Linguistics

This course introduces the sounds, grammar, vocabulary, genetic affiliation, and types of Japanese language, terms and concepts often used in Japanese linguistics.  It covers the basic information on Japanese language needed for students interested in teaching it as a second/foreign language or a native language. Japanese is also contrasted with other languages such as Korean, Chinese and English.

In the 1950s, Noam Chomsky revolutionized the study of linguistics by treating language as something produced by the human brain. From this change in perspective, the study of language became an indirect way of studying the human mind. In addition to opening new ways to approach the subject, this change also built a foundation for doing linguistics as a science. Grammar is seen not as a known set of rules that people need to study to learn but rather as the rules that result from the human mind trying to make sense of the language it is exposed to. This course looks at three sub-areas of linguistics from this perspective: morphology (the study of word structure), phonetics (the study of the physical sounds of language), and phonology (the study of the structure of sounds in language).

The globalization of the translation industry has accelerated the use of specialized tools in response to constraints such as time, cost, consistency and teamwork. This class offers students an opportunity for hands-on exploration of a number of industry-leading applications widely used today by key players in the translation industry to equip students with knowledge about translation working environment; translation memory technology; translation project management; translation workflow management; translation quality management; machine translation, and so forth. By using them to complete both individual and collaborative translation tasks, you will gain an understanding of: (1) An overview of the localization industry in which the tools are used; (2) Their potential and limitations; (3) Methods of evaluating their performance, and (4) How translation quality are evaluated in the translation industry.

This course analyzes the history and dialectology of Latin American Spanish, with special focus on Chilean history and linguistic documentation of the colonial and post-colonial eras. Topics include: the concept of Latin American Spanish-- unity and diversity, Latin American Spanish and Atlantic Spanish; the influence of Andalusia and genetic matrices; diastratic-diatopic variation and zoning; historical aspects-- periodization of Latin American Spanish; koineization and standardization processes; linguistic contact-- indigenous substrata and immigrant languages.

This course delves into the process of language acquisition. The course looks at different models and theories that have arisen from the different schools of thought. It explores the different processes of first language acquisition and stages of development (phonological, lexical, syntactical), before moving onto the cognitive framework of language processing (parsing). The next area of focus is bilingualism and second language acquisition. Students are introduced to different forms of bilingualism and the issues raised in second language acquisition. They are also introduced to language in the brain, speech pathologies, and other communication systems.

Language and our thinking capacity are closely related. This course explores the ways in which language shapes; assists, or hinders our thinking. Mastering one of the main cognitive tools in our possession means mastering our own linguistic minds. 

This course introduces five core areas of grammar: Phonetics/phonology investigates the sounds of English and how are they used to distinguish meanings. Morphology describes the structure of words and syntax, with the structure of sentences. Finally, semantics is about the way in which linguistic expressions (in particular, words and sentences) can be interpreted, and pragmatics deals with the way in which language is used to perform concrete actions.

This course examines important historical, cultural, and social influences on language in the United States. We begin with an historical introduction to the English language in the United States, and then turn to other language varieties, such as Native American languages and languages of major immigrant communities (e.g., Spanish, Asian languages). We will also survey major forms of language variation, including regional dialects (e.g., Southern American English), social dialects, and other forms of socially patterned variation (e.g., youth language and slang). Furthermore, we will examine important controversies such as bilingual education and African American Vernacular English, as well as discuss topics such as language policy, language rights, and recent efforts to restrict and revitalize minority languages. Throughout the course, we will try to not only study language in the United States, but will also explore what this particular setting can reveal about issues of language and society in other contexts around the world.

This course will require students to engage in critical thinking, synthesizing information from a wide range of sources (e.g., textbook, academic journals, videos) on a wide range of topics pertaining to the language situation in the United States and participate actively in class activities (e.g., discussions, debates). Students will also engage in an independent research project, the results of which they will present both orally and in written form.

This course is designed to guide students through a fascinating and fast journey from Middle Ages to current times to show and let them understand the extraordinary peculiarity of a language which was born many centuries before the effective geopolitical birth of the Italian nation in 1861. The focus of this course it to show through a selection of short popular Italian texts how all this affected the current use of written and oral Italian. 

This course examines the problems, methods, and results of semantics and pragmatics, with an emphasis on how they complement one another. It explores the development of semantics and pragmatics and contextualizes them in the development of general linguistics theory. Finally, this courses uses an organic assembly of theoretical concepts and methodologies for semantic and pragmatic analysis of the Spanish language.