Language, Mind, and Society: An Introduction to Linguistics · Language, Mind, and Society: An...

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Syllabus -- LIN 185 – Spring 2021

Language, Mind, and Society: An Introduction to Linguistics

Instructor: Dana McDaniel Office: Science Building 310 (A wing), Portland campus Phone: 780-4582 E-mail: [email protected] If you don’t get a reply within 72 hours, please e-mail Kelly Fitzgerald:

[email protected] Student hours: by appointment

Tutors: Contact information is on Brightspace.

Core: This course meets two core requirements: Socio-cultural Analysis and Diversity. If you take the one-credit online lab (LIN 186 – see below), either at the same time or after LIN 185, it will also fulfill the Science Exploration core requirement.

LIN 186: We recommend taking this one-credit online lab. It is not required but includes exercises that solidify the concepts covered in the course.

READING: The reading for the course (which includes some embedded videos) is an online textbook we wrote that is in Scalar. One chapter corresponds to each of the 13 units in the course. To access it, use this link: https://scalar.usmdl.org/intro-linguistics.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

The course will address four very broad questions about human language: 1) What are the functions of language; what does it do; or, what is done by means of it? 2) How does the structure and organization of language provide for these functions? How does the structure and organization of the human brain and mind provide for our linguistic abilities? 3) How does language develop in the individual? 4) How did language develop in our species? The state of knowledge relevant to these four questions about language is very uneven and we will not give equal time to them. Most of our effort will be devoted to questions about how the structure and organization of language provides for its powers because this is where the most is known and understood. The four questions listed above will underlie all that we will do this semester.

OUTCOMES

Specific outcomes are listed for each unit. Here we list the general outcomes for the course. At the end of the course, students will:

• Recognize the major respects in which human language is a unique biological system. • Recognize some of the major effects that language has on human life, in particular the

unique capacities and abilities that humans have only through language. • Appreciate the complexity of language and how the structure and design of the human

linguistic system provides for these distinctive abilities.

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• Be familiar with the distinctions among the sub-disciplines of linguistics and how each contributes to an understanding of language as a whole.

• Be familiar with the goals of linguistic research and the scientific approach to language the discipline applies, in particular how the analytical framework developed within linguistics is shaped by evidence.

• Be able to apply linguistic concepts to everyday linguistic phenomena.

Brightspace: This course uses Brightspace. It is recommended that students have the latest version of whatever browser is being used on any computer or mobile device. Brightspace works very well on mobile Apple and Android devices via web browser. The Brightspace Pulse app in the Apple App Store and Google Play also allows you to receive notifications regarding your courses on your device. The Pulse app is primarily meant for students to receive course announcements and updates via push notifications on their mobile devices. The Pulse app is not “Brightspace for mobile devices” – it does not give you access to all the materials. Students should instead use the Brightspace site (courses.maine.edu) itself, which is mobile friendly.

SCHEDULE OF ZOOM SESSIONS

Date: Topic

Jan 26 Unit 1: Introduction

Feb 2 Unit 2: Function of Language

Feb 9 Unit 3: Phonetics

Feb 16 Unit 4: Phonology

Feb 23 Unit 5: Speech Perception

March 2 Unit 6: Morphology

March 9 Unit 7: Syntax (Part I)

March 16 Review for midterm (3/17 – 19)

March 23 Unit 8: Syntax (Part II)

March 30 Unit 9: Semantics

April 6 Unit 10: Innateness Hypothesis

April 13 Unit 11: Language Variation

April 20 Unit 12: Sociolinguistics

April 27 Unit 13: Evolution of Language

May 4 Review for final (5/5 – 7)

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ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING

Participation in Zoom sessions One quarter point extra credit plus reading quiz grade raised to 1 (see details below)

