Linguistics (LIN)

LIN 101 Language and Communication (3 credits)

This course is an introduction to the study of human communication and to various areas of linguistic analysis. It focuses on how language works, how it is used in society, how it changes and how it is learned. We also explore some commonly-held beliefs about the nature of language and communication in real-life contexts.

Attributes: American Studies Course, Communication Studies ILC Crs, GEP Social Science, Undergraduate

LIN 150 First Year Seminar (3 credits)

Language Matters is a first-year seminar (FYS). It is of particular interest and benefit to students pursuing various specialties including, but not limited to, Second/Foreign Language Studies; English; Communication Studies; Speech Therapy; Autism Studies; certain specialties within Education, Sociology and Psychology; and Linguistics. This course is geared toward helping students become consciously aware of the role of language in their daily lives. They will learn to recognize linguistic features of language(s) and will explore current research findings in language-related fields. They will also be encouraged to be “linguists” themselves in the sense that they will document and analyze language-related issues present in daily communicative interactions.

Attributes: First-Year Seminar, Undergraduate

LIN 170 Topics in Linguistics (3 credits)

The purpose of this course is to explore specific topics within the field of linguistics. Topics will vary according to the semester in which the class is offered.

Attributes: Undergraduate

LIN 203 English Grammar (3 credits)

To prepare current and future English language teachers, this course focuses on various aspects of English grammar, especially those are particularly challenging for ESL/EFL learners. It provides useful background knowledge for English language teachers and preparation that strengthens applications for teaching positions, fellowships, and scholarships. This course is beneficial to Linguistics and TESOL majors/minors who plan to teach English in any context and at any level as well as to students in ENG, COM, EDU, and other academic areas where a solid grasp on the linguistic structure of English would be useful. This course counts toward an English elective.

LIN 210 Speech and Hearing Sciences (3 credits)

In this course, we will investigate the physiological, acoustical, and perceptual bases of speech and basic audiological science. We will discuss these topics from both theoretical and practical perspectives. As students interested in the field of communication sciences and disorders, you will gain a solid background in speech perception and production as well as understand how speakers process certain sounds in their audiological system. This will require a comprehension of the anatomical and physiological processes we use in our speech and hearing mechanisms. We will also discuss the fields of Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) and Audiology and explore how scientific content applies to the diagnosis and treatment of people with communication disorders. This course is open to all students, assumes no prior knowledge of SLP.

Attributes: Undergraduate

LIN 211 Speech Development & Disorders (3 credits)

This course investigates speech sound development and speech sound disorders (SSDs) by addressing the biological bases of speech sound production, acoustic aspects of speech sound production, the development and progression of speech sound production, linguistic factors that influence communication, and cultural factors that influence speech sound production. Students will gain a solid background in speech development, production, and the different types of SSDs. We will implement applied transcription using IPA symbols, gain an understanding of the anatomy and physiology related to speech sound production, and demonstrate how to treat specific speech disorders . We will also explore how scientific content applies to the diagnosis and treatment of people with SSDs. This course is open to all students, assumes no prior knowledge, and has no prerequisites.

LIN 212 Tour of the Brain (3 credits)

Speech and language symptoms can be hallmark characteristics of many brain disorders, including stroke, traumatic brain injury, autism and other developmental disorders, and Parkinson’s disease. In this course, students will learn about the neural circuits that support speech and language processing and production. Students will also learn how specific speech, language, and swallowing problems reflect underlying neurological conditions across the lifespan. This course is open to students from all majors and has no prerequisite.

Attributes: Undergraduate

LIN 220 Logic (3 credits)

A study of the logic of ordinary language; the function of language, forms of argument, fallacies, definition; analysis of propositions and deductive reasoning, analogy and scientific hypothesis testing. See PHL 220.

Attributes: Justice Ethics and the Law , Undergraduate

LIN 240 Symbolic Logic (3 credits)

The study of a method for translating arguments from ordinary language into a symbolic notation which reveals logical structure, procedures for establishing the validity or invalidity of deductive arguments so symbolized, and properties of formal deductive systems-independence of axioms, expressive and deductive completeness, and consistency. See PHL 240.

Attributes: Undergraduate

LIN 250 Social Media Discourse (3 credits)

The focus of this course is on understanding and investigating linguistic aspects of electronic social media such as email, texting, Twitter, Facebook, etc. This course has two goals: (1) to analyze everyday social media discourse from a linguistic perspective and (2) to learn how to conduct linguistic research in the context of a student-designed investigation on some type of social media discourse. To that end, we will examine previous research in related areas and students will conduct an original research project based on a selected context of social media discourse. This course will be taught as a seminar in which students are expected to come to class prepared to discuss and/or lead the majority of discussions about course readings. This course is open to students from all academic majors.

