Study Guide

In response to questions from a number of people, here are some notes on things you should and should not focus on when studying for this course.

[Note: this page will be updated as the course progreses.]

Basically, you should be familiar with the ideas discussed in class and in the textbook.

Textbook

Some sections of the textbook that could be relevant to tests:

Chapter 1 (What is Language?): all

Chapter 2 (Morphology): all, except pp.56-58.

Understand, don't just memorize

Question: do I need to memorize all of the facts and figures given in the book and in class?

Answer: No. What is important is that you look at the examples used and ask yourself what point they make. Understanding what the examples, facts and figures show is what you need to know. If you find that you can't understand some point, then ask for help - go to the instructors' office hours, or to the LING 101 tutors.

 

Question: should I plan on memorizing all of the boldface words in the textbook?

Answer: No. When reading the textbook you should stop after each section and ask yourself what the main point of that section is. Could you explain it to somebody else (e.g. classmate or roommate)? Sometimes the boldface terms will be useful in explaining the point of the section, sometimes not. Of course you should be familiar with the terms, but you should keep in mind that these are just tools to help you talk about linguistic concepts, and not an end in themselves.