Spring 2013

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Linguistics courses
Course number Course title Section Instructor Days Time Room

CAS LX 406

The Linguistics of Contemporary English

 web A1 Alrenga TR 3:30-5 KCB 107
Systematic introduction to the linguistic analysis of modern English (phonology, morphology, syntax) from the perspective of generative grammar. Other topics include: English and its West Germanic relatives, non-standard varieties and the development of standard English, varieties of World Englishes. [Note that this will count as a course in the linguistic analysis of a specific language for purposes of satisfying requirements for the Linguistics major.] Also offered as CAS EN 514. [Prereq: CAS LX 250 Introduction to Linguistics or consent of instructor.]

CAS LX 501

Linguistic Field Methods

 web A1 O'Connor TR 9:30-11 CAS 228
An in-depth investigation of the phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and lexicon of an African or other non-Indo-European language. Weekly sessions with language consultant. [Prereq: CAS LX 250 Introduction to Linguistics or consent of instructor.]

CAS LX 502

Semantics I

 web A1 Alrenga TR 12:30-2 CAS 324
Semantics is the study of linguistic meaning. In this course, we will examine meaning from a variety of perspectives, including: how it is encoded in words and sentences, how native speakers interpret language, and how truth and falsehood can emerge from the complexity of the grammar. We will also touch on various aspects of pragmatics - the function of meaning in a communicative setting. [Prereq: CAS LX 250 Introduction to Linguistics or consent of instructor.]
  • Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS.

CAS LX 521

Morphology

 web A1 Baronian MWF 3-4 CAS 208
Morphology, the study of the internal structure and the shapes of words across languages, straddles the boundary between syntax and phonology. This course covers the major empirical and theoretical issues in the study of morphology, emphasizing links to other components of grammar. [Prereq: CAS LX 250 Introduction to Linguistics or consent of instructor.]
  • Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS.

CAS LX 522

Syntax I

 web A1 Hagstrom TR 12:30-2 KCB 107
Introduction to the logical structure and organization of language, and to generative theory. Application of principles of syntactic analysis to students' own and other languages through data-oriented problems from different language types. [Prereq: CAS LX 250 Introduction to Linguistics or consent of instructor.]
  • Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS.

CAS LX 523

Syntax II

 web A1 Hagstrom M 4-7 CAS 425
Investigation of syntactic commonalities and differences across languages. Scrutiny of evidence and argumentation from past and current analyses, focusing on construction of strong arguments. Topics include movement, passives, question formation, syntactic micro-structure, and interaction with semantics, pragmatics, and phonology. [Prereq: CAS LX 522 Syntax I or consent of instructor.]

CAS LX 525

Prosody

 A1 Barnes TR 11-12:30 CAS 223
Exploration of the melodic and rhythmic aspects of the languages of the world. Emphasis on theoretical and experimental approaches to cross-linguistic typology. Specific topics include: syllables and syllable-weight, rhythm and speech timing; stress and metrics; tone and intonation. [Prereq: CAS LX 510 Phonetics or consent of instructor.]

CAS LX 533

Creole Linguistics

 web A1 Baronian MWF 12-1 CAS 237
Overview of pidginization and creolization. Evolution, typology, and area characteristics of creole languages. Role of contact languages and other substrata. Field and classroom research with creole language speakers. [Prereq: CAS LX 250 Introduction to Linguistics or consent of instructor.]
 
Related courses at BU
Course number Course title Section Instructor Days Time Room

CAS LS 504

History of the Spanish Language

 A1 Zaderenko MWF 12-1 CAS 223
(Conducted in Spanish) Study of the structure of sounds, general concepts of language change, and specific phonological, morphological and syntactic changes in the history of Spanish. Begins with the modern language and proceeds to successively earlier stages; includes reading of representative medieval and dialectal texts. [Prereq: CAS LS 350 plus two CAS LS 400-level literature courses]
  • This course can satisfy requirements for both the Spanish and the Spanish & Linguistics majors; it can also satisfy the Linguistics major requirement for a course in the linguistic analysis of a specific language, as well as counting toward both the Spanish and Linguistics minors. See http://www.bu.edu/linguistics/UG/spanling.html for further details.

CAS LX 508

The Structure of Spanish

 web A1 Erker MWF 10-11 CAS 116
(Conducted in Spanish) The goal of this course is to introduce students to the structure of the Spanish language, with a focus on its morphology and syntax. We examine the internal structure of words and the inflectional and derivational processes that constrain them. In addition, the course introduces key concepts such as morpheme, affix, grammatical class, linguistic gender, nominalization, and verbalization. We also investigate fundamental principles of syntactic theory and analysis, with an emphasis on the hierarchical relationships among words at the phrasal level. We use naturalistic speech data, collected from around the Spanish-speaking world, to critically examine key assumptions and tools of contemporary syntactic theory, including X-bar theory, binary branching, thematic role assignment, and the concept of the sentence. We give special attention the notion of ungrammaticality as it relates to syntactic and morphological variation and change. [Prereq: One 300-level Spanish course and CAS LX 250 Introduction to Linguistics, or consent of instructor]
[Also offered as CAS LS 508]
  • Note: This course cannot substitute for CAS LX 522 Syntax I for major or minor requirements, although it does count for the Linguistic major requirement of a course on the linguistic analysis of a specific language or as an elective for the Linguistics minor.
  • This course can also satisfy requirements for both the Spanish and the Spanish & Linguistics majors, and it can also count as one of the six courses for the Spanish minor.
  • See http://www.bu.edu/linguistics/UG/spanling.html for further details.