Linguistics

370 Temple, Rm 204, 432.2450
M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.

Chair
Louis Goldstein

Director of Graduate Studies
Laurence Horn (370 Temple St., Rm 208, 432.2457, laurence.horn@yale.edu)

Professors
Stephen Anderson (on leave), Paul Bloom, Carol Fowler (Adjunct), Roberta Frank, Louis Goldstein, Laurence Horn, Stanley Insler, Frank Keil, Hugh Stimson

Associate Professor
Dianne Jonas

Assistant Professors
Maria Babyonyshev (on leave [F]), Darya Kavitskaya, Maria Piñango, Charles Yang

Lector
Seema Khurana

Director, African Language Program
Ann Biersteker

Director, Center for Language Study
Nina Garrett

Supporting Faculty in Other Departments
Stephen Colvin (Classics), J. Joseph Errington (Anthropology), William Hallo (Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations)

Fields of Study
Fields include linguistic theory (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics), experimental phonetics, brain and language, language and cognition, Indo-European, Germanic linguistics, and African linguistics.

Special Admissions Requirements
Two terms of two ancient Indo-European languages, preferably Latin and Greek, are required for the Indo-European program.

Special Requirements for the Ph.D. Degree
Language Requirements: Students must demonstrate knowledge of two research languages, either by passing a translation examination in the language, or by presenting a piece of research which relies in significant part on sources in the foreign language. A one-term language description course, a field methods course, or a course in the structure of a non-Indo-European language is also required.

Course Requirements: Sixteen term courses at the graduate level. Required courses in syntax, phonology, phonetics, morphology, semantics, and historical linguistics will be taken during the first two years. Remaining course work during the first two years in residence will be selected so as to prepare the student in some substantial subfield of linguistics. After the first two years, students are required to enroll in at least one seminar course each term until they advance to candidacy.

Program Requirements: At the end of the second year, each student will take an examination in some subfield of linguistics and also present samples of work demonstrating knowledge of the core areas of the field: syntax, phonology, and historical linguistics. By the end of the third year, the student should have presented two substantial research papers of publishable quality in different areas of linguistics. By the end of the seventh semester, students should have defended a dissertation prospectus.

Dissertation Requirements: Students are expected to complete their dissertations by the end of the sixth year. A dissertation defense is required after submission.

Teaching Fellow and Research Assistantship Requirements: Teaching experience is regarded as an integral part of the graduate training program in Linguistics. All students are required to serve as Teaching Fellows for a minimum of two terms, usually in the third or fourth years of study. Two additional terms of assistantship are also required, either in the form of additional participation in the Teaching Fellow Program, through participation in externally supported, supervised research (e.g., NSF Fellowship), or by serving as an assistant on a research project. Research assistantships are provided by the Linguistics faculty (e.g., from research grants) and by various Yale and Yale-affiliated units. Before accepting a research assistantship in fulfillment of the academic requirement, students must receive approval from the director of graduate studies. To be approved, an assistantship must meet the following criteria: (1) It must be under the supervision of a departmental faculty member or faculty at an affiliated unit, such as the Haskins Laboratories or the Yale School of Medicine. (2) It must provide research experiences that complement the student's academic plan of study. (3) It must provide at least 10 hours of experience per week. If a research assistantship is accepted in fulfillment of the department's academic requirement and if the assistantship provides a stipend less than the standard departmental stipend, a University Fellowship will be provided to bring the combined stipends up to the standard departmental stipend.

Master's Degrees
M.Phil. See Graduate School requirements.

M.A. (en route to the Ph.D.). Students in the doctoral program who successfully complete the examinations and work samples required by the end of the second year of graduate study (see above) may petition for the M.A. degree.

Program materials are available upon request to the Department of Linguistics, Yale University, PO Box 208366, New Haven CT 06520-8366.

Courses

LING 510bu, Introduction to Linguistics.  Darya Kavitskaya.
MWF 10.30–11.20
The goals and methods of linguistics. Basic concepts in phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. Techniques of linguistic analysis and construction of linguistic models. Trends in modern linguistics. The relations of linguistics to psychology, logic, and other disciplines.

LING 512bu, Historical Linguistics.  Dianne Jonas.
MW 1–2.15, 1 HTBA
Types of change that a language undergoes in the course of time: sound change, analogy, syntactic and semantic change, borrowing. Techniques for recovering earlier linguistic stages: philology, internal reconstruction, the comparative method. Language change and linguistic theory. The role of language contact in language change.

