Linguistics

This course introduces the theory and practice of applied linguistics, particularly in the context of Japanese as a second language (JSL). We address significant issues in learning and teaching Japanese using key concepts of applied linguistics, analyzing the characteristics of Japanese from cognitive-functional linguistic and sociolinguistic perspectives. In addition, this course covers essential syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of basic Japanese grammatical patterns that are introduced in beginner's Japanese classes. Students are expected to take an active role in the presentation and discussion of articles and data.

In this course, students acquire knowledge and insight with respect to the most important phenomena and theories on the interface of semantics and pragmatics. The interpretation of an utterance lies at the intersection of grammatical, logical, conceptual, contextual, and communicative factors. Semantics and pragmatics study how those factors determine meaning and what the consequences are for the processing and acquisition of language. In that study, theoretical models and experimental research methods come together. This course is about research at the interface of semantics and pragmatics, of theory and experiment, focusing on a number of topics, like implicatures, proto typicality, reference, and coercion. Prerequisite knowledge of semantics and pragmatics at an introductory level is required.

The course gives students insight to a number of topics that are analyzed from the perspective of different linguistic disciplines: grammar (lexical semantics, morphology), psycholinguistics, language acquisition, anthropological linguistics, and typology. Students consider the following: what is the lexicon; what is a word; how are words and their meanings represented in the brain or mental lexicon; how is lexical knowledge acquired; what is the relation between culture and lexicon. Students apply different empirical methods and take a comparative perspective where possible (starting with Dutch and English but also with attention to other European languages and other language families). Specific topics of this course include the meaning of derivational morphemes and complex words, semantic fields, linguistic relativity, and lexical universals.

This course takes a sociolinguistic approach to English communication in the 21st century. It provides understanding of concepts, theories, and skills of global communication across people with different social, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds, and further explores the relationship of these concepts, theories, and skills with both English language teaching (ELT) and English-medium instruction (EMI). Other topics covered include English as a Multingua Franca, Conceptualizing a global language, and intercultural communication.

This courses examines how speech learning changes over the life span and why earlier is better when it comes to learning to pronounce a second language. Several hypotheses concerning the causes of a foreign accent are investigated and models of second language speech learning are presented. Emphasis is placed on the acquisition of English by adult native speakers of Japanese. Pedagogical implications are addressed throughout and selected techniques for teaching pronunciation, using unfamiliar languages, are demonstrated. The course covers how to analyze spoken samples produced by foreign language learners using scientific and systematic methods based on theories of phonetics and phonology. Students will apply their newly learned skills in analyzing difficult sounds for language learners. Students will also use these skills to develop materials for L2 pronunciation education.

The goal of the course is to acquaint the participants with the central notions and principles of linguistics–a scientific study of human language that probes into the nature of language itself and seeks to answer the fundamental questions as to what language is and how it works. Students learn to use the formal tools of morphological and syntactic analyses and connect these to the position of language as a cognitive module. Under the view adopted, linguistics is a branch of cognitive psychology since it studies our competence (knowledge of natural language) which is, in turn, an aspect of our mind. The participants are acquainted with the leading ideas, central notions and fundamental principles of theoretical linguistics, concerned with the constructing of models of linguistic knowledge. The course particularly focuses on morphology and syntax as two sub-fields of theoretical linguistics. The course deals with the “nature-nurture” debate, searches for explanations of linguistic universals, but it also discusses the boundaries of natural language. It discusses how Universal Grammar operates and how natural language relates to other cognitive processes. A central role in the course is given to getting ourselves familiarized with the core structural principles of natural language. As the title of the course indicates, the starting point is the wonderment about the data from the participants' native language(s), but the goal is to analyze these data and compare them, in a systematic fashion, with data from other languages, both closely and distantly related to it.

The course takes a narrative approach to the history of the language, beginning with the 'pre-historical' period and the languages of early Britain, and ending with the spread of English across the world, and its status as the global language of the twenty-first century. Throughout, changes associated with the external history of the language are discussed in tandem with systemic changes affecting the phonology, morphology and syntax of different varieties of English. Students will be introduced to principles of historical linguistics, dialectology and sociolinguistics as they apply to varieties of English. They will also become familiar with the basic structural characteristics of the main periods of English in Britain (Old, Middle and Modern English), and with the formal and functional characteristics of some new Englishes (e.g. those in Africa and India). The development of English and Scots in Scotland is a further notable feature of the course.