Reading quizzes (13) 1 point each (lowest dropped) = 12% Content comprehension quizzes (12) 1 point each (lowest dropped) = 11% Written responses (3) 9 points each = 27% Tests (2) 20 points each = 40% True/false quiz at beginning 1 point = 1% Exercise on true/false quiz 6 points = 6% Participation in experiment 3 points = 3%

Number grades correspond to the following letter grades: 93 - 100 = A 90 - 92 = A- 87 - 89 = B+ 83 - 86 = B

80 - 82 = B- 77 - 79 = C+ 73 - 76 = C 70 - 72 = C-

67 - 69 = D+ 63 - 66 = D 60 - 62 = D- 0 - 59 = F

The Brightspace grade book will display your credit. If you see discrepancies at any time, please get in touch with me promptly.

Note that D- and above are passing grades, but a grade of at least B in LIN 185 is required as a prerequisite for some upper-level USM linguistics courses and is therefore required for students majoring in Linguistics. Linguistics majors may repeat this course at most one time. In the case of a repeat course, the second grade replaces the first one in the G.P.A.

PARTICIPATION IN ZOOM SESSIONS: There will be a Zoom session every Tuesday at 11:00. At the Zoom session, we will review the concepts that students will have studied by doing the reading and watching posted lecture videos. Participation in the Zoom session means attending the session and contributing in at least one of the following ways:

• Ask a question, make a comment, or respond to a question by speaking.• Post a question, comment, or response to the chat.• Participate in a poll, if there is one. (There won’t be a poll every time.)• Work on and submit an exercise, if there is one. (There won’t be an exercise every time.)

Students who participate in a Zoom session (starting the second one) get one quarter of a point extra credit. In addition, if they submitted the reading test for the unit (see below) and received a grade of less than 1, their reading quiz grade will be changed to 1 (full credit).

The idea behind this system is to encourage students to participate in the Zoom sessions, especially if they did not fully understand the concepts in the readings and lecture videos. The reading quiz is one way to gauge basic comprehension of the concepts. To get a better sense of how well you’ve understood the concepts, I suggest that you also try the content comprehension quiz for the unit (see below) and to go over the list of outcomes for the unit. Of course, students who understood the concepts well are welcome and encouraged to attend the Zoom sessions too.

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READING QUIZZES: For each of the 13 units, there is a quiz posted on Brightspace that covers the reading for that unit. Each quiz is worth one point total (1% of the course grade). The lowest reading quiz grade will be dropped.

The reading quiz for a unit is always due the Monday at 11:30 p.m. before the Zoom session for the corresponding unit. (The only exception is the reading quiz for the first unit, which is due the Monday following the first Zoom session, the same Monday that the second reading quiz is due.) The questions on the reading quizzes closely follow the text. You can only take them once and there is no feedback. If you get a question wrong, you can look back at the text. If, at that point, you still have questions, please ask for clarification at the Zoom session.

CONTENT COMPREHENSION QUIZZES: For each of the 12 units after the first one, there is a second type of quiz, a content comprehension quiz. Each one is worth one point total (1% of the course grade). The lowest content comprehension quiz grade will be dropped. The questions on these quizzes are more like the ones on the tests. They go a step further than a basic understanding of the text and involve application of the concepts. They are also due Mondays at 11:30 p.m. but they are due the Monday following the Zoom session on the corresponding unit. These quizzes can be optionally retaken any number of times before the deadline. Only the lastsubmission counts toward the grade. When you submit the quiz, you will see feedback on the responses. Since this type of quiz is a good study tool for the tests, a quiz answer key will be posted after the deadline. The answer key includes each question with its answer on the following page. You can review these to retest yourself and to study for the tests.

TESTS: There are two online tests – a midterm and a final. The tests are each worth 20 percent of the grade. The second one is not cumulative. Both tests are open-book/notes. They will consist of multiple-choice questions. They need to be taken within the designated three-day period. Once a student starts a test, they have 90 minutes to complete it. Students who have a DSC letter regarding test-taking should let me know as soon as possible. See the Disability Accommodations section below for more details.