LING 513au, Introduction to Indo-European Linguistics.  Stanley Insler.
T 1.30–3.20
Location in space and time of the major branches of Indo-European; history of Indo-European studies, especially the development of methodology; sketch of the phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon of proto-Indo-European, with main developments of these in the daughter languages.

LING 515u, Elementary Sanskrit I.  Stanley Insler.
MWF 10.30–11.20
Careful study of Sanskrit grammar both in its historical development and as the synchronic systems attested in classical Sanskrit. Comparisons with other Indo-European languages. Close reading of later Sanskrit texts.

LING 516bu, Hittite.  Stanley Insler.
T 1.30–3.20
Introduction to the Hittite language. Explanation of grammar, with readings in transcription from old, middle, and new Hittite texts representing different literary genres. No knowledge of cuneiform is necessary, but familiarity with an inflected language (Latin, Greek, German, Russian) is essential.

LING 517au, Language and Mind.  Maria Piñango.
TTh 2.30–3.45
Knowledge of language as a component of the mind: mental grammars, the nature and subdivisions of linguistic knowledge in connection to the brain. The logical problem of language acquisition. The “universal grammar hypothesis,” according to which all humans have an innate ability to acquire language. The connection between language acquisition and general cognitive abilities. Representation of language in the brain. Use of linguistic knowledge in speaking: processing. Comparison between human spoken natural language and other systems (signed languages; nonhuman communication).

LING 520au, General Phonetics.  Louis Goldstein.
MW 2.30–3.45
Investigation of possible ways of describing the speech sounds of human languages. Tools to be developed: acoustics and physiology of speech; computer synthesis of speech; practical exercises in producing and transcribing sounds.

LING 530bu, Evolution of Language.  Charles Yang.
TTh 2.30–3.45
An exploration of the origin and evolution of human language from an interdisciplinary perspective. Topics include the design features of language, the structure of evolutionary theory, cognitive continuity and discontinuity with other species, domain specificity and generality of the language faculty, adaptationist and exaptationist approaches to language evolution, language learning in humans and other primates, and the evolution of particular languages with reference to linguistic typology. No prerequisites.

LING 532au, Introduction to Phonological Analysis.  Darya Kavitskaya.
TTh 1–2.15
The structure of sound systems in particular languages. Phonemic and morphophonemic analysis, distinctive-feature theory, formulation of rules, and problems of rule interpretation. Emphasis on problem solving.

LING 535bu, Phonological Theory II.  Darya Kavitskaya.
MW 2.30–3.45
Topics in the architecture of a theory of sound structure. Levels of representation; classical phonological rules and their interaction. Ordering paradoxes; cyclicity and Lexical Phonology. Motivations for replacing a system of rules with a system of constraints. Optimality theory: constraint types and their interactions. Correspondence theory. Opacity and stratal OT. Prerequisite: LING 532a or permission of instructor.

LING 541bu, Language and Computation.  Charles Yang.
MW 11.30–12.45
The computational study of natural language and the use of linguistic theories in applied problems. Topics include finite state tools, computational morphology and phonology, grammar and parsing, discourse models, machine translation, and language learning in children and machines. Prerequisite: LING 624a or CPSC 201a or b.

LING 546bu, Language, Sex, and Gender.  Laurence Horn.
TTh 1-2.15
Sex-based asymmetries in language structure and language use. Role of language as encoding/reflecting/reinforcing social attitudes and behavior; the Whorfian question. The “he/man” lexicon: sex-marking, reform, and resistance. Gender and sexual diversity as linguistic variables. Real and perceived differences between male and female dialects, conversational styles, and linguistic communities.

LING 553au, Syntax I.  Dianne Jonas.
MW 11.30–12.45
An introduction to the syntax (sentence structure) of natural language. Introduction to generative syntactic theory and key theoretical concepts. Syntactic description and argumentation. Topics include phrase structure, transformations, and the role of the lexicon.

[LING 561au, Introduction to Psycholinguistics.]  

LING 563bu, Language Acquisition.  Maria Babyonyshev.
TTh 11.30–12.45
Language learnability, acquisition of the lexicon. Development of syntactic knowledge. Parameter-setting model of language acquisition and maturation. Experimental methods in developmental psycholinguistics.

