LING 0100. Introduction to Linguistics.

The ability to speak and understand a language involves having mastered (quite unconsciously) an intricate and highly structured rule-governed system. Linguists seek to model that rule system. This course introduces students to the areas of phonetics (speech articulation and transcription), phonology (the principles that govern how sounds are put together), morphology (the principles governing word structure), syntax (the rule system governing sentence structure), and semantics (the system that relates sentences to meanings).

LING 0130. Playing with Words: The Linguistic Principles Behind Word Games and Puzzles.

In this course, we explore the use of language in a domain which is fairly unlike ordinary communication: the use of language in wordplay, alternate languages, games, and puzzles. At one level, understanding aspects of linguistic theory can provide insight into the internal workings of these various forms of wordplay. On another level, wordplay and puzzles often intentionally subvert the grammar and other rules of ordinary language use and therefore can provide a unique lens into typically implicit grammatical knowledge speakers possess and deploy in all domains of language.

LING 0511. Language and Gender.

In this course, we will explore the relationship between language and gender: how ideologies about gender shape language, and, conversely, how language is used to construct gender and gendered identities. To accomplish this, we will pair the tools of linguistic analysis with social theory on gender. Topics include historical developments in the field of language and gender, speech act theory and performativity, grammatical gender, and sociolinguistic style and indexicality. Throughout the course, we will consider how intersections with other social identities – such as race, class, sexuality, and age – inform how people construct gender through language and how these intersections impact which communities have historically been prioritized in research in this area.

LING 0530. Diversity in American Languages.

This course provides an overview of the history, structure, and diversity of languages in the United States, focusing on four categories: indigenous, colonial, immigrant, and new languages. It explores how these languages reflect and constitute cultural identity, and the ways in which they are shaped by social, political, and educational factors. The course includes topics like Native American languages, African American English, and American English dialects, including the dialects of New England, and critically examines the connections between language, race, power, and privilege. This is an introductory course and no prior linguistics training is required.

LING 0810. Englishes of Postcolonial Africa.

English is spoken by various groups worldwide. In postcolonial contexts, such as Africa, there are four distinct types of English: pidgin, creole, second-language, and first-language varieties, all part of global Englishes. This course surveys the linguistic variations in African Englishes and their divergence from other global English varieties, including African American English (AAE). We will explore different forms and pronunciations and examine the historical, political and social contexts of these varieties, including speakers’ attitudes, identity construction, and connections to other global English identities. Additionally, we will discuss how multilingualism influences English use in Africa and how English use affects language choice and policy in sectors such as education and governance across the continent. Overall, we will gain a comprehensive understanding of the linguistic diversity of African Englishes and their impact on language, identity, and policy across the continent.

LING 1200. Phonology.

Examines some of the classic and current issues regarding sound structure in the world's languages and introduces the theoretical tools needed to solve them. After an introduction to articulatory phonetics and phonemic analysis, it focuses on phonological analysis of different languages, and discusses rule-based and constraint-based approaches to phonology. Implications for language learning and language change are discussed. Prerequisite: LING 0100.

LING 1210. Phonetics.

In this class, we will focus on the physical properties of language. Beginning with articulatory phonetics, we will explore how speech sounds are produced in the vocal tract and how signs are produced using facial and manual articulators. In studying acoustic phonetics, we will consider the form that sound takes in the acoustic medium. Through auditory phonetics, we will focus on how listeners process the speech signal. We will conclude by exploring applications of phonetic principles to related domains, including perceiving speech in unfamiliar accents, studying language change over time, and the development of computer technologies for speech synthesis and recognition.

LING 1270. Laboratory in Phonetics.

This course is an introduction to phonetics, covering articulation, acoustics, and perception. Students will gain basic skills in experimental phonetics, focusing on instrumental analysis of speech and behavioral responses in listening tasks. The first unit will provide training in methods of acoustic analysis using phonetic software (Praat), as well as looking at the relationship between articulation and the resulting speech sounds. The second unit will look at physiological and cognitive aspects of speech perception. The final unit will cover a selection of advanced topics in phonetics, including connections between perception and production and issues in the interface of phonetics and phonology.

LING 1280A. Topics in Phonetics and Phonology: How Phonetics Shapes Phonology.

Rule-based and constraint-based descriptions of phonological systems predict the existence of phenomena that are never observed in human language. What constrains which sound systems, rules and phonological constraints would exist in a language? What makes a phonological rule natural and other rules unnatural? We will discuss several different approaches that integrate phonetic insights into phonology.

