Course Philosophy and Objectives
 

Language is fun. This class is designed to show you just how cool (as in California  kewl ) the study of language can be. Over the course of the semester, we will

• study linguists' theories about the roots, acquisition, nature, and functions of language
• learn about the sounds, structures, and symbols of language
• debate issues of language in relation to speech communities, culture, and gender
• explore constructed languages and attempts at interspecies and extraterrestrial communication
• examine the current state of language and its future
• understand and appreciate linguistic variety.

Textbook:

• Clark, Virginia P., Paul A. Eschholz and Alfred F. Rosa. Language: Readings in Language and Culture. Sixth Edition. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998.
• Thomas, Lee and Stephen Tchudi. The English Language: An Owner's Manual. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1999.

• A Collegiate Dictionary
• A spiral bound, lightweight, very portable notebook for your Commonplace Book
• A traditional binder notebook with notebook paper, dividers, and pockets for holding hard copies of your writings and copies of materials gathered and received
• A hole punch, so that articles and other materials may be inserted into your notebook
• Computer disks
• Photocopies of your work and various sources

Commonplace Book
Your Commonplace Book is a language journal in which you reflect casually and briefly on your daily language observations, the language artifacts you are gathering, and your growing appreciation of language fun-ness. Entries will be used and shared in class. Carry it with you or write in it at the end of each day.

Daily Assignments and Quizzes
Our daily assignments begin with the creation of our Star Wars names and include everything from doing field research and learning to divide language into its components to creating messages to send to other worlds. Some activities will extend beyond class time and require work outside of class. We will also debate a number of language issues and share our insights and growing collection of language artifacts.  Quizzes will be regularly random, so that we don't fall down on our responsibilities, become lax in our standards, or succumb to a general apathy for college and its power to enrich all our lives. 

Short Papers
We will write three one page papers in response to specific course activities and readings:

• A report on the history of a word in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED)
• An analysis of fieldwork done in your personal speech community
• An explanation of your linguistic considerations for the message you created to send out to other worlds .

Final Exam
The Final Exam will contain two parts: a knowledge portion drawn from the readings, films, lectures, discussion, and quizzes and a short essay portion. You will be given some indication on a day-to-day basis of the kinds of knowledge you will need to retain for the final exam, as well as a study guide late in the semester to help you prepare for the knowledge portion of the exam. The best preparation, though, comes daily, by taking good notes and by reviewing those notes often. You will also be given the essay questions to prepare in advance, and you may choose the questions you feel most comfortable responding to. 

Have Fun
And I mean it. Don't let academic sounding essay titles like "Developmental Milestones in Motor and Language Development" discourage you! Even the most abstruse essay contains some fascinating bits of language lore that we will enjoy testing, debating, mangling, and dismantling. And while technical jargon will be required learning, really, really, really technical jargon will merely be bandied about in class in the spirit of  "so that's what that's called!" and "hmm, isn't that interesting?" and "geez, who would've thought?"

Grading

Over the course of the semester, students will read a variety of essays about language and linguistics. In addition to the readings and quizzes, students will do a number of daily assignments, keep a Commonplace book, write three short papers, create a Language Portfolio, and take a final exam. In order to pass the course, you must complete the papers, submit a language portfolio, and take the final exam. In addition, the quality of your work, the percentage of the work that you complete, and your efforts at participation will determine your final grade.

Your Final Grade Distribution is as follows:

• Commonplace Book = 20%
• Daily Assignments and Quizzes = 10%
• Short Papers  = 20%
• Language Portfolio = 30%
• Final Exam = 20%

Attendance and Promptness
Attendance is mandatory. Regular attendance is an essential part of the student's educational experience and a requirement for an adequate evaluation of student academic progress. You are responsible for material covered or assignments given which you missed because of absence. School functions, illness, and personal crisis do not absolve you from your classroom obligations, so while due consideration is given to the student struck by lightening on the way to class, an absence cannot be designated as "excused" or "unexcused"--it simply "is."  I consider three absences to be reasonable; absences beyond three will affect your final grade, as you are not here to participate or turn in your work. Chronic lateness will count toward this total.

Participation And Preparation
You will be expected to make significant contributions to the class in the form of participation and preparation. Participation includes the contributions you make to class discussion and the effort you make to be a part of our discourse community. Preparation includes doing the daily readings and responses as assigned,  as well as engaging exuberantly in our activities. Keep in mind that live classroom discussion

gives you practice arguing with others respectfully and professionally

gives you opportunities to formulate applications of principles

gives you prompt feedback on difficult or confusing issues and material

increases your retention of material through explaining, summarizing, and questioning.