[LING 565au, Development of Phonology.]  

LING 580bu, Morphology.  Maria Piñango.
TTh 11.30–12.45
The theory of word structure within a formal grammar. Relation to other areas of grammar (syntax, phonology); basic units of word structure; types of morphology (inflection, derivation, compounding).

LING 582au, Introduction to Old Norse.  Dianne Jonas.
MW 2.30–3.45
Introduction to Old Norse through a close study of Old Icelandic. Emphasis on all aspects of the grammar of Old Icelandic: Phonology, morphology, and syntax. Focus on the development of reading proficiency through a close reading of Hrafnkels Saga.

[LING 602bu, Comparative Old Germanic.]  

LING 603bu, Comparative Scandinavian Syntax.  Dianne Jonas.
T 9.30–11.20
The comparative syntax of the Scandinavian languages. Topics include parametric variation, the role of case morphology, syntactic variation and change, acquisition of syntax, language contact, and dialect variation. Prerequisite: LING 153/553 (Syntax I), or permission of instructor.

LING 621bu, The Relation of Speech to Language.  Carol Fowler.
TTh 4–5.15
A study of the relation between the speech signal and the linguistic message it conveys. Special attention to those characteristics of speech that fit it to humans and make it a uniquely efficient vehicle of communication. Prerequisite: LING 120a. Also PSYC 605bu.

LING 624au, Formal Foundations of Linguistic Theories.  Charles Yang.
TTh 11.30–12.45
Mathematical methods in linguistics. Topics include: set theory, logic and formal systems, model theory, lambda calculus, formal language theory, elementary statistics and probability. Prerequisites: None.

LING 631bu, Neurolinguistics.  Maria Piñango.
TTh 4–5.15
The role of linguistic theory in understanding language-brain relations. The role of neurolinguistic evidence (aphasia, neuroimaging) in understanding language knowledge.

[LING 636bu, Articulatory Phonology.]  

[LING 640au, Topics in Phonology: Sound Change.]  

LING 642au, Topics in Phonology: Phonetic and Phonological Components of Syllable Weight.  Darya Kavitskaya.
W 1.30–3.20.
This course examines a number of current issues in phonological theory related to syllable weight. The first part of the course concentrates on issues of phonological representation vs. phonetic duration, whereas the latter part focuses on the Optimality-theoretic approaches to prosody. Topics include sonority constraints on moraicity; prosodic phenomena sensitive to syllable weight such as stress, tone, consonant gradation, and compensatory lengthening; and some morphological processes which are sensitive to phonological units such as the syllable, foot, or minimal word.

[LING 647bu, Structure of Swahili.]  

[LING 649bu, Structure of Korean.]  

[LING 650b, Structure of Warlpiri.]  

LING 654bu, Syntax II.  Staff.
TTh 1–2.15
Recent developments in syntactic theory: Government and Binding, Principles and Parameters, and Minimalist frameworks. In-depth examination of the basic modules of grammar (Lexicon, X-bar theory, Theta-theory, Case theory, Movement theory). Comparison and critical evaluation of specific syntactic analyses.

[LING 656bu, Grammatical Relations.]  

LING 660au, Topics in Syntax: The Mental Lexicon.  Maria Piñango.
M 1.30–3.20
What is lexical knowledge? Views on the lexicon: repository of information vs. a “generative” system. The case of idioms. The lexicon and the grammar-conceptual structure interface. Acquisition of the lexicon. Also PSYC 650au.

[LING 661bu, Topics in Syntax: Celtic Syntax.]  

LING 662bu, Topics in Syntax: Bilingualism.  Maria Babyonyshev.
T 1.30–3.20
An investigation of the interactions between the two grammars of a bilingual speaker. Emphasis on the changes that may occur in the grammar of the native language as a result of bilingualism and their implications for syntactic theory. Topics include syntactic transfer, first language attrition, and lexical transfer. (May be retaken for credit by students who have taken this course with different content.) Prerequisite: one course in syntax or permission of instructor. Also PSYC 649bu.

LING 663au, Semantics.  Laurence Horn.
TTh 2.30–3.45
Lexical and truth-conditional semantics. Word meaning and semantic roles. Survey of propositional, predicate, and modal logic. Compositional theories of sense and reference. Opacity, intentionality, and belief contexts; entailment and presupposition. The relations between semantics and pragmatics, and between semantics and syntax.