LING 1280B. Topics in Phonology: Lenition.

Consonant shortening, voicing, and deletion are just a few of many phonological processes that are considered to be lenition (softening, weakening) processes. But is lenition a valid category? What functional forces are capable of causing such a wide variety of different processes, and what do they have in common? In this class we will study and criticize the different meanings of the term lenition and discuss several functionally-motivated causes for lenition.

LING 1280C. Topics in Phonetics and Phonology: Psycholinguistics of Phonetic Perception.

This course examines how perception of acoustic input is shaped by phonological systems, lexicons, and other aspects of linguistic representations. Many factors play a role in phonetic perception; some primary aspects that will be discussed are the role of memory, interactions between perception and production, and effects of top-down and bottom-up processing. Additional topics include individual variation in perception and production, social influences, and mechanisms driving the initiation and spread of sound changes. We will look at studies addressing these issues, examining what sorts of patterns exist, how to approach psycholinguistic questions in phonetic perception, and how to interpret data.

LING 1310. Introduction to Syntax.

An in-depth investigation of natural language syntax, an intricate yet highly organized human cognitive system. Focuses primarily on the syntax of English as a means of illustrating the structured nature of a grammatical system, but the broader question at issue is the nature of the rule system in natural language syntax. Prerequisite: CLPS 0030.

LING 1311. Linguistic Variation and Universals.

As anyone who has tried to learn a foreign language knows, languages differ from one another in numerous ways both superficial and profound. Although there are many different ways in which syntactic structure varies across languages, this variation is not limitless; it is subject to principled constraints, and different logically independent dimensions of variation often turn out to be highly correlated with one another. This course explores language universals and the range of cross-linguistic variation in the domain of morphosyntax, what limits this variation appears to have, and what functional, formal, and semantic principles underlie this variation.

LING 1410. Lexical Semantics.

The representation of word meaning and generalizations about the way in which meanings are packaged into words. Topics include: "fuzzy" meanings, natural kind terms, how word meanings are decomposed. Special emphasis on how temporal properties are encoded, on the status of "thematic relations," and on how the fine-grained structure of word meanings impacts on the syntax. Recommended prerequisite: CLPS 0030.

LING 1412. Pragmatics.

Any time we utter a sentence in conversation, the perceived meaning of that sentence interacts with the discourse context in a rich variety of ways. On the one hand, aspects of a sentence's meaning are ``filled in'' or enriched by the prior conversation as well as non-linguistic context. On the other hand, utterances shape the future of the conversation in various ways too. This course is an introduction to the scientific study of such phenomena. Specific topics include: presupposition, implicature, speech acts, deixis, anaphora, (in)definiteness, and information structure.

LING 1440. Compositional Semantics.

Model-theoretic approaches to the study of the semantics of natural languages. Develops the tools necessary for an understanding of classic formal semantic results in linguistics and in philosophy (lambda calculus, intensional logic, Montague's treatment of quantification, etc.), These tools are then applied to detailed descriptions of natural language semantics, including binding and pronouns, modification, scope, focus etc. as well as other recent developments in semantic theory. Prerequisite: some familiarity with syntax or semantics or basic set theory and logic.

LING 1480A. The Boundary of Semantics and Pragmatics.

This course will examine some phenomena with an eye to the question of how much is actually encoded in the grammar vs. what sorts of facts can be accounted for by pragmatics. We begin by focussing on recent controversies regarding the question concerning the status of so called "Gricean inferences". We will also look at some facts surrounding negation, as well as certain constructions which appear to require an idiosyncratic grammatical account with an eye to explaining the idiosyncracies. Prerequisite: LING 1410, CLPS 1340 or LING 1412. Enrollment limited to 40.

LING 1481A. Topics in Syntax and Semantics: The Syntax, Semantics and Processing of Ellipsis.

Ellipsis' is the phenomenon whereby a short expression is understood as a longer paraphrase. An example: "Lindsay can ski that course, but Bode can't". The second part is understood as "And Bode can't ski that course". How are such cases handled by the grammar (is there 'silent linguistic material interpreted by the semantics')? And how do language users process these? These questions have been debated for decades, and because ellipsis constructions interact with many other phenomena, the analysis of this domain is central in grammatical and processing theory. This seminar examines this with respect to several constructions and theories.

LING 1500. Sociolinguistics.

