The Unity and Diversity of Human Language Spring 2009 - Content

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Usama Soltan - nobody@example.net — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 04:05:59 -0400

You have entered the fascinating world of human language. Enjoy the journey!

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Usama Soltan - nobody@example.net — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 04:06:00 -0400

"It just so often happens that upon close scientific inquiry, what looks like an endless unconstrained realm of diversity on the surface is actually nothing but a finite set of principled manifestations of a common core of sameness."

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Usama Soltan - nobody@example.net — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 04:06:00 -0400

Class meets twice a week, on Mondays and Wednesdays, from 2:50 to 4:05pm, in Room 109 at Axinn!

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Usama Soltan - nobody@example.net — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 04:06:00 -0400

This course is an introduction to the main issues in the study of cross-linguistic variation, particularly from a formalist perspective. We will be mainly concerned with characterizing the notion "possible human language", showing how linguistic diversity is actually constrained and that certain universal principles hold of all languages. We will also discuss the kind of explanations for linguistic diversity that are typically given by two major schools of linguistic thought. Linguistic data will be drawn from both familiar as well as the so-called “exotic” languages, and linguistic phenomena will relate primarily to aspects of word formation (morphology) and sentence structure (syntax). In the second half of the term, we will discuss diversity in human language across space (e.g., geographical and social dialects) and time (language change), as well as “language emergence” as in the case of pidgins and creoles, “language death” and the case of endangered languages, minority languages as in the case of sign languages.

If it helps, you may think of the course as having three major parts, all relating to the issue of language diversity (check the class schedule here). In Part I, we start with a general introduction to the study of linguistic typology and the major issues typically discussed in this regard. Then we move on to Part II, where we look in detail at several instances of variation in syntactic phenomena (i.e., those related to sentence structures) as well as morphological phenomena (i.e., those related to word structure). In Part III of the course, we spend most of the second half of the term discussing linguistic diversity in historical and sociological terms, as well as issues relating to language birth and language death. We will end the course with a discussion of another fascinating aspect of linguistic diversity, that is, sign language systems, where the manual-visual modality replaces the audio-oral modality of spoken languages, thus helping us further in our pursuit to answering the fundamental question: "What is a possible human language?"

Should be a fun course. Welcome Everyone!

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Usama Soltan - nobody@example.net — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 04:06:00 -0400

REQUIRED TEXTBOOK

Title: The atoms of language: The Mind's Hidden Rules Of Grammar.
Author: Baker, Mark.
Publisher: New York: Basic Books.
Year of publication: 2002.
ISBN 0465005225. Paperback.
URL: http://www.perseusbooksgroup.com/basic/book_detail.jsp?isbn=0465005225
(This book is available in the college booksotre)

Title: Exploring language structure: A student's guide.
Author: Payne, Thomas.
Publisher: New York: Basic Books.
Year of publication: 2006.
ISBN 0465005225. Paperback.
URL: http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521671507
(This book is available in the college booksotre)

Both books are on 2-hour reserve in the main library.I also put David Crystal's "The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language" on physical reserve. It's a good reference for some of the topics that we'll be covering in this class.

Readings will be assigned from the required textbooks (essentially all of Baker's book will be covered, and most chapters from Payne's work). More reading materials will be assigned for for more elaborate content or for content not covered in the textbooks. These will be all articles or chapters from books. Many of these will be made available through electronic reserve, and links to them will be listed here as well as on the syllabus page.

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Usama Soltan - nobody@example.net — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:25:51 -0400

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

This will be a reading-intensive course. Students are required to READ the textbooks as well as all materials on reserve or on the course website that are assigned in class every week.

There will be FOUR ASSIGNMENTS to test your understanding of the material covered in class and to help you work on aspects of cross-linguistic variation on your own, applying the same reasoning and analytical tools that we’ll be discussing in class. Each homework counts for 10% of your overall grade. So, take them seriously! While I do not mind you discussing assignment questions with your colleagues, bear in mind that the work you turn in has to be yours, and yours alone. Copying someone else’s work will be treated as cheating, will receive no credit, and will be subject the consequences of violating academic integrity, as described in the College’s Academic Honesty Statement given at the bottom of this page.Also, please do turn in the assignment on time. Here's my policy concerning delay in turning in assignments:
    5% off if turned in after the deadline on the day it’s due (that means prior to midnight via e-mail only).
    10% off if turned in on the next day after the deadline.
    20% off if turned in later than that.
    Not accepted after I post the solutions (I know this is self-evident, but just in case)

In addition, each student will be required to work on a LANGUAGE ADOPTION PROJECT (LAP) for an unfamiliar or endangered language, and turn in a 10-page report on this particular language. Details on this project will be posted here in due time. The LAP will be assigned on March 16 and is due on May 10 by 1pm. A brief project proposal is also required by April 6th. A list of suggested languages and resources for the project will be posted here soon. Please note that no two LAP projects can be on the same language. After all, this is a course about “diversity”.

