Course Descriptions
 DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS
FALL 2007
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Department of Linguistics Course Descriptions

Actual offerings will vary from one year to the next, due to scheduling conflicts, sabbatical leave for professors, etc. Courses in the 290 series change from one semester to the next, depending on the specialization of the professor who will be teaching the course. Some courses in the 290 series and in the 298 series (Special Group Study) may be created after the official early enrollment period. Courses offered in the 290 and 298 series may be repeated for credit.
If you would like a complete list of courses offered please check the UC Berkeley General Catalog

Elementary Swahili  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 1A, 001 & 002 [4 units]
Location:     MTuWTh 9-10A, 47 EVANS
Location:     MTuWTh 12-1P, 106 DWINELLE
Instructor:  MCHOMBO, S A
Course Format: Four hours of recitation and one hour of laboratory per week.
Description:


Elementary Language Tutorial  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 2A [3 units]
Location:     TBA
Instructor:  TBA
Course Format: Hours to be arranged.
Prerequisites: Requires special permission. Apply to Center for African Studies.
Credit option: Course may be repeated for credit.
Description: Specially designed tutorials for individuals or small groups needing instruction in African languages not normally offered on the Berkeley campus.


Language and Linguistics  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 5 [4 units]
Location:     MWF 3-4P, 120 LATIMER
Instructor:  WEIGEL, W F
Course Format: Three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion per week.
Description: An introduction to the scientific study of language.


Linguistics Writing Workshop  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) R6, 001 & 002 [4 units]
Location:     W 4-5P, 223 WHEELER (Strom-Weber)
Location:     W 5-6P, 211 DWINELLE (McFarland)
Instructors:  Strom-Weber, McFarland
Course Format: Three hours of lecture per week.  Formerly R5W
Description: A 4-unit writing class which must be taken concurrently or subsequent to one of the following Linguistics courses which may be taken pass/no pass: 5 Introduction to Linguistics (for non-majors); 11 Writing Systems; 16 English Vocabulary; 21 Languages and Peoples of the World; 51 Politics of Language; 52 Languages and You; 55AC The American Languages; 100 Introduction to Linguistics (for majors). Satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement. Beyond regular classtimes, there will be two required additional 1-hour meetings with the instructor during the semester. Requirements: readings, exercises in writing, analysis of writing passages, and two large writing assignments on research topics related to language and linguistics. No final exam.
Instructors: Strom-Weber, McFarland


Writing Systems  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 11 [3 units]
Location:     MWF 10-11A, 101 WHEELER
Instructor:     HOLLAND, G B
Course Format: Three hours of lecture per week.
Description: Examines different writing systems in terms of their historical origin and their cognitive properties. Enrollment limited to 15 students.


Freshman Seminar  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 24 [1 units]
Location:     W 11-12P, 233 DWINELLE
Instructor:     MCHOMBO, S A
Course Format: One hour of seminar per week.
Credit option: Course may be repeated for credit.
Grading option: Sections 1-2 to be graded on a letter-grade basis. Sections 3-4 to be graded on a passed/not passed basis.
Description: The Freshman Seminar Program has been designed to provide new students with the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member in a small seminar setting. Freshman seminars are offered in all campus departments, and topics vary from department to department and semester to semester. Enrollment limited to 15 freshmen.


The American Languages  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 55AC [4 units]
Location:     MWF 3-4P, 145 DWINELLE
Instructor:     LEONARD, W Y
Course Format: Three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion per week.
Description: A linguistic view of the history, society, and culture of the United States. The variety of languages spoken in our country and the issues surrounding them: language and ethnicity, politics of linguistic pluralism vs. societal monolingualism, language and education, language shift, loss, retention, and renewal. Languages include English (standard and nonstandard; Black English), pidgins and creoles, Native American languages, Spanish, French, and immigrant languages from Asia and Europe.


