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, and understand the evidence that supports these ideas.

Lecture Notes and On-line Notes

All of the on-line notes from the class are very relevant to the tests for the course.

Books

Some sections of the course books that could be relevant to tests:

---to be added---

Understanding vs. Memorization

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.

 

Question: do I need to know the IPA (international phonetic alphabet)?
Answer: Yes.
Transcribing the sounds of language is a basic tool which you will need - with a little practice this should be quite easy. The most challenging part of this is not learning the symbols but learning not to be misled by English spelling conventions, which are often quite unrelated to pronunciation.

 

Question: do I need to memorize all of the examples from unfamiliar languages?
Answer: No.
What is important is that you understand the point that the examples illustrate well enough to be able to recognize a similar pattern in data from another language.