ATTENDANCE and CLASS PARTICIPATION are important to do well in this course. It’s impossible to do well on homework problems or write a good project report without attending classes regularly. And by “impossible” I really mean “impossible”.

Finally, students are required to take TWO EXAMS: a midterm and a final. The midterm exam is tentatively scheduled for March 18th. The final exam, which will be comprehensive, is tentatively scheduled for May 12.

Here's how each course requirement contributes to your overall percentage in the course:

Class attendance and participation (including doing the readings)	5%
4 Assignments	40%
Language Adoption Project (LAP)	15%
Midterm Exam	20%
Final Exam	20%

Here's how your letter grade will be assigned:

A	95% plus
A-	90% plus to 95%
B+	87% plus to 90%
B	83% plus to 87%
B-	80% plus to 83%
C+	75% plus to 80%
C	70% plus to 75%
C-	65% plus to 70%
D	50% plus to 65%
F	Less than 50%

Honor code

I will follow the Middlebury College’s Academic Honesty Statement as described here:

http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/acadinfo/honorcode/statement.htm

Please make sure to write the Honor Code Pledge "I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this assignment," on both exams as well as the LAP report (use “We” in this latter case, since you’ll be working in pairs). There’s no need to write the pledge on the assignments since I do not mind your discussing homework problems together. Make sure, however, to turn in your own work. Copying someone else’s work on assignments will still count as cheating, will receive no credit, not to mention the consequences of violating academic integrity.

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Usama Soltan - nobody@example.net — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 04:06:00 -0400

Ethnologue: An encyclopedic reference work cataloging all of the world’s 6,912 known living languages

The Universals Archive of Universität Konstanz. : A huge list of linguistic universals that have been suggested in the relevant literature, in particular those of an implicational kind.

SIL

Endangered languages:The SIL webpage on endangered languages.

Software tools: Computer resources including an extensive library for language researchers and software tools and fonts.

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Usama Soltan - nobody@example.net — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 04:06:01 -0400

Usama Soltan
Assistant Professor of Arabic
Farrell House, Room 206
Middlebury College
Middlebury, VT 05753

Email: usoltan@middlebury.edu
Office phone extension: x5869

Office Hours:
Monday 11:15am-12:45pm
Friday: 11:15am-12:45pm,
and by appointment (e-mail to make an appointment).

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Usama Soltan - nobody@example.net — Mon, 25 May 2009 19:44:04 -0400

This is the (tentative) class-by-class schedule that I envisage for this course. As usual, there will be changes here and there as the term unfolds, but it should you give you a clear idea on what we intend to cover over the semester. This is also where a lot of the course materials will be uploaded (readings, assignments, exams). It's a convenient way of grouping (almost) everything in one table on a single page. So, check here often.

