Spring 2024
LING 1000: Language in U.S. Society
Instructor: Chase Raymond
Humans use language as part of almost everything we do in social life. Whether it’s an everyday activity such as chit-chatting with a friend or family member over dinner, or something as globally significant as a presidential election or UN Summit, language provides us with many of the tools we use to make it happen. And yet, while we live our lives through language (or perhaps because of that fact), most of us rarely take the time to critically examine its influence on us, nor our influence on it. This course provides an occasion for this sort of critical thinking by offering an introduction to language in U.S. society. As such, our aims are as much sociological as they are linguistic. We begin with some foundational topics, including language acquisition, regional and dialectal variation, register and style (including shifting between them), prescriptivism and descriptivism, and some pervasive ideologies about the nature of language and how language ‘should’ be. We then explore the relationship between language and some specific social phenomena and institutions, taking as cases-in-point race/ethnicity, Deaf/Hearing communication, criminal justice systems, politics, and various forms of media. Next, we discuss language in everyday interaction—specifically how, in and through our use of language, we consistently go about categorizing, labeling, and evaluating the world, and how we use language in our everyday lives to construct our identities and build relationships. We then conclude by exploring a few phenomena in which we see some interesting similarities as we compare language use in the U.S. with language use across the globe. Students are encouraged to reflect on their own personal experiences with regard to each of these topics as we proceed through the course.
This course can be applied toward fulfillment of either the Arts & Sciences Distribution Requirement (for Social Science), or the Arts & Sciences Diversity Requirement (for U.S. Perspective).
LING 1020: Languages of the World
Instructor: Hannah Haynie
This course offers a general introduction to the world's languages. It covers topics such as the origins of language, the origins of individual languages and language families, and the relationships between the world's languages (did you know that English is related to Hindi?). It provides a brief introduction to the major languages and language groups of the world, and the interesting features of these languages, many of which are radically different from English. It also discusses the processes of historical change in languages, the origins and development of writing systems, and the ways that certain languages have spread around the world and the reasons why, as well as the fact that many smaller languages are now endangered. Finally, we'll also look some at artificial languages (Klingon, Esperanto, Lord of the Rings), and the future of the world's languages.
LING 1900: Community-Based Learning Practicum: Literacy and Language Learning
Instructor: Rai Farrelly
Students enrolled in the community-based learning Literacy Practicum earn an extra hour of credit while working with literacy and language learners in the Boulder community. Undergraduate volunteers, or “Buff Buddies,” may choose to work with children, teenagers, or adults in programs sponsored by one of our four community partners: University Hill Elementary School, Boulder Public Library, Student-Worker Alliance Program, and Family Learning Center. The program is open to students co-enrolled in one of the department's sociolinguistic or TESOL courses, or previously enrolled in Ling 1900. Students will be contacted early in the semester by the Literacy Practicum team regarding the dates and times of each program and the required orientation.
For more information about this rewarding learning experience, visit the Literacy Practicum website at https://www.colorado.edu/linguistics/literacy-practicum. We hope you will consider joining the Practicum!
LING 2000: Introduction to Linguistics
Instructor: Rai Farrelly
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. In this course you will learn about structures of human language(s) and their functions. The central question in linguistics is “how does language work,” in all of its variation and complexity? You will learn what one needs to “know” to speak a language, and how language is used in social contexts. You will learn that all languages vary and change - languages are not static, and linguistic varieties differ from each other in a myriad of ways. However, there are systematic methods that we can use to analyze linguistic data in every language and linguistic variety. All languages rely on the human body and cognitive system’s capacity to make and perceive sounds or signs, the study of phonetics. All languages have a specific inventory of sounds or signs, and the study of how they systematically behave is called phonology. All languages have words, and the study of their internal structure in each language is called morphology. All languages have particular rules and patterns for how words combine, which is the study of syntax. Crucially, the function of all languages is to communicate meaning. The study of meaning conventionally encoded in lexical items is called semantics, and the study of inferential meaning in context is called pragmatics. In addition, language is always used within a dynamic sociocultural context, and thus language use informs identity construction and social meaning, the study of sociocultural linguistics. At the end of the semester you should be able to: use the basic tools of linguistic analysis to understand the fundamental properties of language(s), reason about the issues involved in the social use of language, draw generalizations based on accurate and concise observations about linguistic data, and provide explanations for observed linguistic patterns.
LING 2500: Race, Ethnicity, and Language
Instructor: J Calder
This course serves as an undergraduate introduction to the study of race, ethnicity, and language. We explore the ways that speakers of different racial and ethnic groups use language differently, as well as the social implications of the use of different racialized linguistic varieties. How does speaking a racialized variety contribute to the construction of stereotypes and ideas of race and ethnicity more broadly? What are the social consequences of speaking in a racialized way, e.g. in matters of education, the media, access to capital, and the law?