Introduction to Linguistic Science  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 100 [4 units]
Location:     MWF 9-10A, 1 LECONTE
Instructor:     SABBAGH, J A
Course Format: Three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion per week.
Description: A basic technical introduction to linguistic science. Practice in phonetics, production, and transcription; practice in phonological and morphological analysis; basic steps in grammatical parsing and textual analysis.


Metaphor  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 106 [4 units]
Location:     TuTh 11-1230P, 220 WHEELER
Instructor:     LAKOFF, G P
Course Format: Three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion per week.
Prerequisites: Lower division students must have instructor approval.
Description: The role of metaphor in structuring our everyday language, conceptual system, and world view. Topics include cross-cultural differences, literary metaphor, sound symbolism, and related theoretical issues in philosophy, linguistics, psychology and anthropology.


Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 110 [4 units]
Location:     MWF 10-11A, 160 KROEBER
Instructor:     JOHNSON, K A
Course Format: Three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion per week.
Prerequisites: 100 or concurrent enrollment.
Description: Description, transcription, and analysis of human speech sounds in their physiological and acoustic aspects, especially as this aids our understanding of sound change and the psychological mechanisms serving speech.


Discourse  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 124 [3 units]
Location:     TuTh 930-11A, 109 DWINELLE
Instructor:     RHODES, R A
Course Format: Three hours of lecture per week.
Description: Language beyond the sentence. Global and local properties of connected speech and writing. Narrative structures, new and old information, subjects and topics, foregrounding and backgrounding, etc.


Comparative and Historical Linguistics  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 130 [4 units]
Location:     MWF 11-12P, 160 KROEBER
Instructor:    GARRETT, A J
Course Format: Three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion per week.
Prerequisites: 100.
Description: Methods of reconstruction. Types and explanations of language change. Dialectology. The establishment of language relationships and subgroupings.


Language and Gender  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 151 [3 units]
Location:     MWF 9-10A, 182 DWINELLE
Instructor: LAKOFF, R T
Course Format: Three hours of lecture per week.
Description: This course is a survey of the work that has been done on the relationships between gender and language, mostly over the last 35 years. Some of the topics to be covered:
The history of research in language and gender Contemporary issues, e.g. the Lawrence Summers discussion; The case of Hillary Clinton Reality and myth: e.g., do women talk too much? Theories and methods of research Dominance and difference as explanations Essentialism and constructivism as perspectives.  What about interruption? The use of conversation analysis Language, gender, and power Language and gender identity  GLBT and other special cases    


Native America Meets the Europeans  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 155AC [3 units]
Location:     TuTh 330-5P, 160 DWINELLE
Instructor: RHODES, R A
Course Format: Three hours of lecture per week.
Description: This course will present an overview of the contact between Native Americans and Europeans in North America (including Mexico). Material will be drawn from history, anthropology, and linguistics. The course will address both the conflicts associated with contact and the various results of contact, especially political incorporation, assimilation, and cultural mixture. We will examine the various ways in which Indians have been incorporated politically into Canadian, American, and Mexican life, and ways in which they have remained separate in the face of assimilatory pressures. We will compare two mixed-race groups, the Metis of the northern plains and La Raza, to examine the conditions leading to culturally coherent mixtures and to explore the common challenges these groups have faced in more recent contact with English speakers. Special attention will be paid to the voices and views of whites, Native Americans, and of the mixed-race peoples.


Linguistics Honors Course  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) H195A [2-4 units]
Location:     TBA        
Instructor:  various
Course Format: Three hours of work per unit per week. Hours to be arranged.
Prerequisites: 3.5 GPA or higher, overall and in the major.
Grading option: Credit and grade to be awarded on completion of sequence.
Description: A two-semester course consisting of independent study of an advanced topic, supervised by a facutly member, and culminating with a senior honors thesis which will be evaluated by a faculty honors committee. Thesis is due on the Monday of the 13th week of the second semester, and honors students will be invited to present their research at an Undergraduate Colloquium.


