24.900 Introduction to Linguistics
Fall 2013
image restricted to class participants
Instructors: Adam Albright, Amelia R. Herb, Janis Melvold
TAs: Tingchun Chen, Ishani Guha, Juliet Stanton, Coppe van Urk, Suyeon Yun, Sam Zukoff
Lecture: MW1-2.30 (3-270)
Information:
This course will provide some answers to basic questions about the nature of human language. Throughout the semester, we will be examining a number of ways in which human language is a complex but law-governed mental system.
During the first two-thirds of the semester, we will examine various aspects of linguistic structure: the structure of words (morphology), the organization of sounds (phonetics, phonology), word order (syntax), and the meaning of sentences (semantics). You will use what you learn to investigate the structure of a language that is unfamiliar to you. We will then look at how linguistic structure influences and is affected by language transmission: how is language acquired? how do languages change over time? how do new dialects and languages arise?
Important information for those interested in adding 24.900: the class is currently full, but there is a waitlist, and we will try to accommodate as many people as possible. Please contact me (albright@mit.edu) to be placed on the waitlist, and attend the first two lectures. We will let people in off the waitlist as space becomes available this week and next. Also, if you have any questions, please just let me know.
Announcements
Final reminder: final exam, and subject evaluations
Thanks to all of you who have filled out the on-line subject evaluations. They are still live for a few more hours (until 9am tomorrow morning), so if you haven't had a chance to do it yet, please do take a moment to fill it out! It's very much appreciated: http://web.mit.edu/subjectevaluation/
Also, this is just one last reminder that the final exam is tomorrow, Monday, December 16, from 1:30PM - 4:30PM, in Walker.
Announced on 15 December 2013 11:24 p.m. by Adam Albright
Paper #4: clarification of due date
Paper 4 is due on Wed (11/27) at 6pm. I had originally set the deadline to be Tuesday, but changed it to Wednesday, in order to allow you more time to work on it, if you'd like. However, the assignment sheet still said Tuesday; I've uploaded a new version to reflect the correct date.
I also just noticed that the prompt was posted under "solution content" rather than "assignment", so I fixed that, too.
Announced on 24 November 2013 10:36 p.m. by Adam Albright
PSet 7, part 2 posted
A supplement to Pset 7 has been posted, under the assignment page. The main part of the assignment is to read the first portion of the syntax chapter of the textbook (which was the assigned reading, anyway) However, it does ask you to do a couple short mechanical exercises, to get some practice with some elements of syntactic analysis. The two parts should be submitted together, due next Tuesday.Announced on 23 October 2013 4:45 p.m. by Adam Albright
Room for optional writing workshops
As announced in lecture, there will be two writing workshop sessions: one this Sunday (10/20) and one on Tues (10/22). Both will be from 7-8:30pm in 56-162, and there will be refreshments.These workshops are optional, but they will give you a good
opportunity to sketch out the argument for your paper, and get
feedback on the argument and the structure. You will get more out
of it if you have looked through the articles ahead of time.
(Recall that you should focus on the one or two articles on the
angle that interests you most.)
--Adam
Announced on 18 October 2013 9:59 p.m. by Adam Albright
Problem set 7: question 2a
If you've downloaded Problem set 7, you might have noticed that question 2a got a bit garbled. (I changed the sentences at the last minute, hoping to maximize your chances of finding interesting morphology-- but the change only got implemented halfway) I've updated the problem sheet to make it consistent, so if you're unsure what I meant, please just download a new one.
Also, a reminder: problem set 7 is not due next week, but the week after, in order to allow you time to work on Paper #2 -- but please plan ahead, because it requires meeting with your native speaker consultant!
Announced on 17 October 2013 9:28 p.m. by Adam Albright
