Course description

This special section of Linguistics 102 is an uncensored introduction to the study of language. It addresses all the topics covered in introductory linguistics courses, including how people learn language, how language changes over time, how people construct words and sentences, what psychological processes underlie language use, and how social group adherence affects language. But it does so using examples of language as it's actually used, including slang, jargon, and especially taboo language.

It turns out that there's a lot you can learn about how language works when you look at its dark underbelly. For instance, we'll look at what's happening in the brain when people swear intentionally or unintentionally (as in Tourette Sydrome) because this tells us a lot about how the brain stores language. Or take language change. No study of why words change their meanings would be complete without considering how social taboos affect people's choice of words - consider why cock is now only infrequently used to refer to a rooster and gay only rarely means 'happy.'

Prerequisites

There are no course prerequisites.

Requirements

· Homework assignments (90% of course grade).

Six homework projects over the course of the semester. Some will involve short answers, other will require first-hand research. Each will be worth 15% of the final grade. Homework assignments are due in hard copy at the beginning of class on the due date. Because this is a Writing Intensive class, these assignments will involve a good deal of writing, and you’ll get feedback on them.

· Participation (10% of course grade).

Students will be expected to attend all class meetings, although exceptions will be made for documented health emergencies. Students are expected to come to class having done the assigned readings, and to participate actively in class discussion.

Consultation

Please take advantage of my office hours, TBD, in Moore 581. My email address: bergen@hawaii.edu.

Website

Lecture notes, an up-to-date course schedule, links to online versions of course readings, and links to relevant resources will appear through the semester on the course webpage, here: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~bergen/ling102/

Reading

All assigned readings are chapters from the following:

Bergen, Benjamin K. Ms. An (uncensored) introduction to language.

There is no hard copy of this unpublished book yet. An online version of each chapter will be available at least a week before it’s assigned, here: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~bergen/ling102/book/

Lecture, reading, and assignment schedule (provisional)

Date	Topic	Reading	Work
1.13	Introduction and logistics
1.15	Introduction to linguistics	Ch. 1
1.20	Meaning 1	Ch. 2
1.22	Meaning 2		HW1 assigned
1.27	Meaning 3
1.29	Words	Ch. 3	HW1 due
2.3	Words		HW2 assigned
2.5	Words
2.10	Grammar	Ch. 4	HW2 due
2.12	Grammar		HW3 assigned
2.17	Grammar
2.19	Sounds	Ch. 5	HW3 due
2.24	Sounds		HW4 assigned
2.26	Sounds
3.3	Language change	Ch. 6	HW4 due
3.5	Language change
3.10	The mind and brain	Ch. 7
3.12	The mind and brain
3.17	Using language	Ch. 8
3.19	Using language		HW5 assigned
3.24	No class – Spring recess
3.26	No class – Spring recess
3.31	Using language		HW5 Data due (2 copies)
4.2	Learning language	Ch. 9	HW5 Analysis due
4.7	Learning language
4.9	Talking with your hands	Ch. 10
4.14	Talking with your hands
4.16	Language and society	Ch. 11
4.21	Language and society		HW6 assigned
4.23	Language and society
4.28	Censorship
4.30	Censorship		HW6 due
5.5	Wrap-up

Course description

Prerequisites

Requirements

Consultation

No class – Spring recess