Graduate Proseminar in Linguistics  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 200 [1 units]
Location:     M 2-3P, 204 DWINELLE
Instructor:  SWEETSER        
Course Format: Two hours of seminar per week.
Description: Required of graduate students during first year in program. An introduction to linguistics as a profession, its history, subfields, and methodologies.


Advanced Graduate Proseminar in Linguistics  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 201 [2 units]
Location:     M 1-3P, 1303 DWINELLE
Course Format: Two hours of seminar per week.
Instructor:  HOLLAND
Prerequisites: M.A. requirements should be completed or instructor approval.
Credit option: Course must be taken at the beginning of graduate student's third year.
Grading option: Must be taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.
Description: The course is designed to help students become professional linguists by showing them how to write abstracts of papers, how to prepare papers for presentation at conferences, and how to prepare written versions of papers for submittal as qualifying papers (and for journal publication), as well as to give students practical experience in the public presentation of their work.


Advanced Cognitive Linguistics  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 205 [3 units]
Location:     TuTh 930-11A, 1303 DWINELLE
Instructor:      SWEETSER
Course Format: Three hours of lecture per week.
Prerequisites: 105 or consent of instructor.
Description: This will be an advanced course in cognitive linguistics. Among the topics covered will be cognitive bases for aspects of grammatical structure, cognitive constraints on language change and grammaticalization, and motivations for linguistic universals (i.e., constraints on variability).


Topics in Phonological Theory  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 211B [3 units]
Location:     TuTh 11-1230P, 210 DWINELLE
Instructor:     INKELAS, S
Course Format: Three hours of lecture per week.
Prerequisites: 211A.
Description: Continuation of 211A focusing on topics of current interest in phonological theory.


Syntax and Semantics 1  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 220A [3 units]
Location:     W 12-2P, 123 DWINELLE
Instructor:     SABBAGH, J A        
Course Format: Three hours of lecture per week.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing or consent of instructor.
Formerly 220
Description: This course has two main objectives. First, the course serves as an introduction to the study of syntax and semantics within the non derivational constraint-based formal framework of Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). Second, we will explore a number of phenomena of natural language (morpho) syntax and semantics in a range of typologically diverse languages and from a variety of theoretical perspectives. Possible topics include argument structure, anaphora, auxiliaries and negation, phrase structure and non configurationality, long-distance dependencies, problems of quantification, tense and aspect systems, relative and interrogative clauses, clitics and the morphology-syntax interface.
Note: Prerequisite: Linguistics 120.  Also: F 12-1P, 123 DWINELLE


Field Methods I  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 240A [4 units]
Location:     TuTh 3-5P, 1303 DWINELLE
Instructor:     GABY, A R
Course Format: Four hours of session per week.
Prerequisites: 205 or 220, and either 210, 211, or 215.
Credit option: Course may be repeated for credit.
Grading option: Credit and grade to be awarded on completion of sequence.
Description: Training in elicitation and analysis of linguistic data in a simulated field setting. The same language is used throughout the year.  The class works both as a team and individually with a native speaker of a different language each year, working from scratch to develop an understanding of the structure of that language. Class members will learn the main techniques and methodologies of linguistic fieldwork (including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics), applying these in consultation sessions with the language speaker. Through this detailed work on the language chosen, class members will develop the more general skills needed to analyze any unknown language on its own terms. Ethical issues, field research techniques, goals of linguistic documentation, and relevant software and support, will also be covered.


Conversation/Discourse Analysis  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 250D [3 units]
Location:     W 12-3P, 1303 DWINELLE
Instructor:     LAKOFF, R T
Course Format:
Description: The aim of this seminar is to explore the relationships among discourse genres, and among strategies, theories, and methods of analyzing discourse. Is it possible to construct (for instance) a single continuum along which all kinds of discourse can be compared with one another? What do multiple takes on one type of discourse tell us about it?