Attributes: American Studies Course, Communication Stds Maj Choices, Undergraduate

LIN 260 Language and the Law (3 credits)

This course is an introduction to linguistic issues that influence interaction in a variety of legal contexts. It explores the role of language used in court cases and police investigations while paying special attention to particular discourse contexts such as courtroom talk, interpreter interactions and police interrogations/ interviews. Particular emphasis will be placed on recognizing and understanding ethical issues related to linguistic sources of disadvantage before the law for both educated and uneducated native speakers, minority speakers and non-native speakers of a given language. This course will help prepare students for careers in which a particular sensitivity to, and understanding of, the use of language is vital. By looking closely at areas studied by linguists, we will seek to uncover the role and the ethical nature of oral and written interactions that take place in the legal field. These linguistic issues affect the concept of justice as well as its application in the legal system and also influence how humans are perceived and, in turn, treated by those who apply the law (police officers, lawyers, judges, etc.). This course fulfills the GEP Ethics-Intensive overlay requirement; it also fulfills a requirement in the Sociology and Criminal Justice majors/minors. This course is open to students from all academic majors.

Prerequisites: PHL 154

Attributes: Ethics Intensive, Justice Ethics and the Law , Undergraduate

LIN 270 Topics in Linguistics (3 credits)

This course is an introduction to the study of how language is represented in the human mind and what processes are involved in language use, including producing, comprehending, and storing both spoken and written language. Together, we will explore questions such as the following: How do humans store and recognize words? How do we analyze speech? What processes are involved when we speak and read? We will study spontaneously-occurring speech errors and misperceptions and carry out experimental investigations on language production and comprehension. This course is open to students from all academic majors.

Attributes: Undergraduate

LIN 280 Second Lang Acquis & Lrning (3 credits)

This course focuses on the study of existing approaches to describing second language acquisition and learning. Drawing on current research in the field of linguistics, we will explore various aspects of language (e.g., negation, questions, references to the past) as well as particular factors (e.g., age, motivation, personality, learner beliefs) that affect the acquisition and learning of specific languages. Paying particular attention to English language learning, we will devote significant course time to understanding L2 developmental sequences as they relate to theories of acquisition and learning based on social, psychological and educational frameworks. Students will also be challenged to consider the relationship between their understanding of and experiences with language acquisition and learning as well as the relationship between language learning theories and language teaching. This course will be beneficial to students who are majoring or minoring in Linguistics and/or TESOL or who plan to teach language (English, Spanish, Italian, French, German, etc.) at any level; it will also be of interest to students who are studying a second language and want to understand the adult language learning process more fully.

Attributes: Undergraduate

LIN 281 First Language Acquisition (3 credits)

Starting before they are even born, most children acquire language with tremendous ease in a very short period of time. It is a remarkable achievement, usually taken for granted unless something goes awry. This course focuses on the acquisition of a first language in infancy and childhood by highlighting issues in various areas of linguistic analysis: sounds, word and sentence meaning, word order and language use in various communicative contexts. We will also focus on different theories that try to account for the cognitive and linguistic processes that together result in first language acquisition as well as atypical language development from which much is learned about the process of first language acquisition. Of benefit and interest to all academic majors, this course is particularly relevant to students in the areas of linguistics, education, autism studies, psychology and health-related areas including speech therapy/speech language pathology.

Attributes: Undergraduate

LIN 301 Teaching Lang at Home/Abroad (3 credits)

Teaching Language at Home and Abroad is an introduction to language teaching and is designed for students interested in teaching a second or foreign language for professional, academic or personal reasons. It will help prepare students to tutor or teach English as a second language (ESL), English as a foreign language (EFL), or other languages such as French, German, Italian, or Spanish in a variety of educational settings at home and abroad. In addition to a career in language teaching, other future opportunities might include teaching positions in community service ESL classes, the Peace Corps, or through grants/fellowships including Fulbrights, among others. In this course, we will explore topics such as language acquisition, teaching methods, materials preparation and assessment. This course is open to students from all academic majors

Attributes: Undergraduate

LIN 317 Sociolinguistics (3 credits)

This course focuses on the use of language within its social context. In this course, we will gain an appreciation for the diversity that exists in human language and for the communicative values inherent in every language variety; scrutinize assumptions about linguistic identity and difference; examine issues of subordination and privilege in our own and others' lives as related to issues of language; explore the relevance of social categories (e.g., class, age, gender, ethnicity, other social groups) as related to language variation; explore how sociolinguistic research informs policy decisions in classrooms and government legislation; and become familiar with data-collection and research methodologies used to investigate specific topics within the field of sociolinguistics. This course counts for a Sociology major/minor. See SOC 317. This course is open to students from all academic majors.