WRITTEN RESPONSES: Three written responses (150 – 200 words each), each worth nine points (9% of the course grade) will be assigned. The topics and due dates are as follows:

Written response 1 – Phonetics/phonology Saturday 2/27 at 11:30 p.m. Written response 2 – Semantics Saturday 4/10 at 11:30 p.m. Written response 3 – Sociolinguistics Saturday 5/1 at 11:30 p.m.

More details about the written response assignments are given on Brightspace. The written responses are also submitted through Brightspace. After the deadline for each written response, I will post a feedback file that addresses misunderstandings and questions that came up in the written responses. It is fine to submit the written responses any time before the deadline, but it is important that you understand the concepts in the units they relate to. For that reason, it is best to wait to submit them till we’ve covered the corresponding units. For the first one, I suggest that you wait till we’ve completed all three units covering sounds (Phonetics, Phonology, Speech Perception), although the assignment only asks about Phonetics and Phonology.

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Make-up/rewrite for one written response:

The written responses are worth nine points each. If you miss one, you can make it up by submitting it at the end of the course. One point will be deducted for lateness, so it will be worth eight points. If you submitted all of the written assignments on time, you can rewrite one that you got less than eight points on. The make-up will be graded without feedback (since the feedback is given in one file for the class following the due date).

TRUE/FALSE QUIZ AT BEGINNING OF COURSE: This quiz is due the first day of class. It is worth one point (1% of the course grade). It is not graded for accuracy – students are not expected to know the answers yet. The grade is just for submitting it. We will refer back to it at the end of the course in the true/false exercise – see below.

TRUE/FALSE EXERCISE: At the end of the course, we will do an exercise that will involve revisiting the true/false quiz. You will take the quiz again and also have a volunteer take it. The true/false exercise will be submitted through Brightspace. It is worth six points (6% of the course grade.) It is due Tuesday 5/4 at 8:00 p.m.

EXPERIMENT: This is worth three points (three percent of the grade). Each student is encouraged to fulfill this requirement by participating in one online experiment conducted by a member of the linguistics faculty or by an advanced linguistics major. Participation in the experiment is not graded; any student who completes it receives three points. We will ensure that every student has an opportunity to participate. The experimental protocols do not pose any known risks to participants, and participants' identities are kept confidential. However, if a student does not want to participate in an experiment, we will give them a make-up assignment instead. Details about scheduling will be announced later on.

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DETAILED SCHEDULE:

Units:

Note that two quizzes are due Mondays at 11:30 p.m. Except for the first week, one of the two quizzes is always the reading quiz for the current unit and the other one is the content comprehension quiz for the preceding unit.*

Do reading and view lecture video(s)

Reading quiz due (Mondays, 11:30 p.m.)

Zoom session (Tuesdays, 11:00-1:30)

Content comprehension quiz due (Mondays, 11:30 p.m.)

Unit 1 1/26 - 2/1 (only reading)

2/1 1/26 (none)

Unit 2 1/26 – 2/1 2/1 2/2 2/8 Unit 3 2/2 – 2/8 2/8 2/9 2/15 Unit 4 2/9 – 2/15 2/15 2/16 2/22 Unit 5 2/16 – 2/22 2/22 2/23 3/1 Unit 6 2/23 – 3/1 3/1 3/2 3/8 Unit 7 3/2 – 3/8 3/8 3/9 3/15 Unit 8 3/16 – 3/22 3/22 3/23 3/29 Unit 9 3/23 – 3/29 3/29 3/30 4/5 Unit 10 3/30 – 4/5 4/5 4/6 4/12 Unit 11 4/6 – 4/12 4/12 4/13 4/19 Unit 12 4/13 – 4/19 4/19 4/20 4/26 Unit 13 4/20 – 4/26 4/26 4/27 5/3

Other dates:

Zoom midterm review session Tuesday 3/16 Zoom final review session Tuesday 5/4 Written response #1 due Saturday 2/27 Written response #2 due Saturday 4/10 Written response #3 due Saturday 5/1 True/False exercise due Tuesday 5/4, 8 p.m.

