Course Syllabus

Click here for a PDF syllabus with various information about grading and mechanics.

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 9/6 Introduction [slides]
  • What is linguistics about?
  • Levels of linguistic structure
  • Things nobody ever taught you about language
Morphology
2. M 9/11 Morphology, part 1 [slides]
  • Prescriptivism, Descriptivism, Language Standards
  • The units of meaning
  • Morphemes and the lexicon
 Read: Culbertson & Adger (2004) (for recitation 9/15)
3. W 9/13 Morphology, part 2 [slides]
  • Possible vs. actual words
  • Productivity
  • Morphological segmentation
  • Functions of morphemes
 Read: Saffran & al (1996) , Don (2014), chapter 1
R 9/14 Due: Assignment 1
4. M 9/18 Morphology, part 3 [slides]
  • 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 9/20 Morphology, part 4 [slides]
  • Affixation via Merge
  • Selection and syntactic categories
F 9/21 No recitations (MIT student holiday)
Syntax
📽🍿 Sept 22-24 Optional film series viewing: Talking Black in America (on Plex)
6. M 9/25 Morphology, part 5 [slides]
  • Selectional restrictions
  • Blocking
  • Grammaticality vs. familiarity
 Read: Baker, chapters 1 and 2 (by Friday)
T 9/26 Due: Assignment 2

Here are some slides from the writing advisors with advice for approaching and structuring Paper 1 (Critical summary)

Also, the 'Writing resources' module has additional resources for formatting references, linguistic examples, etc.
7. W 9/27 Syntax, part 1 [slides], and also: Introducing the writing advisors
  • 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 for Paper 1:

  • Friday 9/29, 3–4:30pm, 56-180
  • Monday 10/2, 7–8:30pm, 4-149
8. M 10/2 Syntax, part 2 [slides]
  • Phrase types, heads
  • The X-bar schema
 O'Grady chap 5 (pp. 155–172)
9. W 10/4 Syntax, part 3 [slides]
  • Structure of a sentence
  • Complements vs. modifiers
 O'Grady chap 5 (pp. 172–198)
F 10/6 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 10/9 No class—Indigenous Peoples Day
10. W 10/11

Syntax, part 4 [slides]

 
  • Complementizers
  • Head-finality
 Baker, chapters 4–end
F 10/13 Due: Assignment 3
Phonetics
11. M 10/16

Syntax, part 5 [slides]

 
  • Head-finality, cont.
  • Movement
  • Verb second word order
 Ladefoged & Johnson (2010), chap 1 Here are some Quiz 1 practice problems
12. W 10/18

Phonetics, part 1: the voice  [slides]

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 Gradescope
📽🍿 Oct 20-22 Optional film series viewing: The Linguists (on Plex)
13. M 10/23 Phonetics, part 2 [slides]
  • Vowels
 Ladefoged & Johnson (2010), chap 3
T 10/24 Due: Assignment 4
14. W 10/25 Phonetics, part 3 [slides]
  • Consonants
  • Phonetic transcription
 Ladefoged & Johnson (2010), chap 4
Phonology
15. M 10/30 Phonology, part 1 [slides]
  • Inventories
T 10/31 Due: Assignment 5
16. W 11/1 Phonology, part 2 [slides]
  • Contrast and minimal pairs
  • Features
17. M 11/6 Phonology, part 3 [slides]
  • Constraints on sounds and sequences

Optional writing workshops:

  • Friday 11/3 3:30–5pm, 56-180
  • Wed 11/8 7–8:30pm, 4-145

Slides from the Writing Advisors with advice for Paper 2 are posted here.
T 11/7 Due: Optional Assignment 6
18. W 11/8 Phonology, part 4 [slides]
  • Generating distributions with prioritized constraints
F 11/10 No recitations (Veterans Day observed)

Some Quiz 2 practice questions are posted here. The practice questions focus heavily on transcription and familiarizing you with IPA symbols, but the goal is not necessarily transcription per se, but to make sure you are thinking about sounds and their properties (the terminology to describe them)
📽🍿 Nov 11-13 Optional film series viewing:  Rising Voices / Hótȟaŋiŋpi
19. M 11/13 Semantics, part 1 [slides]
  • Compositionality
  • Truth conditions vs. truth values
T 11/14 Paper 2 due: Analytical description (3000 words)
Semantics
20. W 11/15

Semantics, part 2 [slides]

 
  • Relations between truth conditions
  • Equivalence, Contradiction, entailment
 Quiz 2 available on Gradescope
Mon 11/20 Quiz 2 due
21. M 11/20 Semantics, part 3 [slides]
  • Introducing Paper 3
  • Negative Polarity Items
22. W 11/22

No class
📽🍿 Nov 26-28 Optional film series viewing: Arrival (on Plex)
23. M 11/27 Semantics, part 4 [slides]
  • How to craft an Elevator Pitch
  • Presupposition and Implicature
  • Quantifiers
 Daniels & Bright (1996), introduction

 

Paper 3 (Research Proposal) resources will be posted here
Writing systems
24. W 11/29 Writing systems [slides]
  • Linguistic principles for organizing a writing system

 
F 12/1 Elevator pitches in recitation
Language variation and change
25. M 12/4 Language variation and change, part 1 [slides]
  • Types and dimensions of variability
  • The link between variation and change
T 12/5 Paper 3 due: Research proposal (1000 words)
26. W 12/6 Language variation and change, part 2 [slides]
  • Variation through reanalysis (chance)
  • Imitation of variants (accommodation)
  • Selective imitation

 

 
F 12/8

 
27. M 12/11 Language variation and change, part 3 [slides]
  • Structured variation and change
  • The regularity hypothesis

 
28. W 12/13 Language variation and change, part 4 [slides]
  • Language reconstruction

Paper 2 revision due