LING 3100: Language Sound Structures
Instructor: Andy Ting
This course is about sounds in language, introducing the areas of linguistic study called phonetics and phonology. We will consider such fundamental questions as:
- What are the sounds that people use in languages?
- How do we produce those sounds?
- What are the physical properties of those sounds?
- How are these sounds used in human languages?
Along the way, we will acquire practical skills in perceiving and transcribing speech sounds, and we will learn some basic analytical techniques that enable us to address these (and other) questions.
LING 3430: Semantics
Instructor: Bhuvana Narasimhan
In this course we will explore how we use language to convey meaning. This enterprise raises a number of interesting questions: What are the kinds of meanings conveyed by the lexical and grammatical devices available in a language? Do languages differ in how they convey meaning? How much does context contribute to our understanding of meaning? What methods can we use to study meaning? We will investigate these and a range of other issues in semantics and pragmatics, focusing on both data and theory.
LING 3800/5800/7800-002: Amazonian Languages
Instructor: Kristine Stenzel
This course offers an introduction to the languages of lowland Amazonia, including overviews of
(i) Amazonian linguistic diversity, drawing from (pre-)historical, geographical, archeological, and cultural perspectives, and
(ii) salient typological features, e.g., segmental and suprasegmental inventories; uses of nominalization and reduplication processes; serial verb constructions; evidential and noun classification systems; syntactic ergative, split-ergative and active-stative alignments; object-initial word orders and differential object marking, among others.
Students will have the opportunity to hear from and interact with guest lecturers, specialists in Amazonian languages, and to analyze linguistic data that illustrate the typological features under discussion.
LING 4100/5300: Perspectives on Language
Instructor: Bhuvana Narasimhan
How does our mind construct meaning from language? Do we store abstract concepts that are completely detached from our physical experiences? Or can meaning be “embodied” – that is, do we mentally activate the experiences of our body interacting with the environment when we use language? Some research suggests that when we process language, we mentally simulate the bodily movements associated with many linguistic meanings. For instance, when we process verbs such as “grasp” or “push”, we may re-enact grasping or pushing movements in our minds. And these mental re-enactments of physical events can happen even when we comprehend metaphorical expressions such as “grasp an idea”.
Many researchers have embraced the view that meaning is embodied and have gone on to investigate questions such as: Do people with different kinds of bodies think differently? Is meaning embodied differently in one's first language versus a second language? Others have pushed back against the embodiment hypothesis, at least in its strong version, with critics arguing that it is "unacceptably vague" and "offering no scientifically valuable insight" (Goldinger et al., 2016).
In this course, we will critically examine different accounts of the relationship between language, mind, and body during weekly discussions. And during in-class lab sessions, you will learn to design and conduct your own experiment to explore this relationship. This course is open to undergraduate students as well as graduate (MA or PhD) students and can be used to meet the requirements for the Cognitive Science Certificate. There are no prerequisites. Please contact the instructor if you would like more information about the course.
LING 4560: Language Development
Instructor: Jack Damico
How do children develop language? In a relatively short span of time, children acquire all aspects of language. This class explores the development of phonology, syntax, morphology, semantics, and pragmatics in the context of children from infant to school-age. This multi-disciplinary class highlights language acquisition theories, cognition and its relation to language, and theory of mind. Students are asked to apply knowledge learned in this course to analyze children's language development through videos and language transcripts. Beyond typical development of language, language differences, bilingual language development, and a few disorders associated with language development such as autism and hearing loss are also explored.
LING 4610/5610: Pedagogical Grammar for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
Instructor: Rai Farrelly
Provides an introduction to the study of English grammar from the perspective of the nonnative learner and user of English. The focus is on understanding the form, meaning, and use of grammatical constructions and on how to teach these constructions in an ESL/EFL context.
LING 4622/5622: Statistical Analysis for Linguistics
Instructor: Hannah Haynie
This course aims to acquaint students with the fundamentals of quantitative analysis in linguistics and provide a practical introduction to the R statistical computing environment. It is suitable for students with no prior experience with statistics or statistical software packages.
Primary aims include providing a basic introduction to statistics and practical experience with analytical techniques in common use in linguistics. Topics that will be covered include examining and manipulating data, tests for independence, regression modeling, mixed models, and data visualization. Along the way, the course will develop skills for handling and analyzing data in the R statistical computing environment. By the end of the course, students should be comfortable working with data in R, conducting several types of statistical analysis used in linguistics, and creating figures to visualize analytical results. Satisfies QRMS requirement.