Date	Topics		Readings	Assignments
Feb 9	Administrivia (i.e., boring stuff) Part I: Introduction to linguistic typology How many languages are there? The language-dialect distinction: linguistic or sociopolitical? Lecture slides in .pdf		Anderson on "How many languages are there in the world": An LSA online article Optional: Birner: Why do some people have an accent? Another LSA online article	Open the INTD0111_questionnaire file either by clicking on the link here, or in the "shared" directory of the course folder, and follow the instructions there. Visit ETHONOLOGUE online and learn more about the range of linguistic diversity in the world.
Feb 11	Introduction to linguistic typology cont. Classifying languages: genetic, areal, and typological classifications What is a "possible human language"? Language universals (absolute and implicational). Lecture Slides in .pdf You can see N. Y. Falk's language classification diagrams here.		Winford on language contact: An LSA article. O’Grady et al: Chapter 8 on the classification of languages Read 347-49 and 365-81. Optional: Comrie on linguistic diversity: An LSA online article
Feb 16	Variation in basic word order Explaining language universals: A brief look at the functionalist-formalist debate The "design features" of human language vs. animal communication systems Lecture Slides in .pdf		Baker Chapters 1 and 2 Payne Chapter 1, pp. 1-9 Whaley Chapter 3 pp. 30-53
Feb 18	Human language vs. animal communication systems cont. Language as a biological system: Chomsky's "Plato's problem" Evidence for language as a biological system Lecture Slides in .pdf		Baker Chapters 2 and 3	First talk in the "Language Works" series by yours truly: "On linguistic diversity, child language, and the notion 'possible human language'" In RAJ conference room at 4:30pm
Feb 23	Part II: Aspects of syntactic and morphological typology Introducing Principles and Parameters theory Structure-dependency Baker's "atoms" of language: Introducing parameters: The null subject parameter: (English/ French vs. Italian/Spanish) Lecture slides in .pdf		Baker Chapter 3 cont.	HW#1 assigned: .pdf
Feb 25	Introduction to syntax: constituency, phrase structure rules, and structural “trees” Word order variation revisited: The head directionality parameter SOV vs. SVO languages: English/Edo vs. Japanese/Navajo Lecture slides in .pdf		Payne Chapter 6 and Chapter 7 (Syntactic typology)
Feb 27				Second talk in the "Language Works" series by Professor David Stoll, Associate Professor of Anthropology: "Endangered Languages and the Strange Case of the Summer Institute of Linguistics" In RAJ conference room at 12:15pm
March 2	VSO languages: Irish/Welsh Verb placement in English vs. French. Verb placement in German/Scandinavian: V2 effect Lecture slides in .pdf		Baker Chapter 5: Alloys and compounds: pp. 123-140
March 4	VOS/OVS/OSV languages: Malagasy/Hixkarayana/Nadëb Languages with freedom of word order (aka nonconfigurational languages): Mohawk A quick introduction to morphology: morphemes (bound vs. free / inflectional vs. derivational) Morphological typology: Synthesis and fusion continua/ head-marking vs dependent-marking Lecture slides in .pdf		Baker Chapter 5 cont.: Alloys and compounds: pp. 123-140 Baker Chapter 5 pp. 140-143 on verb serialization Payne Chapter 1: Some basic concepts in morphology, pp. 16-20 Payne Chapter 7 (Morphological typology) Start reading Baker Chapter 4: Baking a polysynthetic language	HW#1due
March 9	Polysynthetic languages: complex word structure, noun and verb incorporation, freedom of word order, subject and object drop: The case of MOHAWK The dislocation analysis of free word order languages (aka as "The pronominal Argument Hypothesis") Lecture slides in .pdf		Baker Chapter 4 cont. Payne Chapter 2, pp. 32-45, on conceptual categories and morphological processes	HW#2 assigned: .pdf
March 11	Optional polysynthesis: Chichewa, Slave, and absence of Reverse Chichewa "The Agreement Principle": Animacy and definiteness effects in Swahili Baker's parameter hierarchy Lecture slides in .pdf		Baker Chapter 5 (section on optional polysynthesis pp. 143-156)