Attributes: Communication Studies ILC Crs, Diversity Course, GEP Social Science, Undergraduate

LIN 318 Psycholinguistics (3 credits)

Attributes: Communication Studies ILC Crs, Undergraduate

LIN 320 Phonetics (3 credits)

This course explores the repertory of sounds found in human language. As a field of study, phonetics includes three areas: (a) articulatory phonetics (how humans create speech sounds); (b) acoustic phonetics (how sounds are transmitted through the air); and (c) perceptual phonetics (how humans perceive sounds based on changes in air pressure). In this class we will focus primarily on the first area, along with an introduction to the second. To this end we will examine the anatomy of the human vocal tract to understand how speech sounds are created. We will also study the International Phonetic Association (IPA) transcription alphabet, create broad and narrow transcriptions, and practice producing and classifying sounds of various world languages. Time will also be spent on prosodic characteristics of human speech, including pitch, stress, tempo, and loudness. Finally, we will discuss how the study of phonetics is applied within fields such as Speech-Language Pathology (SLP), Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), or teaching languages (e.g., Mandarin, French, Japanese, etc.). This course is open to student from all academic majors. This course counts for a major elective course toward the Autism Behavior Studies major, the Autism Studies minor, and IHS Area Studies.

Attributes: Undergraduate

LIN 321 Intro: Communication Disorders (3 credits)

This course will serve as an introduction to communication disorders, providing students interested in pursuing graduate-level coursework with the foundation necessary to do so. Basic anatomy and physiology of mechanisms that pertain to these systems will be discussed, and relevant neuroanatomy will be covered. We will also examine the professional roles and responsibilities of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists. This course covers prerequisite content required for students planning to pursue higher-level study in the speech and hearing sciences, including speech-language pathology and audiology. This course counts towards the Linguistics Major/Minor.

Attributes: Undergraduate

LIN 322 Intro to Audiology (3 credits)

This course will serve as an introduction to the modern practice of audiology, and will address the profession and practice through an overview of the anatomy (structure) and physiology (function) of the auditory system, the physical properties of sound relevant to hearing assessment, techniques for hearing assessment, common pathologies of the auditory system, and the impact of hearing loss. This course covers prerequisite content required for students planning to pursue a higher level degree in communication disorders, including speech-language pathology and/or audiology. Subject matter assumes no prior knowledge of audiology.

Attributes: Undergraduate

LIN 323 Anatomy&Phys of Speech&Hearing (3 credits)

This course will serve as an introduction to the anatomy and physiology of speech, hearing, and swallowing mechanisms, including anatomy and physiology of respiration, phonation, resonation, hearing, mastication, deglutition, neuroanatomy, and neurophysiology. This course covers prerequisite content required for students planning to pursue a higher-level degree in communication disorders, including speech-language pathology and/or audiology. Subject matter assumes no prior knowledge of anatomy and physiology. This course is of interest to students pursuing specializations in Linguistics, Autism Studies, IHS and Special Education.

Attributes: Undergraduate

LIN 330 Discourse, Style & Presupp (3 credits)

This course builds on Sociolinguistics. Here we examine issues of register, variety (dialect), discourse structure, style, presupposition. The student will be invited to (1) examine discourse samples to analyze presupposition, implications, and fallacies. The insights of argument structure will organize this approach.

Attributes: Undergraduate

LIN 340 Communication in Soc Contexts (3 credits)

Communication in Social Contexts analyzes how people communicate with each another in various social contexts. We will focus on recent research topics in discourse analysis and explore particular contexts of discourse such as that which takes place in the legal field (police interrogations; naturalization interviews); family interactions (homecoming routines; ventriloquizing); childhood settings (apologies, sporting events), the workplace (medicine, business, media) and the classroom (teacher-student, student-student, teacher-teacher interactions). Special attention will be given to classroom discourse, the area of applied linguistics research that investigates empirical linguistic data from classroom interaction. This course is open to student from all academic majors. This course counts for the American Studies minor.

Attributes: American Studies Course, Communication Studies ILC Crs, GEP Social Science, Undergraduate

LIN 370 Special Topics in Linguistics (3 credits)

The purpose of this course is to explore specific topics within the field of linguistics. Topics will vary according to the semester in which the class is offered.

Attributes: Undergraduate

LIN 381 History of the Eng Language (3 credits)

A survey of the outer and inner history of the English language, from its Indo-European origins to its present American and world-wide use. The course will be based on modern linguistic methods and information. See ENG 381.

Attributes: Undergraduate

LIN 401 Bilingualism & Lang Diversity (3 credits)

This course is an exploration of bilingualism and linguistic diversity both within the U.S. and beyond its borders. Bilingualism is examined from both sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic perspectives, as we identify historical, geographical and socio-political issues that shape the identity of bilinguals in the U.S. who come from languages and cultures other than our own. In addition to examining the theoretical and methodological issues in bilingualism research, students will also engage this reality through community observations and interviews with representatives of the bilingual communities. This course is open to students from all academic majors.

