The Unity and Diversity of Human Language Spring 2009
 
SLIDES
 
 
 
LECTURE SLIDES

Lecture 1: Introduction

Lecture 2: Introduction cont.

Lecture 3: Variation in word order; "design features" of human language

Lecture 4: Biological basis for language; aspects of our "subconscious" knowledge of our native language.

Lecture 5: The "critical period" hypothesis; introducing UG

Lecture 6: Syntax; head directionality

Lecture 7: VSO-type languages (Welsh); French vs. English; why is the verb always second in German?

Lecture 8: VOS, OVS, and OSV languages; Mohawk and a crash course in morphology
Lecture 9: Mohawk polysynthetic word structure, subject and object drop, and freedom of word order.

Lecture 10: Optional polysynthesis: Chichewa, Slavey, and absence of Reverse Chichewa
Lecture 11: Verb serialization; adjective neutralization; accusative vs. ergative languages; the wh-parameter

Lecture 12: The anaphor binding parameter; wrap-up of parameters

Lecture 13: Language change: lexical change; semantic change; morphological change.

Lecture 14: Morphological change cont., syntactic change. Basic introduction to phonetics.

Lecture 15: Phonological change; lexical diffusion

Lecture 16: Historical linguistics, reconstruction, and causes of language change.

Lecture 17: Parametric appraoch to syntactic change; Introduction to sociolinguistics and dialectal variation

Lecture 18: Regional dialects; African American English, Chicano English; debunking some misconceived ideas about language variation

Lecture 19: More on language and society, Styles, Slang, and language and gender

Lecture 20: Pidgins and Creoles

Lecture 21: Sign language

Lecture 22: Language death

Lectures 23 and 24: Presentations

Review: List of the topics we covered in this class


added on 2009-02-08 at 5:08 pm
updated on 2009-05-07 at 12:37 pm
 
 
 
 
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added on 2009-02-09 at 11:48 pm
updated on 2009-10-22 at 12:18 am