March 14 (Saturday)	REVIEW AT 10AM		READ EVERYTHING! COME WITH QUESTIONS.
March 16	Toward a periodic table of human languages: A few more parameters Verb serialization: Edo The Adjective Neutralization Parameter: Mohawk vs. Mayali The Ergative Case parameter: Nominative-accusative vs. ergative-absolutive languages The Topic-prominent Parameter: Japanese vs. English (again) The wh-parameter: Japanese vs. English (yet again) Implications of the parameter hierarchy for language acquisition Lecture slides in .pdf		Baker Chapter 6 Payne Chapter 8 on "Grammatical Relations"	Third talk in the "Language Works" series by Hannah Washington (University of Texas, Midd ’08) : "Metaphony: A Contrastive Cross-linguistic Study within Southern Romance" In RAJ conference room at 4:30pm HW#2 due Midterm exam assigned
March 18	The Anaphor Domain Parameter: Japanese vs. English (it's true; again) Wrap-up: Why parameters? Issues of language and culture Language and evolutionary biology Any questions, anybody? Lecture slides in .pdf		Baker Chapter 7 Against UG: The Piraha debate	Language Adoption Project (LAP) assigned Click here for LAP guideline questions
Friday March 20				Midterm exam due by 11:30am
March 21-29	SPRING BREAK!		HAVE FUN!
March 30		PART III: Diversity over time Language change: Lexical, semantic, and morphological change Lecture slides in .pdf	An LSA article by Thompson Fromkin et al's chapter 11 on language change: Part 1
April 1		Syntactic change Basic introduction to Phonetics Lecture slides in .pdf	Fromkin et al chapter 11 Part 1 cont. Payne Chapter 3	Fourth talk in the "Language Works" series by Stefano Mula, Assistant Professor of Italian: “Historical Linguistics: A Philologist’s Perspective” In RAJ conference room at 4:30pm
April 6		Phonological change Lexical diffusion Lecture slides in .pdf	Fromkin et al's chapter 11 on language change: Part 2	LAP proposal due, specifying language of project, and typological aspects of syntactic and morphological diversity of interest
April 8		Reconstruction, the comparative method, cognates. Why do languages change? Lecture slides in .pdf
April 13		PART IV: Diversity over space Explaining language change under the parametric approach - Baker: OV to VO in the history of English - Lightfoot: Loss of verb-second in English Sociolinguistic diversity: Language, dialect, idiolect, accent Dialectal variation of English: lexical, phonological, morphological, and syntactic Lecture slides in .pdf	Fromkin et al's chapter 10 on "Language in Society" Part I Fromkin et al's Part II	HW#3 assigned: .pdf
April 15		Sociolinguistic diversity cont. So, what's a "Standard" dialect exactly? African American English On some "myths" regarding language variation Lecture slides in .pdf	Fromkin et al's chapter 10 cont.
April 20		Styles, slang, and jargon Language and gender Lecture slides in .pdf	Fromkin et al's chapter 10 cont.	HW#3 due
April 22		Language emergence: The case of pidgins and creoles Lecture slides in .pdf	David Crystal's Encyclopedia: chapter on pidgins and creoles, pp. 334-339. Jackendoff 1993: Patterns in the Mind, Chap 10, pp. 130-139	HW#4: .pdf
April 27		PART V: Diversity in "modality" Minority languages: Sign languages American Sign Language (ASL): phonology, morphology, syntax, acquisition, historical change, and dialectal variation. Lecture slides in .pdf	Chapter on sign languages from David Crystal's Encyclopedia. Jackendoff 1993: Patterns in the Mind, Chap 7, pp. 83-98
April 29		PART VI: Diversity endangered Language death and endangered languages Lecture slides in .pdf	LSA article on endangered languages Articles from the journal Language in 1992 on endangered languages.	HW#4 due
April 30 (Thursday)				Fifth talk in the "Language Works" series by Andrei Barashkov, Assitant Professor of Italian “How to Keep Romance Alive: The Place of Romance Linguistics in the Modern Curriculum” In RAJ conference room at 4:30pm
May 4		LAP Presentations
May 6		LAP Presentations cont. Review: List of the topics we covered in this class Course evaluation forms	Read everything! Come to class with questions.
May 8		LAP Due by 1pm FINAL EXAM ASSIGNED .pdf
May 12		FINAL EXAM Due

