Courses
Basic Graduate Student Curriculum:
- Ling 220a, Syntax & Semantics I
This course aims at developing a solid conceptual, analytical, and empirical foundation for doing research in syntax and semantics. The emphasis is on gaining familiarity with the central empirical phenomena, as well as core theoretical notions, methodology, and argumentation. - Ling 220b*, Syntax & Semantics II
This course continues the survey of syntactic and semantic phenomena in natural languages and the methods of their description begun in 220A. - Ling 205*, Cognitive Linguistics
This will be an advanced course in cognitive linguistics. Among the topics covered will be cognitive bases for aspects of grammatical structure, cognitive constraints on language change and grammaticalization, and motivations for linguistic universals (i.e., constraints on variability). - Ling 290A, Syntax Seminar
- Ling 290B, Semantics Seminar
Related Elective Areas:
- Ling 121, Logical Semantics
Basic logical concepts. Truth, denotation, and their relation. Models and interpretation. Translation from natural language into logical form and compositionality. Quantification and scope. Intensionality, context-dependency, and presupposition. - Ling 122, Linguistic Typology
Issues in language typology and linguistic universals. An examination of various linguistic subsystems in different languages. Topics will include interrogatives, pronominal systems, relative clause formation, case systems, etc. - Ling 125, Formal Theories of Syntax
The course will provide a survey of contemporary syntactic theories. These will include such formal theories of syntax as lexical functional grammar (LFG), generalized phrase structure grammar (GPSG), government and binding (GB), relational grammar (RG), etc. Emphasis will be on the development of these theories and on their basic claims and internal organization. The theories will be contrasted in terms of their architectural designs and in their treatment of selected linguistic phenomena. - Ling 170, History, Structure, and Sociolinguistics of a Particular Language.
In this course, students explore with a faculty member the history, structure, and sociolinguistics of a particular language. Generally, this is a language that is a research interest of the professor. The language investigated changes with each offering of this course. - Ling 181, Lexical Semantics
Lectures and exercises in the description of word meanings, the organization of lexical systems, the lexicalization of particular semantic domains (kinship, color, etc.), and contrastive lexicology: lexicalization pattern differences across languages. - Ling 215, Morphology
Examination of complex morphological systems. Issues in the theory of word morphology. - Ling 270, Structure of a Particular Language
An analysis of the language structure of a particular language. The language investigated changes from year to year.