[LING 675bu, Pragmatics.]  

[LING 680au, Topics in Morphology: Clitics.]  

LING 690bu, Negation and Polarity.  Laurence Horn.
W 1.30–3.20
The grammar and meaning of negation and negative polarity. The asymmetry of negation vs. affirmation. Semantic and pragmatic factors in the meaning of negative sentences: contradictory vs. contrary opposition; conditions on affixal negation; metalinguistic vs. descriptive uses of negation. The cross-linguistic representation of sentence negation; NegP and negative heads; the Neg-criterion. Negative concord and double negation. The roles of configuration, scope, entailment, and implicature in the licensing of polarity items. Prerequisite: some background in syntax, semantics, and/or pragmatics, or permission of instructor.

LING 720bu, Basics of Digital Signal Processing and Speech Acoustics.  Louis Goldstein.
W 1.30–3.20
A gentle introduction to concepts of digital signal processing for those without strong mathematics, engineering, or programming backgrounds. Application to techniques for acoustic analysis and synthesis of speech. Vocal tract acoustics. Course is taught through regular programming exercises in MATLAB, but no prior programming experience is assumed.

[INDC 751b, Indian Grammarians.]  

LING 777b, Current Research in Phonetics.  Louis Goldstein.
F 2.30–4.20
Intensive discussion of selected research topics in phonetics, primarily in the areas of gestural structure and coordination, dynamical modeling, and articulatory-acoustic relations. Experimental, analytical, and simulation methods are evaluated. Students are expected to have ongoing research projects and to present regular reports on their progress.

LING 790a, Research Methods in Linguistics.  Charles Yang.
W 3.30–5.20
This course provides an introduction to research methods in linguistics. Observational and experimental approaches to research in the field. Topics include collection and organization of linguistic data, basic field methods, use of language corpora and databases. Introduction to research in language acquisition and language change. This is a required course for first-year graduate students.

LING 830a or b, Directed Research in Linguistics.
By arrangement with faculty.

LING 831a or b, Directed Research in Phonetics.
By arrangement with faculty.

LING 840a or b, Directed Research in Phonology.
By arrangement with faculty.

LING 850a or b, Directed Research in Grammar.
By arrangement with faculty.

LING 860a or b, Directed Research in Semantics.
By arrangement with faculty.

HNDI 515u, Elementary Hindi.  Seema Khurana.
TTh 1–2.15, W 4–5.15, 1 HTBA
An in-depth introduction to modern Hindi including the Devanagari script. Through a combination of graded texts, written assignments, audiovisual material, and computer-based exercises, this course provides cultural insights and is geared toward increasing proficiency in understanding, speaking, reading, and writing Hindi. Emphasis is placed on spontaneous self-expression in the language.

HNDI 530u, Intermediate and Advanced Hindi.  Seema Khurana.
W 2.30–3.45, M 1 HTBA
Through extensive use of cultural documents including feature films, radio broadcasts, as well as graded literary and nonliterary texts, this course continues to build students' proficiency in understanding, speaking, reading, and writing Hindi. Provides a space for meaningful interaction with authentic materials and their related cultures. Furthers the student's appreciation of cultural nuances. Introduces various Hindi literary traditions in the second half of the course. Prepares the student for further academic and nonacademic use of Hindi. Emphasis is placed on spontaneous self-expression in the language. After HNDI 515 or satisfactory placement test.

HNDI 557bu, Topics in Hindi Literature: Comparative Study of Representative Writers of 1940–1970.  Seema Khurana.
TTh 4–5.15, W 1 HTBA
An advanced language course designed to develop overall language skills through selected readings of Hindi literature and the study of popular culture of colonial India through early years of interdependent India. Focus on the works of Prem Chand, Mannoo Bhandhari, and Mohan Rakesh, among others; various art forms including theater and films; debates informing the political, social, and cultural dimensions as found in news articles and television programs. After HNDI 530 or satisfactory placement test.

The following courses are also of particular value to students in Linguistics:

ANTH 513bu, Language, Culture, and Ideology.  J. Joseph Errington.

ANTH 533au, Bilingualism in Social Context.  J. Joseph Errington.

[ANTH 669au, Language, Nationalism, and Ideology.]

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