LING 4632/6300: Machine Learning and Linguistics
Instructor: Mans Hulden
This course provides an introduction to machine learning for advanced undergraduate students (4632), and graduate students (6300), including students in the CLASIC MS program. It is an ideal course for students already knowledgeable in programming who wish to gain knowledge in natural language processing and is an intermediate course between LING 1200 (Programming for Linguistics) and LING/CSCI 5832 (Natural Language Processing).
The course covers fundamentals of classification and clustering in a natural language processing context. Students will become familiar with basic classifiers that operate on text and be able to independently implement various standard machine learning solutions to text-based processing tasks. More advanced models, such as recurrent neural networks will also be discussed and students will become familiar with software libraries for solving language-related problems with neural models. A final project is included where students solve some natural language problem with machine learning techniques.
LING 4800: Language and Culture
Instructor: Mona Attwa
In this course, we will examine language as a form of action through which social, cultural and political relations are constituted. We will cover several key ideas and topics studied by linguistic anthropologists, such as the impact of language on thought and reality, language as a form of social action, language and identity, the dialogic emergence of culture, language ideologies, and language varieties. We will also examine several case studies and ethnographies that focus on language practices within particular communities. By the end of the course, you will understand key ideas in the study of language and culture (e.g., ideology, dialogism, identity, and indexicality), gain a critical awareness of the role language plays in social, cultural and political interaction, and examine the potential of ethnography for informing analyses of language and discourse.
LING 4910/5910: TESOL Practicum
Instructor: Rai Farrelly
The TESOL practicum provides a carefully mentored teaching experience to help novice teachers develop and enhance the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to enact effective instructional practices with English language learners. The TESOL practicum provides the opportunity for student teachers to theorize practice as they engage with language learners in the classroom alongside a cooperating teacher who serves as a model, mentor and source of critical feedback. Students will demonstrate their pedagogical and professional knowledge through reflections on classroom observations, instructional design elements (e.g., lesson plans), delivery of original activities in the classroom, and post-teaching reflections in writing, video and face-to-face consultations with the practicum supervisor. A culminating deliverable from this course is an online teaching portfolio comprising a teaching philosophy statement, a complete unit plan, reflections on teaching, and a narrative on professional responsibility.
LING 5140: CLASIC Capstone
Instructor: Susan Brown
In this capstone to the Computational Linguistics, Analytics, Search and Informatics (CLASIC) professional master's program, we will review each student's internship project and prepare presentations and technical reports based on those internships. Students will present their work on the annual Industry Day or at an Advisory Board meeting to industry representatives. They will also submit a paper to a relevant conference or workshop. Previously offered as a special topics course.
LING 5300/4100: Research in Psycholinguistics
Instructor: Bhuvana Narasimhan
How does our mind construct meaning from language? Do we store abstract concepts that are completely detached from our physical experiences? Or can meaning be “embodied” – that is, do we mentally activate the experiences of our body interacting with the environment when we use language? Some research suggests that when we process language, we mentally simulate the bodily movements associated with many linguistic meanings. For instance, when we process verbs such as “grasp” or “push”, we may re-enact grasping or pushing movements in our minds. And these mental re-enactments of physical events can happen even when we comprehend metaphorical expressions such as “grasp an idea”.
Many researchers have embraced the view that meaning is embodied and have gone on to investigate questions such as: Do people with different kinds of bodies think differently? Is meaning embodied differently in one's first language versus a second language? Others have pushed back against the embodiment hypothesis, at least in its strong version, with critics arguing that it is "unacceptably vague" and "offering no scientifically valuable insight" (Goldinger et al., 2016).
In this course, we will critically examine different accounts of the relationship between language, mind, and body during weekly discussions. And during in-class lab sessions, you will learn to design and conduct your own experiment to explore this relationship. This course is open to undergraduate students as well as graduate (MA or PhD) students and can be used to meet the requirements for the Cognitive Science Certificate. There are no prerequisites. Please contact the instructor if you would like more information about the course.
LING 5410: Phonology
Instructor: Rebecca Scarborough
Studies sound systems of language. Introduces both principles of organization of sound systems and major kinds of phonological structures found worldwide. Provides extensive practice in applying phonological principles to data analysis.
LING 5430: Semantics and Pragmatics
Instructor: Laura Michaelis
Explores fundamental concepts of semantics and pragmatics, including theories of communication and meaning, representation, conversational implications, speech acts, and discourse structure.
