Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Prerequisites

24.900 Introduction to Linguistics, or permission of instructor.

Course goals

• Overview of major questions and results from the study of language sound structure
• Develop analytic skills: describing data, formulating and testing hypotheses, evaluating alternatives
• Preparation for graduate school in linguistics or speech
• Useful background for career in speech science and technology, foreign language teaching and study

Course format

• Reading assignments from textbooks and research articles
• Weekly problem sets (exercises): due at beginning of Monday class

Grading Policy

For problem sets, acknowledged collaboration with other students is permitted but you must write up your own solutions. Exams will take place in class and are closed-book. At the end of the semester you will be able to choose between a final exam covering material from the second half of class, or a 5-10 page report on some research project of your choosing.