Student Disability
Any student in this course who has a disability that prevents the fullest expression of abilities should contact me by the end of the first week so that we can discuss class requirements.

Late Work
All assignments are due at the beginning of the hour on the due date, unless otherwise specified. Learning is a cumulative process and each assignment in this course is designed to build on the last assignment; therefore, late work disrupts this important aspect of the learning process. Except for the formal papers, no late work will be accepted. Papers will not be discounted if turned in within 24 hours of the due date. Otherwise, they will be discounted one letter grade for every class period past the due date. No work will be accepted after the last class day before final exams.

Computer Usage
You will be called upon to read materials online, use Webboard, and to use computers in and outside of class time. We will post some of our materials to Webboard so that we may more fully share our ideas and increase our interchanges. Further, the final papers and portfolio for this course must be word processed.

Plagiarism

. . . it is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. -- Herman Melville

Final Thoughts
Life is unpredictable--at least it appears so. I recognize that at times your outside life may interfere with your classroom life. It is up to you to set your priorities and to realize that "doing it all" is not always possible or even desirable. If you are feeling stressed about all you have to accomplish, remember that sometimes you can miss class, sometimes you can come to class unprepared, and sometimes you can really mess up--without it affecting your grade unduly. If, however, what should be an occasional problem completing your work becomes a chronic problem, come see me. If I understand what is going on in your life, I can more easily help you achieve your goals.

Course Schedule

Introduction to Language

January

15 (T)

Syllabus and Introduction to the Course
Assign Commonplace Book
Assign Language Portfolio

Reading for Class: Owner's Manual pp 31-44
Film: Discovering the Human Language

Reading for Class: Daniels' "Nine Ideas About Language"pp 43-60

History of Language

Film: The Story of English, Part Two: The Mother Tongue
Assign OED Report

29 (T)

Reading for Class: Owner's Manual pp 139-166

Meet at Library to work on OED reports

Reading for class: Hughes' "Language and Writing" pp 705-722

Language and Culture

7 (Th)

OED Reports Due
Film: American Tongues
Assign Speech Community Fieldwork Assignment

Reading for class: Roberts' "Speech Communities" pp 267-276  and Marckwardt and Dillard's "Social and Regional Variation" pp 277-291

Reading for class: Shuy's "Dialects: How They Differ" pp 292-312 and  Smitherman's "'It Bees Dat Way Sometime': Sounds and Structures of Present Day Black English" pp 328-343

19 (T)

Reading for class: Pfeiffer's "Girl Talk-Boy Talk" pp 357-364

Language Acquisition

21 (Th)

Speech Community Field Work and Analysis Due
Film: Acquiring the Human Language

Reading for Class: Moskowitz's "The Acquisition of Language" pp 529-555 and Lenneberg's "Developmental Milestones in Motor and Language Development" 556-559

28 (Th)

  Reading for Class: Aitchison's "Predestinate Grooves: Is There a PreOrdained Language 'Program'?" pp 560-579

Sounds and Structures in Language

March

5 (T)

Reading for class: Callary's "Phonetics" pp 113-133

Reading for class: Ohio State University Language Files' "The Minimal Units of Meaning: Morphemes" pp 134-143

Reading for class: Jacobs and Rosenbaum's "What Do Native Speakers Know About Their Language?" pp 183-188

Reading for class: Heny's "Syntax: The Structure of Sentences" pp 189-224

Discussion Continues

Constructing and Constructed Languages

28 (Th)

Reading for class: Emmorey's "Sign Language" pp 79-95
Francis' "Word-Making: Some Sources for New Words" pp 154-165

Commonplace Books Due - 50 Entries
Reading for class: Owner's Manual pp 248-25 
Web reading for class: "An Introduction to the Klingon Language" at http://www.uni-duisburg.de/SCHULEN/GDM/schueler/stpage/klingon.htm

Symbolic Language and Communicating with Extraterrestrials

4 (Th)

Film: Star Trek Next Generation: Darmok
Assign ET Messages and Linguistic Explanation

9 (T)

Reading for class: Pinker's "The Tower of Babel" pp 240-256
Interplanetary Messages - Inclass readings to be assigned

Creation of  interplanetary messages

Animal Communication (Bonus points to anyone who can sing the theme song from Dr. Doolittle)

16 (T)

Messages and Explanation of Linguistic Considerations Due
Film: Signs of the Apes, Songs of the Whales

Reading for class: Kemp and Smith's "Signals, Signs, and Words: From Animal Communication to Language" pp 658-680 and Ohio State University Language Files' "True Language?" pp 74-77

  Film: A Conversation with Koko

Work on finishing Language Portfolios

Language Portfolios Due
Review for Final Exam

Final Exam 8:30-10:20 pm