Attributes: Diversity Course, Undergraduate

LIN 420 SLP/AuD Research Methods (3 credits)

In this course, we will learn about conducting clinical research and its application to evidence-based practice and demands for accountability in the fields of speech-language pathology and audiology. The course will include a general orientation to research design and statistical analysis, followed by specific discussions of various types of research methods and conclude with attention to the acquisition of research grants. This course is writing intensive and therefore will review issues such as the development of clear research questions, support of ideas, organization, style and writing conventions.

Attributes: Undergraduate, Writing Intensive Course- GEP

LIN 470 Topics in Linguistics (3 credits)

The purpose of this course is to explore specific topics within the field of linguistics. Topics will vary according to the semester in which the class is offered; check the semester listing for current topic.

Attributes: Undergraduate

LIN 474 Language and Thought (3 credits)

Rene Descartes held a view called "mind-body dualism", according to which human persons are fundamentally thinking substances that are somehow causally linked to particular physical substances: bodies. One of his reasons for holding this view was that he believed that the human faculty of language could never, even in principle, be adequately explained by any purely physical description of things. Language, as he saw it, is evidence of mind, and indeed he believed that where language is absent, mind is also absent. Creatures without language are, in Descartes' view, mindless organic automata. Few today would defend Descartes' view in all details, but the general sense that language is an important "mark of the mental" has not gone away. Instead, it has given rise to a cluster of narrower but interesting and important questions: Are certain kinds of mental states impossible without language? Does the specific language that we speak influence our thoughts in some way? Do our innate tendencies of thought force our languages to take certain forms? We could restate these questions in a somewhat different way. Does language hold thought on a leash? Does thought hold language on a leash? See PHL 474.

Attributes: Undergraduate

LIN 475 Language and Meaning (3 credits)

This course examines the core issues in the philosophy of language, including the nature of meaning, problems of reference, and the relation between language and thought. Further issues include the status of propositions, the problem of whether linguistic competence implies innate knowledge of some sort, the nature of metaphor, the private language problem, the indeterminacy of translation and language as symbolic capital. See PHL 475.

Attributes: Undergraduate

LIN 490 TESOL Internship (3 credits)

This course is a practicum in which the student applies their knowledge of Linguistics in a professional work environment. The majority of the work for this course is that performed at the internship site. The student is responsible for securing the internship site and will meet with the professor prior to the semester in which the internship is to take place in order to discuss the course requirements and expectations. During the practicum, the student will reflect upon their experience at the internship site in written assignments and in regular meetings with the professor. At the end of the semester, the student will submit a final paper or will deliver a final presentation based on their internship experience. This course is intended as an advanced course for Linguistics majors or TESOL minors who have completed the other course requirements.

Attributes: Undergraduate

LIN 491 Linguistics Internship (3 credits)

This course is a practicum in which the student applies his/her knowledge of Linguistics in a professional work environment. The majority of the work for this course is that performed at the internship site. The student is responsible for securing the internship site and will meet with the professor prior to the semester in which the internship is to take place in order to discuss the course requirements and expectations. During the practicum, the student will reflect upon his/her experience at the internship site in written assignments and in regular meetings with the professor. At the end of the semester, the student will submit a final paper or will deliver a final presentation based on his/her internship experience. This course is intended as an advanced course for Linguistics majors/minors who have completed the other course requirements.

Attributes: Undergraduate

LIN 492 Speech Language Pathology (3 credits)

This course is a practicum in which the student applies their knowledge of Speech Language Pathology in a professional work environment. The majority of the work for this course is performed at the internship site. The student is responsible for securing the internship site and will meet with the professor prior to the semester in which the internship is to take place in order to discuss the course requirements and expectations. During the practicum, the student will reflect upon their experience at the internship site in written assignments and in regular meetings with the professor. At the end of the semester, the student will submit a journal and a final project or paper related to the student's internship experience. This course is intended as an advanced course for Linguistics majors with a concentration in Speech Language Pathology who have completed other introductory course requirements.

Prerequisites: LIN 210 or LIN 320

Attributes: Undergraduate

LIN 493 Ind Research in Linguistics (3 credits)

This will allow the student to round out the major/minor with a supervised research project that will help expand the student's interests and development.

Attributes: Undergraduate

LIN 494 Ind Research in Linguistics (3 credits)

This will allow the student to round out the major/minor with a supervised research project that will help expand the student's interests and development.

Attributes: Undergraduate

LIN 496 Special Topics Transfer Course (3 credits)

LIN 497 Special Topics Transfer Course (3 credits)