deadline will receive a score of 0 on it. Students are not permitted to work together on the final or to discuss it in any way.
Do not look at notes, problems or exams from previous semesters. Do form study groups to talk about readings and lectures, and especially to work through analyzing homework problems. I encourage students to work together on homework assignments. However, after you figure/argue them out together, type up your answers alone. Do not copy assignments or reports from other students (either current or former); to avoid this temptation, always type up your answers separately from the other students in your study group. On your language reports, always cite your sources of language data. The final exam will be open-book, open-note, and you are not permitted to discuss the exam with other students. See the Rice Honor Council web page for details about the Rice Honor Code, plagiarism, and other general information. Feel free to e-mail me or stop by office hours if you have any specific questions on what is or is not acceptable under the honor code in this class.
Payne, Thomas E. 1997. Describing morphosyntax: a guide for field linguists. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Page numbers from this textbook are listed on the course schedule, roughly corresponding with the topics of each lecture. It is not necessary to have read them before the lectures for which they are assigned, but please read them before submitting the homework assignment for that unit. The readings are an especially useful source of linguistic terminology, and a model for your own writing as to how you should refer to the more technical aspects of grammar in this course. The readings are also helpful if you wish to review materials from lectures, would like more in-depth information not covered in this class, or if you find a topic of particular interest. I strongly recommend doing the readings, and keeping a copy of this textbook, especially if you are planning to go on in linguistics.
The textbook is available at the Rice Campus Bookstore, and one copy has been placed on reserve in the library for 2-hour limited loan.
The following books are on reserve in Fondren Library. I recommend the volume edited by Comrie as an excellent source of information on grammars of specific languages from all over the world. The two volumes edited by Shopen present readable and interesting overviews of a number of diverse languages in terms of both grammar and sociocultural issues.
Comrie, Bernard (ed.) 1990. The world's major languages. New York: Oxford University Press.
Shopen, Timothy (ed.) 1979. Languages and their speakers. Cambridge, Mass: Winthrop Publishers.
Shopen, Timothy (ed.) 1979. Languages and their status. Cambridge, Mass: Winthrop Publishers.