Linguistics

This introductory overview of linguistics provides a solid foundation in the object, methods, and goals of the science of spoken language -- the prime tool of human communication. Through a principled analysis of patterns of sound, form, and meaning at the levels of word, sentence, and text, the course provides insight into what it means to say that language is a rule-governed system and an organic whole. The course examines and explores the relationship between language and mind, society and culture. 

This course studies English morphology, focusing on basic concepts, internal structure of English words, and the nature of word-formation processes. It also examines strategies for and issues surrounding teaching vocabulary. Topics include vocabulary and speaking, vocabulary frequency and size, incidental vocabulary learning, and various learner strategies. The course also helps students develop some creative ideas on how to teach vocabulary based on cooperative learning-based teaching methods. 

This course is concerned primarily with the question of meaning: what is it for words or sentences to have meaning? In this course, students look at some of the most important theories offered by 20th-century philosophers in response to this question – theories that to this day continue to be hugely influential in linguistics and related fields. With each session focusing on the ideas of an individual thinker, students explore some of the most radical and provocative questions about language. 

The course examines the theoretical and methodological tools to understand and analyze human language in its complexity and in its various manifestations, i.e. languages. At first, human language is contextualized within the larger set of semiotic phenomena, and the main models of linguistic and non-linguistic communication will be compared. The course then defines the concept of natural language, within a broader perspective taking into account the world's languages and their variation in time and space, and focuses on the concept of linguistic diversity. The diversity of languages is the background during the middle part of the course, where various levels of linguistic analysis are explained and demonstrated using examples from Italian and other European and non-European languages. The course addresses phonetics, phonology, morphology, vocabulary, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. In light of the different levels of analysis addressed, the course proposes possible typologies and taxonomies with which to organize linguistic diversity, and concludes by discussing the concept of linguistic universals.

The rules of syntax determine which logical possibilities are sentences, while semantics relates to their interpretation. This course begins with an introduction to the philosophical and scientific background for the study of syntax and meaning. Next, fundamental syntactic categories and concepts, and their relationship to semantic notions are explored. Topics including the elements of lexical meaning, phrase structure, syntactic movement, and the computation of sentence meaning are explored within a theoretical context. This course serves as a basis for further specialization in fields including linguistics, philosophy, psychology, cognitive science, and computer science.

This course presents the rules of usage of the Spanish language and specific characteristics of academic writing. It develops skills for analyzing texts, academic writing, production of argumentative essays, utilizing research methods and tools, and critical reflection on normative aspects of the Spanish language.

This course examines syntax and the grammatical and discursive structures of Spanish. Topics include: sentence syntax; noun clauses; relative clauses; adverbial clauses; from sentence syntax to discursive syntax; intersentential syntax-- coordination and adverbial sentences; discursive syntax.