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Usama Soltan - nobody@example.net — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:37:53 -0400

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

Slides files

Usama Soltan - nobody@example.net — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:18:27 -0400

No file has been selected yet.

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Usama Soltan - nobody@example.net — Mon, 25 May 2009 19:41:24 -0400

On this page are posted the four homework assignments for the class. These assignments are meant to test your understanding of the material covered in class and to help you work on aspects of cross-linguistic variation on your own, applying the same reasoning and analytical tools that we’ll be discussing in class. Each homework counts for 10% of your overall grade. So, take them seriously! While I do not mind you discussing assignment questions with your colleagues, bear in mind that the work you turn in has to be yours, and yours alone. Copying someone else’s work will be treated as cheating, will receive no credit, and will be subject the consequences of violating academic integrity, as described in the College’s Academic Honesty Statement.

Policy on delay in turning in assignments:
5% off if turned in after the deadline on the day it’s due (that normally means if turned in after 5pm in my mailbox or via e-mail).
10% off if turned in on the next day after the deadline.
20% off if turned in later than that.
Not accepted after I post the solutions (I know that's self-evident, but just in case)

Before attemtping to answer the questions on each assignment, please take a moment to read the general guidelines for answering questions on assignments (particularly before the first assignment).

Assignment #1: .pdf

Assignment #2: .pdf

Assignment #3: .pdf

Assignment #4: .pdf

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Usama Soltan - nobody@example.net — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 21:17:30 -0400

Introduction and Resources

In the Language Adoption Project, you're supposed to study a language of your choice, as long as the language is unfamiliar or endangered. There's plenty of these out there, so you shouldn't have trouble finding one. The goal of the project is for you to get to know a language that you haven't known much about before, and apply some of the concepts and analytical tools we discussed in class to that language to test our theory of grammar. For example, you'll need to find out which of the parameters we will talk about are relevant to your adopted language, and whether the langauge presents challenges to the theory we've been proposing. Of course, you're also expected to give some basic information about the language, where it is spoken, by how many speakers. if it's endangered, etc. A link to some guidelines questions for the LAP is given below. THE LAP IS DUE MAY 8th by 1pm. PLEASE LEAVE IT IN MY MAILBOX IN FARRELL HOUSE.

A good resource on languages of the world which I mentioned in class is the “The world atlas of language structures”, which is available in the main library at the Main Atlas Case G1046.E3 W6 2005.

An extensive list of languages and assoicated descriptive grammars is available here:

http://linguistics.buffalo.edu/people/faculty/dryer/dryer/atlas.bib

A shortened list that I created from online resources is available here.

Also, the catalogue I had in class is available online here: https://ssl.kundenserver.de/www.s83009615.einsundeinsshop.de/sess/utn;jsessionid=15452e7b540df1d/shopdata/index.shopscript

As you can see there’s no shortage of languages to work on; just make sure you choose an unfamiliar or endangered language. If you’re not sure if a language is suitable for the LAP, check with me first.

Also try to do some basic online search on the language you initially choose, and see if it interests you still.

LAP guideline questions

Here's a list of some guideline questions that you might want to consider when looking at your LAP language. Some of the questions will be relevant, some will not. Since you're all working on different languages, different aspects of morphological and syntactic typology will arise, but the list should at least give you an idea of what you are expected to be looking for regarding your LAP language.

LAP groups and languages

	Name of Student	LAP language
	Johanna Interian	Basque (Isolate)
	Tim Murray	Ket (Yeniseian)
	Kristian Shaw	Seneca (Iroquoian)
	Alyona Chernova	Georgian (Kartvelian)
	Dana Walters	Irish (Celtic)
	Lindsey Dattels	Tahitian (Austronesian)
	Margaret Kim	Shoshone (Uto-Azetcan)
	Rowan Kelner	Eastern Punjabi (Indo-Aryan)
	Katie Cyr	Ainu (Isolate)
	Tenzing Sherpa	Swahili (Bantu)
	Melissa Hayes	Piraha (Mura)
	Ava Kerr	Farsi (Indo-Iranian)
	Edwin Suh	Latvian (Baltic)
	Ross Berriman	Finnish (Uralic)
	Dana Harris	Samoan (Austronesian)
16.	Joseph Stern	Yiddish (Germanic)
17.	Abe Katz	Lakota (Siouan)
18.	Cary Palmisano	Fijian (Austronesian)
19.	Jesse Bluestein	Guarani (Tupi)
20.	John Gill	Yoruba (Niger-Congo)
21.	Gharri Lewis	Zulu (Niger-Congo)
22.	Lydia Michellson	Mozarabic (Romance with Arabic influences)
23.	Earl Atta-Fynn	Akan (Niger-Congo)

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Usama Soltan - nobody@example.net — Mon, 25 May 2009 19:42:06 -0400

Midterm Exam: .pdf

Final Exam: .pdf

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Usama Soltan - nobody@example.net — Sun, 24 May 2009 00:58:57 -0400

You can check your scores and grades by clicking HERE. Your scores are listed by your languages codes, which I distributed in class. If you do not know what your language code is, e-mail me.

Last updated on May 24, 2009, with final percentages and letter grades.

This class is now officially over.
Have a good summer everyone!

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Usama Soltan - nobody@example.net — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 11:44:26 -0400

Here's where you can ask questions, make suggestions, start a discussion on a topic related to the course, etc, So, feel free to use this part of the course website often. Click on "Discuss" to see the previous posts and/or place a post.