Structure of a Particular Language  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 270 [3 units]
Location:     W 3-6P, 210 DWINELLE
Instructor:     NICHOLS, J B
Course Format: Three hours of session per week.
Prerequisites: 210 and 221.
Credit option: Course may be repeated for credit.
Description: Ingush belongs to the Nakh branch of the Nakh-Daghestanian or East Caucasian (or Northeast Caucasian) language family.  It is a very close sister of Chechen and a fairly close sister of Batsbi (Tsova-Tush).  It is structurally exotic in western Eurasia, with its large consonant inventory, large vowel inventory, phonation opposition, and rudimentary tone opposition; complex morphology with mismatch between phonological word, grammatical word, grammatical morpheme, lexeme, and phrase; unusual gender system; bipartite stems; pervasive morphological and syntactic ergativity; extensive verb serialization and clause chaining; long-distance morphosyntactic processes such as reflexivization, agreement, and case; logophoricity; and discourse centered on evidentiality, deixis, person (though a morphological category of person is utterly lacking in the language), and negotiation of definiteness.

This course will give students a basic familiarity with how Ingush works, in typological, theoretical, areal, and historical perspective.  We will also take a look at some of the important neighbors with which Ingush has interacted:  Chechen; Ossetic (Northeast Iranian); Circassian/Kabardian (of the  typologically very exotic West Caucasian family); Abkhaz (also West Caucasian, not really a neighbor but a more radical representative of the family's type).   I hope to do two additional things: interest students in a number of topics that can yield publishable work using available English-language materials without requiring specialization in Ingush; and acquaint students with the fundamentals of areality and contact in the Caucasus.

Background issues that will surface from time to time include Proto-Nakh-Daghestanian, kinds of annotation needed if a large corpus from field documentation is to be useful for comparative and theoretical work, and problems in writing up a field grammar.



Topics in Linguistic Theory  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 290         
Course Format:
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor.
Credit option: Course may be repeated for credit.
Description: Seminars or special lecture courses.


Syntax  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 290A [3 units]
Location:     F 2-4P, 289 DWINELLE
Instructor:     SABBAGH, J A
Description: Syntax Circle

Phonology  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 290E [3 units]
Location:     F 2-5P, 210 DWINELLE
Instructor:     JOHNSON, K A/INKELAS, S
Description:


Additional Seminar on Special Topics to Be Announced  --  Linguistics
(LINGUIS) 290L [3 units]
Location:     Th 4-7P, 289 DWINELLE
Instructor:     SWEETSER, E E        
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor.
Credit option: Course may be repeated for credit.
Description: It is a crosscultural universal that language is accompanied by gesture, and that the two are tightly neurally co-timed – in patterns which are different for different languages.  For spoken languages, this means that there are regularly two communicative “tracks”, the auditory and the visual; for signed languages, gesture and language co-occur in a single visuo-gestural medium.  There are numerous reasons why gesture is of interest to linguistic analysts, as well as to cognitive and social scientists in general.  First of all, gesture as well as language is expressive at multiple levels – that is, one single gestural routine may have a content meaning or an interactional and discourse-regulating meaning, depending on context.  Secondly, as a medium less monitored and conscious than language, gesture is potentially a “back door” to the cognitive processes involved in linguistic production – and to the structure of discourse interaction.  Thirdly, gestural structure and linguistic structure seem interrelated in crucial ways: intriguing new results suggest that gestural patterns are systematically related to grammatical typology of the co-produced language.   

In this course, we will alternate reading the literature on co-linguistic gesture with active transcription of co-speech gesture, into an ELAN format.  Students will therefore learn both the theoretical frameworks currently shaping gesture research, and the practical methods of analysis.      

Some background in cognitive linguistics, especially mental spaces theory, is recommended.  

