ENGL/LING 390 - English Linguistics

Winter 2002

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Times and Places

• January 2 - February 2
• Monday through Friday, 9:45 - 11:15
• Brown Laboratory 203

Professor

William Idsardi
Office: 42 East Delaware Avenue
Phone and voice mail: 831-6886
e-mail: idsardi@udel.edu
www: http://www.ling.udel.edu/idsardi/

Office hours: immediately following class or by appointment

Textbook

• Laurel J. Brinton, The Structure of Modern English: A Linguistic Introduction, Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2000.
  (The textbook is available at the UD bookstore)

Other useful books

• General: William O'Grady, John Archibald, Mark Aronoff and Janie Rees-Miller, Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction (fourth edition), Boston: Bedford/St.Martin's, 2001.
• Sounds: Philip Carr, English Phonetics and Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.
• Words: Francis Katamba, English Words, New York: Routledge, 1994.
• Sentences: Nigel Fabb, Sentence Structure, New York: Routledge, 1994.

Web Pages

• This page: http://www.ling.udel.edu/idsardi/390/
• For LING 101, Introduction to Linguistics, http://www.ling.udel.edu/idsardi/101/
• Linguistics Department, http://www.ling.udel.edu/ling/

Learning Goals

ENGL/LING 390 provides a general introduction to the study of the English language, with emphasis on modern linguistic approaches.

ENGL/LING 390 focuses on the study of English, and in that way differs from LING 101, which studies a wide variety of languages. But, of course many of the tools and techniques are common to both courses.

We will study English pronunciation, word-formation and sentence structure. We will examine the pronunciation of English (Phonetics and Phonology), the way sounds are used in poetry and the relation between spelling and pronunciation. We will discuss some of the changes in English pronunciation during its history. We will also examine the ways that English makes words (Morphology) and how word choices are used for effect in poetry and to signal dialects, and how English vocabulary has changed over time. Finally, we will discover how English puts words together into sentences (Syntax) and how sentences are used in texts.

By the end of the course you should be able to:

• transcribe English words phonetically
• apply pronunciation rules
• diagram the internal structure of words to explain their composition including meaning
• justify word structures from related words
• diagram the internal structure of sentences to explain their composition including meaning
• use linguistic techniques to analyze texts

Learning Techniques

There are many different ways to learn, so we will try to experience as many different ways of learning as possible. Some people are still most comfortable with lectures and examples, so we will have some of those. Other people learn better when discussing problems together in groups, so we will do that too. We will be intermixing the "theoretical" material with the "applied" material.

If you have a question at any time, please ask it. Other people will benefit too. If you want to ask a question by email, that's great too.

Grading

• Tests: 75% (3 x 25%)
• Essay: 10%
• Homework and Participation: 15%
  
  
• There is no final exam for this course.
• Some tests may include short answer and multiple choice questions.
• Homework is due on the day after it is assigned.
• Homework must be handed in on time, otherwise you will receive a zero (assignments may be handed in early, too).
• Class attendance and participation are essential -- IF you do not show up THEN you will not do well!
• If you cannot attend class, it is your responsibility to contact me as soon as possible, preferably before the class.

Films

There are several films on linguistics available at the UD library. You can view these films in the Media Center in the basement of Morris Library.

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Schedule

Week	Day	Activities	Assignments
January 2	Wednesday	Unit 1: The Study of English Chapter 1: The Nature of Language and Linguistics	Exercises 1.1, 1.2, Appendix A (on CD-ROM)
	Thursday	Appendix: Linguistics in Language Teaching (on CD-ROM) Unit 2: The Speech Sounds of English Chapter 2: English Consonants and Vowels	Write a persuasive essay of 1000 words for or against English spelling reform. Exercise: 2.1
	Friday	No Class: I'm at the LSA meeting in San Francisco
January 7	Monday	Chapter 2: English Consonants and Vowels	Exercises 2.2 – 2.7
	Tuesday	Chapter 3: English Phonology, Phonotactics and Suprasegmentals	Exercises 3.1, 3.2
	Wednesday	Chapter 3: English Phonology, Phonotactics and Suprasegmentals	Exercises 3.3, 3.5
	Thursday	Sound and style
	Friday	Review
January 14	Monday	TEST 1
	Tuesday	Unit 3: The Structure and Meaning of English Words Chapter 4: The Internal Structure of Words	Exercises 4.1 – 4.9
	Wednesday	Chapter 5: Grammatical Categories and Word Classes	Exercises 5.1 – 5.6
	Thursday	Chapter 6: Lexical Semantics	Exercises 6.1 – 6.8
	Friday	Review
January 21	Monday	No Class: Martin Luther King Day
	Tuesday	TEST 2
	Wednesday	Unit 4: The Structure of English Sentences Chapter 7: Phrasal Structure	Exercises 7.1 – 7.5
	Thursday	Chapter 8: Sentence Types	Exercises 8.1 – 8.7
	Friday	Chapter 9: Finite and Nonfinite Clauses	Exercises 9.1 – 9.7
January 28	Monday	Unit 5: The Meaning of English Sentences Chapter 10: Sentence Semantics	Exercises 10.1 – 10.3
	Tuesday	Chapter 11: Speech Acts	Exercises 11.1 – 11.5
	Wednesday	Sentences and Style
	Thursday	Review
February 1	Friday	TEST 3

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Author: William James Idsardi

Email: idsardi@udel.edu

Last Updated: December 18, 2001