LING 5700: Conversation Analysis & Interactional Linguistics
Instructor: Chase Raymond
Although everyday conversation is commonly conceived of as random and chaotic—overrun with false starts, hitches, pauses, misunderstandings, topic shifts, and the like—in reality conversation is the product of a highly systematic and organized machinery. This graduate-level course aims to unpack some of the orderliness of this machinery by providing an introduction to the theories and methods of Conversation Analysis and Interactional Linguistics (CA/IL). The majority of our time will be spent tackling several of the fundamental features of human social interaction—e.g., turn-taking, sequence and preference organization, repair, reference, and epistemics—including cross-linguistic and cross-cultural considerations. After laying this foundation, we will also briefly introduce how CA/IL can be brought to bear on interaction in institutional settings (e.g., medical care, customer service), as well as contribute to our understanding of the link between language and identity. Throughout our discussion, the empirical rigor of CA/IL will be underscored, which we will argue offers a powerful lens through which to examine human sociality and engage in social theorizing.
As opposed to a lecture-only class, this course is designed to be as ‘hands-on’ as possible. That is, students will be expected to take what we learn in lecture and in the readings, and apply that knowledge to novel data they haven’t seen before. As such, ample time will be devoted to data-focused activities. Depending on the aims and objectives of those students enrolled, there may also be an opportunity for us to undertake a class-wide research project, to get some intensive, first-hand knowledge with the CA/IL research process. Both MA and PhD students are welcome to enroll; please don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly if you have any questions!
LING 5832: Natural Language Processing
Instructor: Maria Pacheco Gonzalez
Explores the field of natural language processing as it is concerned with the theoretical and practical issues that arise in getting computers to perform useful and interesting tasks with natural language. Covers the problems of understanding complex language phenomena and building practical programs.
LING 7430: Semantic Theory
Instructor: Alexis Palmer
Explores current developments in the theory of linguistic semantics. Potential topics include truth-conditional and set-theoretic theories of meaning; cognitive semantics; semantic typology; social semiotics; the syntax-semantics interface; and the interaction between meaning conventions and conventions of usage.
LING 7565: Computational Phonology and Morphology
Instructor: Mans Hulden
Surveys of the main approaches and central questions related to computational modeling and learning of morphology and phonology. We consider questions related to learnability of phonology/morphology, machine learning implementations, and linguist-driven grammar modeling.
LING 7800-001: Neurodiversity in Sociocultural Linguistics
Instructor: Kira Hall
Co-instructor/co-designer: Ayden Parish (advanced PhD student)
This exploratory seminar seeks to uncover how neurodiversity, broadly defined, challenges the ways sociocultural linguists have theorized the relationship between language and social life. Understood as the range of human cognitive and neurological variance, neurodiversity has been classically marginalized as only of interest through a medicalized, pathologizing lens. The neurodiversity movement, however, advocates that these differences should not be seen as biomedical entities to be first and foremost cured, but as variation to be accommodated and as lived experiences whose perspectives should be recognized and valued. Across the social sciences, neurodiversity-affirming approaches have come to demonstrate that a sociocultural angle is necessary, both in order to improve theorization of neurodiverse conditions and also to bring a new critical eye to current theories that only account for normative relationships with language and sociality. Crucially, these critiques make important steps in asserting the agency of neurodivergent individuals. This seminar seeks to enrich these discussions with specific attention to sociocultural linguistics as a site for neurodiverse intervention.
The goal of the course is to demonstrate the necessity of incorporating neurodiversity into the study of language in social life and to showcase the productive new directions engendered by such approaches. The course will advance a broad vision of neurodiversity that includes not only neurodevelopmental disabilities such as autism, ADHD, and Tourette syndrome, but also other neurological conditions like dementia and aphasia, as well as mental illnesses, including but not limited to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and OCD. Students will work to master the academic literature with respect to a particular area of neurodiversity, in order to come up with an argument regarding why sociocultural linguistics needs neurodiversity as a concept and how it challenges our thinking in central ways. To that end, participants will establish a research project related to their selected topic and submit a draft paper at the conclusion of the seminar.
The seminar will include readings from a diversity of disciplinary viewpoints, including linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, socially-oriented discourse analysis, crip linguistics and related perspectives, among others. Specific readings and additional course information will be given on the first seminar meeting in the spring semester, though likely topics include:
- Analyses of interactions amongst neurodiverse speakers
- Ethnographic approaches to language and embodiment in neurodiverse communities
- Discourse analytical approaches to the construction of neurodiversity and neurotypicality
- Critical reframings of traditionally pathologized linguistic behaviors such as echolalia or “disorganized” speech
- Other creative, socially-oriented approaches to the intersection of neurodiversity and linguistics
If you have further questions about the seminar, please contact Kira Hall at kira.hall@colorado.edu.
LING 7800-03: Linguistics Circle
Instructor: Varies
Linguistics Circle (LingCircle) is a weekly to biweekly colloquium and workshop series sponsored by the Department of Linguistics.