Additional Seminar on Special Topics to Be Announced  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 290L [3 units]
Location:     Tu 3:30-6P, 83 DWINELLE
Instructor:     LAKOFF, G P (with the participation of E. Sweetser/J. Feldman
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor.
Credit option: Course may be repeated for credit.
Description: The time has come. We now think we know enough about the brain, neural computation, and cognitive linguistics to do serious descriptive and theoretical work on a neural theory of grammar. At present, three dissertations are proceeding on various topics in this area; they open up new areas of research that use cognitive linguistics, are formalized, and can be processed and tested computationally. Two more are proceeding on grammar learning.

The formalism we have developed is called ECG (Embodied Construction Grammar). It is a form of construction grammar that maps directly into computational neural models of language. Two dissertations in ECG about to be completed in the Linguistics department have made considerable advances in grammatical description not possible in other theories.

In addition, a third dissertation in the computer science department does parsing and semantic interpretation of sentences in English and Chinese. The major advance permitting this is a model of the way the brain's "best fit" mechanisms function in language. In general, many grammatical constructions are "amalgamated" from other simpler constructions via best-fit mechanisms. We will call these best-fit constructions and will be discussing them at some length. More generally, the model implicitly explains probabilistic phenomena in grammar.

We hope the seminar will attract graduate students in cognitive linguistics and/or computer science who are interested in dissertation research in this new area.

Teaser: The brain does not have grammatical trees, nor does it do symbolic processing. The question is, How do we account for the kinds of recursiveness that occurs in language with only neural structures? The answer will be given in the seminar.


Special Group Study  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 298 [2-8 units]
Location:     M 11-1P, 46 DWINELLE
Instructor:     INKELAS, S
Credit option: Course may be repeated for credit.
Description:  "Phono Phorum"


Special Group Study  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 298 [2-8 units]
Location:     Th 1-3P, 1303 DWINELLE
Instructor:     Garrett, A J        
Credit option: Course may be repeated for credit.
Description: We will cover the diachrony of ergative case marking systems during the first half of the semester, and (the published literature on) new computational methods for determining linguistic phylogeny during the second half.


Teaching Practice and Instruction  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 301 [2,4 units]
Location:     UNSCHED NOFACILITY
Instructor:     HOLLAND, G B
Course Format: Hours to be arranged.
Grading option: Must be taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.
Description: Course may be repeated for credit, but credit for the instructional training portion is to be given only once for each individual course taught by a T.A. For graduate students currently serving as T.A.s in the Department's undergraduate courses. Two units of credit are given for the teaching experience each time a student serving as T.A. enrolls in this course; two more units are given for teaching instruction, this taking the form of weekly consultations between instructors and their T.A.s.


Training for Linguistics Teaching Assistants  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 302 [2 units]
Location:     F 12-2P, 1303 DWINELLE
Instructor:     HOLLAND, G B
Course Format: Two 90-minute sections per week.
Prerequisites: 110, 120 and 130 or consent of instructor.
Grading option: Must be taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.
Description: A teaching-methods "clinic" for first-time Linguistics GSI's. Sessions will deal with the presentation of linguistic concepts in each of the foundation courses, the creation of homework assignments and examination, policies and practices regarding correction of students' work, grading, and feedback.


Individual Study for Master's Students  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 601 [1-8 units]
Location:     UNSCHED NOFACILITY
Instructor:     SWEETSER, E E
Course Format: Hours to be arranged.
Credit option: Course may be repeated for credit. Course does not satisfy unit or residence requirements for master's degree.
Grading option: Must be taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.
Description: Individual study for the comprehensive or language requirements in consultation with the field adviser.


Individual Study for Doctoral Students  --  Linguistics  (LINGUIS) 602 [1-8 units]
Location:     UNSCHED NOFACILITY
Instructor:     SWEETSER, E E
Course Format: Hours to be arranged.
Prerequisites: One full year of graduate work at Berkeley or consent of graduate adviser.
Credit option: Course may be repeated for credit. Course does not satisfy unit or residence requirements for doctoral degree.
Grading option: Must be taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.
Description: Individual study in consultation with the major field adviser, intended to provide an opportunity for qualified students to prepare themselves for the various examinations required of candidates for the Ph.D.