This course is a comprehensive introduction to theoretical frameworks and methods of analysis in sociolinguistics. We will examine how language variation and change can reflect social structures, construct diverse social identities, and allow us to make sense of our surrounding social landscapes. We will first learn how linguistic variation corresponds to large-scale social categories like gender, age, ethnicity, and class. Then, we will turn our attention to how individual speakers use language to construct identities, portray stances, and achieve interactional goals. Throughout the course, we will consider how ideologies about linguistic variation have been used to invalidate particular ways of speaking and disempower speakers of these varieties, and how language can reflect, reinforce, or contest social inequalities.

LING 1512. Language and Ethnicity.

This course explores historical, cultural, and theoretical perspectives on the relationship between language and ethnicity, and related concepts such as race, with a special focus on the United States. It centers on class discussions informed by readings that examine how language reflects and defies ethnic boundaries and how ideas about ethnicity influence the ways people use and construe language. The course covers topics such as ethnicization, racialization, authentication, linguistic repertoire, style shifting, mocking, ideology, and the concept of the listening subject. Requirements include attendance, participation, essays, class presentations, and a final paper. Students will gain experience in collecting and interpreting linguistic data and enhance their ability to write about language from a social scientific perspective, with the opportunity to incorporate feedback into their writing. Prerequisites: LING 0100/CLPS 0300, LING 0511/CLPS 0340, or LING 0530/CLPS 0370.

LING 1570. Research Practicum: Language Variation and Change in Rhode Island.

This course introduces students to the study of variation and change in large speech communities, using Providence as a focal site. We will build theoretical knowledge on place identity and its relationship to other social identities (class, ethnicity, gender) and to linguistic change. Students will collect and analyze sociolinguistic data in Providence and, through a series of in-class workshops, work through the research process from design to implementation and analysis. As an RPP course, students will consider how hierarchical structures impact linguistic variation and the research methods used to study it. As a COEX course, students will gain hands-on experience with sociolinguistic research methods and complete a final project analyzing an aspect of the class’s aggregated data.

LING 1615. Sociolinguistic Cognition.

In this course, we will explore how language meets social information in the mind. We will address questions like: How do we infer who someone is from the way that they speak? How do our social expectations influence speech perception? How do our social experiences, stereotypes, and attitudes mediate how we speak and how we listen? How does our knowledge of linguistic variation interact with cognitive processes like attention and memory? And how much control do we have over these phenomena? Students will gain both a theoretical understanding of research in these areas as well as practical knowledge related to formulating research questions and designing studies on sociolinguistic topics.

LING 1741. Information Theory in Language.

Information theory is used to study the abstract properties of communication systems. Can it improve our ability to understand language? We will examine how the need to communicate predicts several linguistic phenomena. We will discuss information theoretic effects on multiple levels of linguistic analysis, including phonetics, phonology, and syntax. We will contrast concepts such as frequency, predictability, informativity, and functional load, and see how they can each apply to existing linguistic questions.

LING 1771. Introduction to Corpus Linguistics.

The study of Linguistics relies on language production data. Language corpora contain various sources of such data, often annotated to include additional information such as syntactic, semantic and phonological properties. Such databases often complement or even replace data sources used in other disciplines. This class aims to train students in the use of some of the tools that are commonly used to access and evaluate data in linguistic corpora. Prerequisite: CLPS 0030. Enrollment limited to 25.

LING 1810. Historical Linguistics.

This course is a survey of the basic mechanisms of how languages change over time and of the methods used to reconstruct these developments. We examine phonological change, morphological change, syntactic change, and semantic change, as well as interactions between these types of changes. Students will learn about types of evidence in reconstruction of change and about theoretical models of change. We will cover language relationships and the methods of establishing familial groupings, and we will compare patterns due to familial descent, language contact, and borrowing. Examples will be drawn from a variety of languages, both ancient and modern.

LING 1870. Linguistic Field Methods.

A lab/practicum course introducing the methodologies needed to collect, manage, and interpret primary data pertaining to the phonetic, phonological, morphosyntactic, semantic, and pragmatic properties of an understudied language. The course takes a hands-on approach, with students working in groups and individually with a native speaker consultant of an unfamiliar language. Students will learn how to test hypotheses about the language as well as construct grammatical descriptions. In addition, the course will cover a variety of practical, technological, interpersonal, cultural, and ethical issues typically encountered in fieldwork.

LING 1970. Independent Research in Linguistics.

This course is to facilitate students conducting independent research on a research question or area advised by a faculty member. This includes research for honors theses, but also other independent research and reading as determined in consultation with the relevant faculty member

LING XLIST. Courses of Interest to Concentrators in Linguistics.