24.900 Introduction to Linguistics
Fall 2015
Instructor: David Pesetsky
TAs: Athulya Aravind, Isa Kerem Bayirli, Tingchun Chen, Christopher Harris O'Brien, Milena Sisovics, Carolyn Rose Spadine, Hanzhi Zhu
Writing Advisor (9am and 1pm sections):
Amy Carleton
Writing Advisor (10am and 11am sections): Janis Melvold
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Lecture: MW1-2.30
(4-270)
Information:
This class will provide some answers to basic questions about the nature of human language. Throughout the course, we will be examining a number of ways in which human language is a complex but law-governed mental system.
In the first two thirds of the class, we will study some core aspects of this system in detail. In the final part of the class, we will use what we have learned to address a variety of other questions — including how language is acquired, how dialects arise, how languages change over time, and others.
Announcements
and I thought I'd sent the last message!
But in fact there was an ambiguity resolvable by stress that confused several of you who have already written to me. What I posted were the "final GRADES" (i.e. your grade for the semester), not the "FINAL grades" (your grade on the final exam). The former follows the normal stress pattern for Adjective+Noun (called the "Nuclear Stress Rule" if you want to Google it). The latter follows the compound stress rule ("LAB box", "DOG leash") that we discussed in class.If you want to know your grade on the final exam, email me or drop by my office. The semester grades are what I've posted.
Announced on 18 December 2015 10:59 p.m. by David Pesetsky
24.900 grades, goodbyes and thanks
Final grades have been posted to WebSIS and may also be viewable on Stellar. Anyone who wants to have a look at their final exam should contact me. Comments on the final writing assignments will also be posted, or in some cases can be obtained from your TA — ask your TA for details.Let me thank all of you for being a great class, and for your wise decision to learn a bit about linguistics! I hope to see many of you in other linguistics classes at MIT — let me know if you have any questions about the possibilities.
Meanwhile, have a good holiday and a wonderful vacation!!
-David
Announced on 18 December 2015 10:46 p.m. by David Pesetsky
One guaranteed exam question tomorrow (for those of you who didn't come to the review)
Name ten Indo-European languages from at least five different subfamilies, and say what subfamily each language belongs to.Announced on 15 December 2015 7:40 p.m. by David Pesetsky
24.900 Final Exam Review time & PLACE; instructor office hours
FINAL EXAM REVIEW:Date: Tue 12/15/15
Time: 5:30p - 7:00p
Room: 4-270 (our regular classroom)
PRE-EXAM OFFICE HOURS (32-D818):
Monday (today): 7:30pm-9pm
Tuesday 7:30pm-9:00pm (after the exam review)
(These are your instructor's office hours. Check with your TA for their availability.)
The department door (8th floor Stata) locks after 6pm, so email pesetsk@mit.edu or call x3-0957 if you are coming, to make sure someone is there to let you in. These will be normal one-on-one office hours, not group office hours as we did before the quiz (though feel free to come with a friend if you feel like it, of course).
Announced on 14 December 2015 12:21 p.m. by David Pesetsky
Tuesday final exam review time: 5:30pm
Just noticed that for some bizarre reason I typed "5:40" instead of "5:30" as the starting time for our review on Tuesday. It will start at 5:30!Sorry to bother you with these emails when I'm sure you're studying for other things. There will be one more message when I know the room in which we will meet on Tuesday.
Announced on 13 December 2015 6:59 p.m. by David Pesetsky
