Linguistics

This course provides the groundwork for understanding the shape and status of the English language. The course is divided between the study of the ways in which it has changed since the Old English period, and the study of the social and cultural contexts in which those changes have happened. Special attention is given to the emergence of key dialects and to the relations between English and other languages in the British Isles. Students also gain experience of a range of different varieties of English. 

This course provides an introduction to the existence of phonetic variation and change in modern English, as well as tools to detect and analyze this variation. Far from being a theoretical course on the major changes that took place in the history of English, this course focuses on language as can be directly accessed using recent and contemporary sources and tools. The first part of the course discusses how pronunciation was indicated in older dictionaries as objects of knowledge and culture, starting from 16th and 17th century books, and mainly focusing on 18th to 20th century dictionaries. The second part investigates how a collection of dictionaries from various periods can be used as a relevant corpus to identify and explain phonetic variation and change in present-day English as well as from a historical perspective, including the way new linguistic features can be born and spread through the language. The final part of the course demonstrates how to collect, annotate, and analyze oral English. It includes an introduction to the use of the speech analysis software PRAAT.

This course is intended for anyone interested in the two central themes of how languages work and how they change. The course covers: the basics of phonology (the sounds of a language) and morphology (analysis of the minimal meaningful elements in a language); the history of thought about language in the western tradition, from the ancient world to the 20th century; historical linguistics and the Indo-European languages; and sociolinguistics: how and why languages change.

This course studies the social function of language from a micro-linguistics point of view. Language is analyzed in relation to social structure. For example, we may casually say in our daily conversations that people in China speak Chinese, or that “we” speak Japanese. In this course, we re-examine concepts such as language, society, speech community, and code, and analyze the linguistic choices speakers make in order to express their identity in the context of society.

The course offers an introduction to English language history, paying attention to language changes, language contact, and the development into a modern national language in particular. An introduction is also given to the main characteristics of Old English and Middle English. The course discusses topics including the main lines of development of written English from approximately 700 AD to modern times; the most important changes in the fields of phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics; and the basic structure of Old English, Middle English, and Early Modern English grammar. The course requires students have completed courses in English grammar and phonetics and intonation or similar courses as a prerequisite.

Through a semester of Shanghainese teaching, students basically master the phonetic characteristics, some vocabulary and grammar of Shanghainese, understand Shanghainese in daily life, and use Shanghainese for simple communication. The course includes an overview of Shanghai dialect, introduction to Shanghai dialect pronunciation, practice of Shanghai dialect pronunciation in conversation courses, and arranging appropriate Shanghai dialect actual combat activities. Course topics include: introduction to Shanghai dialect, Shanghai dialect voice, consolidation and practice of Shanghainese pronunciation, Shanghai dialect conversation, Shanghai dialect actual combat mission. 

This course explores psycholinguistics and the psychology of language including current theories and recent research. It focuses on cognitive linguistics and English language learning.