* For those of you who are also taking LIN 186: Note that the lab assignments for that course aredue Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. (two days before the due date of the content comprehension quizfor the corresponding unit in LIN 185).

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SUCCESS IN THIS COURSE

Success in this course very much depends on keeping up with the material. The course is divided into units that are covered in regular intervals. See above for the time periods that correspond to each unit and the due dates for the assignments.

The assignments (quizzes, written responses, true/false exercise) account for 57% of the grade and are not accepted late. It is therefore very important to submit these on time.

Forty percent of the grade is based on the two tests. Although they are open-book/notes, they are challenging because they test understanding of the concepts. This means that, for the most part, the answers to the test questions are not ones you can look up in any source; in order to give the correct answers, you must understand the material. I encourage you to do the readings and watch the lecture videos carefully, and to attend the Zoom sessions every week. In addition, I urge you to make use of the lists of outcomes at the beginning of each unit and the quiz answer keys (posted on Brightspace after the due date for each content comprehension quiz) to assess your understanding of the concepts. I suggest that you use the quiz answer keys to re-quiz yourself on each unit and that you read the outcomes list once at the beginning of each unit and again when you have gone through the material, to check whether you feel that you have met the outcomes. If you’re having difficulty with any of the material, please let me know or make arrangements to meet with a tutor (see Brightspace for contact information on tutors).

DISABILITY ACCOMMODATIONS The university is committed to providing students with disabilities equal access to all university programs and services. If you think you have a disability and would like to request accommodations, please contact the Disability Services Center. Timely notification is essential. The Disability Services Center can be reached by calling 207-780-4706 or by email [email protected]. If you have already received a faculty accommodation letter from the Disability Services Center and would like to request accommodations for this course, please provide me with that information as soon as possible. Please make a private appointment so that we can review your accommodations together.

COUNSELING Counseling is available at USM. The best way to schedule an appointment is by phone at 780-5411. More information is available at https://usm.maine.edu/uhcs.

RECOVERAY ORIENTED CAMPUS CENTER (ROCC) A peer support community for students in recovery from substance abuse and other mental health conditions is available at USM. More information may be found online at https://usm.maine.edu/recovery or by containing ROCC at 207-228-8141.

NONDISCRIMATION POLICY AND BIAS REPORTING The University of Southern Maine is an EEO/AA employer, and does not discriminate on the grounds of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, transgender status, gender expression, national origin, citizenship status, age, disability, genetic information or veteran’s status in employment, education, and all other programs and activities. The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding non-discrimination policies: Amie Parker, Interim Director of Equal Opportunity, The Farmhouse, University of Maine Augusta, Augusta, ME 04333, 207.581.1226, TTY 711 (Maine Relay System). Incidents of discrimination or bias at USM should be reported to Associate Vice President for Student Affairs David Roussel at 207-780-5242.

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TITLE IX The University of Southern Maine is committed to making our campuses safer places for students. Because of this commitment, and our federal obligations, faculty and other employees are considered mandated reporters when it comes to experiences of interpersonal violence (sexual assault, sexual harassment, dating or domestic violence, and stalking). Disclosures of interpersonal violence must be passed along to the University’s Deputy Title IX Coordinator who can help provide support and academic remedies for students who have been impacted. More information can be found online at http://usm.maine.edu/campus-safety-project or by contacting Sarah E. Holmes at [email protected] or 207-780-5767.

If students want to speak with someone confidentially, the following resources are available on and off campus: University Counseling Services (207-780-4050); 24 Hour Sexual Assault Hotline (1-800-871-7741); 24 Hour Domestic Violence Hotline (1-866-834-4357). DRAFT

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