Teaching

Does the brain process emojis in the same way it processes spoken language? Why is the Pokémon named “Snorlax” larger than the one named “Pikachu”?

This course provides a broad overview of language—its structure, its origins, and its role in society. We'll try to understand why language is so weird (Why does the tiny island of Papua New Guinea have over 800 languages? Why does the !Xóõ language have 164 consonants?) by applying the tools of linguistics to the language we encounter in our daily lives and to languages from around the world.

How does our culture influence our language? How does our language influence our culture?

In this course, we will examine the role of language in the melting pot of America. We'll look at language as influenced by race, gender, sexual and gender identity, and power structures in order to see how social dynamics affect the way people speak—and the way people interpret what they hear.

We'll learn about the methods involved in gathering sociolinguistic data, and even engage in some hands-on research ourselves.

Language touches every aspect of our lives. From reading the morning paper to decrypting secret codes, the subconscious knowledge of language is uniquely human. In this course we'll ask what it means to have a command of language—do animals have it? Infants?

What we'll cover:

• The sounds of the world’s languages
• How English builds new words
• The role of language in society
• Why languages don’t all share the same word order
• Why linguists believe in a “universal grammar”

Why is "blik" a possible word of English, but not "bnik"? Why can we have [tl] in the middle of a word (e.g., "butler"), but not at the start or the end? (And how come some languages, like the modern Aztec language Nahuatl, are perfectly content with [tl]-final words?)

This course provides an overview of the field of phonology—how languages organize, represent, and manipulate their sounds. We will begin by discussing the sounds of the world's languages and their articulatory,acoustic, and distributional properties. We will examine why some sounds are allowed in certain parts of a word but not others, and how sounds change based on their surroundings.

Linguists and non-linguists alike are welcome to join this course.

Language touches every aspect of our lives. From reading the morning paper to decrypting secret codes, the subconscious knowledge of language is uniquely human. In this course we'll ask what it means to have a command of language—do animals have it? Infants?

By examining the structures of the world's languages, we will discover why linguists believe in a “universal grammar” in spite of the world's rich linguistic diversity. We'll also learn how to make the sounds of the world's languages—from French nasal vowels to the clicks of Africa's Bantu languages.

This course is suited to anyone interested in language, how the mind works, or the characteristics that make us uniquely human.

Why is "blik" a possible word of English, but not "bnik"? Why can we have [tl] in the middle of a word (e.g., "butler"), but not at the start or the end? (And how come some languages, like the modern Aztec language Nahuatl, are perfectly content with [tl]-final words?)

This course provides an overview of the field of phonology—how languages organize, represent, and manipulate their sounds. We will begin by discussing the sounds of the world's languages and their articulatory,acoustic, and distributional properties. We will examine why some sounds are allowed in certain parts of a word but not others, and how sounds change based on their surroundings.

Linguists and non-linguists alike are welcome to join this course.

This course will introduce you to tools and methods for collecting, analyzing, and visualizing quantitative data—including survey responses, experimental results, and usability studies. We’ll learn how to turn raw numbers into digestible information in the form of numerical and visual summaries, basic statistical analysis, and inferences about your sample population. And we’ll learn some basic data-wrangling techniques along the way that will be useful even outside the realm of research.

Starting in the late 1960s and early 1970s, linguists began to study signed languages in much the same way that they studied spoken languages. This course serves as a broad overview of that research, focusing on phonology, syntax, and semantics, with discussion as well of Deaf arts and culture.

We will examine data from a number of signed languages, especially American Sign Language (ASL) and Australian Sign Language (Auslan). We will also learn about current debates in sign language linguistics.

A major goal of this course is to investigate (and disprove) a number of false assumptions and myths about signed languages. We will explore specific linguistic phenomena in signed languages and compare them with phenomena found in spoken languages.