Introduction to Linguistics

Lecture Summaries

Most lecture topics have either accompanying lecture summaries or slides.

SES #	TOPICS	SUMMARIES / SLIDES
Introduction
1	What’s it all about? Branches of linguistics Language acquisition: what’s innate, what’s learned?	No lecture summary or slides available
Morphology
2–4	The notion “lexicon” No word or morpheme boundaries in the speech signal Affixes: prefixes, suffixes The rule “Merge” How structure interacts with sound and with meaning Syntactic category Affixes: reduplication, infixes Solving morphology problems Subcategorization Derivational vs. inflectional morphology	Morphology lectures summary (PDF)
**Phonetics (Sounds of Speech: Production and Perception)**
5–7	International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) Articulatory phonetics / distinctive features Consonants: place, manner, aspiration, nasality Vowels Acoustic phonetics, categorical perception The McGurk effect Finish phonetics, start phonology	Phonetics lectures summary (PDF)
**Phonology (Sounds of Speech: Their Grammar)**
8–12	Phonology vs. phonetics Phonological rules Underlying form Complementary distribution Phoneme and allophone How to determine the phonemes of a language Rule ordering Syllable structure	Phonology lectures summary (PDF)
Writing Systems
13	Writing systems as a technology for representing speech Types of systems: pictographic, syllabary, alphabet Origins of the Roman alphabet Phonemic vs. phonetic alphabetic writing systems	Writing systems lecture slides (PDF - 2.0MB)
**Syntax (Sentence Structure)**
14–18	Syntactic categories (noun, verb, etc.) Phrase structure Subcategorization in syntax Chomsky’s Locality Condition on subcategorization The notion “head” Complements and adjuncts Head-initial vs. head-final languages Movement Movement as “internal merge” wh-movement Topicalization V-to-C movement Patterns of pronunciation (overt, covert, split) Verb-second The notion “parameter” Movement and word-order variation A language universal: the Final-over-Final Constraint (FOFC)	Syntax lectures summary (PDF)
Acquisition of Syntax
19	Stages of acquisition Learning vs. innateness vs. maturation	Acquisition of syntax lecture summary (PDF)
Semantics (Grammar of Meaning) / Semantics and Pragmatics
20–21	Pronouns and binding Quantifier scope Negative polarity items	Semantics lecture slides (PDF - 1.0MB) Note: these slides were produced by Hadas Kotek and are used by permission
Controversies, Myths and Crazy Rumors about Language
22	Selected from such issues as… Does the language of the Pirahã disprove theories about language? Why did Stalin write articles about linguistics? What does teaching children to read have to do with right-wing vs. left-wing politics? How many words for snow does Eskimo have? Should we care?	No lecture summary or slides available
Historical Change
23–24	Synchronic vs. diachronic linguistics Internalist vs. externalist views of change Pidgins, Creoles, Creolization Language families The Indo-European language family: language and culture Linguistics and the Romantic movement History of English	Historical change lectures summary (PDF) Historical change lectures slides (PDF - 1.1MB)
Dialects: Facts and Controversies
25–27	What is a dialect? The politics of languages and dialects Dialects of North American English The “Ebonics” controversy	Dialects lectures slides (PDF - 1.6MB)