Course Syllabus

A PDF syllabus with various information about grading and mechanics can be found here.

Schedule of topics and assignments (subject to revision)

Assignments and readings are due on the date listed. Green indicates activities focused on writing assignments.

  Class Day Date Title Topics Readings Additional readings and videos Assignments, papers and exams
1. W 9/7 Introduction
  • What is linguistics about?
  • Levels of linguistic structure
  • Things nobody ever taught you about language
  Morphology
2. M 9/12 Morphology, part 1
  • Prescriptivism, Descriptivism, Language Standards
  • The units of meaning
  • Morphemes and the lexicon
 Read: Culbertson & Adger (2004) (for recitation 9/16)
3. W 9/14 Morphology, part 2
  • Possible vs. actual words
  • Productivity
  • Morphological segmentation
  • Functions of morphemes
 Read: Saffran & al (1996) , Don (2014), chapter 1
R 9/15 Due: Assignment 1
4. M 9/19 Morphology, part 3,  and also: Introducing the writing advisors
  • Shapes of morphemes
  • Morphological analysis
  • Affix ordering
 Taft & Forster (1975), pp. 638–641 Optionally read: Don (2014) Chapter 3, part 1: Inflectional morphology.pdf
5. W 9/21 Morphology, part 4
  • Affixation via Merge
  • Selection and syntactic categories
  • Competition and blocking
F 9/23 No recitations (MIT student holiday)
  Syntax
📽🍿 Sept 23-25 Optional film series viewing: Talking Black in America
6. M 9/26 Syntax, part 1
  • Finishing up some morphology
  • Grammaticality vs. familiarity
 Read: Baker, chapters 1 and 2 (by Friday)
T 9/27 Due: Assignment 2

 

Materials from the writing advisors for structuring Paper 1 (Critical summary) will be posted here.
7. W 9/28 Syntax, part 2
  • Constituency
  • Syntactic categories
  • Building sentences with Merge
  • Categories of phrases
 Continue reading Baker chap 3, other parts as useful for Paper 1

 

Optional writing workshops, tentatively (pick whatever fits your schedule best):

  • Friday, 9/30, 4-5pm, 4-159
  • Monday, 10/3, 7-8pm, 4-149
8. M 10/3 Syntax, part 3
  • The X-bar schema
  • Structure of a sentence
  • The head of a sentence
 O'Grady chap 5 (pp. 155–172)
9. W 10/5 Syntax, part 4
  • Complements vs. modifiers
  • Complementizers
 O'Grady chap 5 (pp. 172–198)
F 10/7 Due: Paper 1: Critical summary (1000 words)

 

📽🍿 Oct 7-9 Optional film series viewing: We Still Live Here / Âs Nutayuneân (on Plex)

Also recommended: Keep Talking / Niugaa Yugaa
M 10/10 No class—Indigenous Peoples Day
10. W 10/12

Syntax, part 5

 
  • Movement
  • Verb second word order
 Baker, chapters 4–end
F 10/14 Due: Assignment 3
  Phonetics
11. M 10/17

Syntax, part 6

 
  • Sound for speech
  • The larynx
 Ladefoged & Johnson (2010), chap 1
12. W 10/19

Phonetics, part 1: the voice and vowels

Also: Quiz 1 review (Complete Quiz 1 on Gradescope by Saturday 6pm; you have 90 minutes from when you access it)

 Ladefoged & Johnson (2010), chap 2 Quiz 1 on Gradscope
📽🍿 Oct 21-23 Optional film series viewing: The Linguists
13. M 10/24 Phonetics, part 2
  • Consonants
 Ladefoged & Johnson (2010), chap 3
T 10/25 Due: Assignment 4
14. W 10/26 Phonetics, part 3
  • Phonetic transcription
 Ladefoged & Johnson (2010), chap 4
  Phonology
15. M 10/31 Phonology, part 1
  • Inventories
T 11/1 Due: Assignment 5
16. W 11/2 Phonology, part 2
  • Contrast and minimal pairs
  • Features
17. M 11/7 Phonology, part 3
  • Constraints on sounds and sequences
T 11/8 Optional: Assignment 6
18. W 11/9 Phonology, part 4
  • Generating distributions with prioritized constraints
F 11/11 No recitations — Veterans Day holiday

 

Slides from the Writing Advisors with advice for Paper 2 are posted here.

 

 

Some Quiz 2 practice questions are posted here.
📽🍿 Nov 11-13 Optional film series viewing:  Rising Voices / Hótȟaŋiŋpi
19. M 11/14 Semantics, part 1
  • Compositionality
  • Truth conditions vs. truth values
T 11/15 Paper 2 due: Analytical description (3000 words)
  Semantics
20. W 11/16

Semantics, part 2

 
  • Relations between truth conditions
  • Equivalence, Constradiction, dntailment
 Quiz 2 available
Sat 11/19 Quiz 2 due
21. M 11/21 Semantics, part 3
  • Introducing Paper 3
  • Negative Polarity Items
22. W 11/23

No class
📽🍿 Nov 26-28 Optional film series viewing: Arrival (on Plex)

 

Writing systems
23. M 11/28 Semantics, part 4
  • How to craft an Elevator Pitch
  • Presupposition and Implicature
  • Quantifiers
 Daniels & Bright (1996), introduction

 

 

Paper 3 (Research Proposal) resources will be posted here
  Language variation and change
24. W 11/30 Writing systems
  • Linguistic principles for organizing a writing system

 
F 12/2 Elevator pitches in recitation
25. M 12/5 Language variation and change, part 1
  • Types and dimensions of variability
  • The link between variation and change
T 12/6 Paper 3 due: Research proposal (1000 words)
26. W 12/7 Language variation and change, part 2
  • Variation through reanalysis (chance)
  • Imitation of variants (accommodation)
  • Selective imitation

 

 
F 12/9

 
27. M 12/12 Language variation and change, part 3
  • Structured variation and change
  • The regularity hypothesis

 
28. W 12/14 Language variation and change, part 4
  • Language reconstruction

Paper 2 revision due