Courses

LING B101 Introduction to Linguistics

Fall 2025

An introductory survey of linguistics as a field. This course examines the core areas of linguistic structure (morphology, phonology, syntax, semantics), pragmatics, and language variation in relation to language change. The course provides rudimentary training in the analysis of language data, and focuses on the variety of human language structures and on the question of universal properties of language.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

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LING B105 Language and Place

Not offered 2025-26

This project-based course focuses on hands-on research in a small group setting in order to collaboratively come to understand the relationship between a place and the languages of that place. In Spring 2022 the course will be part of a 360 and will focus on Nicaragua. Through seeking to understand the languages of Nicaragua, their histories and social dynamics, students will also learn basics of linguistics, especially historical linguistics and sociolinguistics. Spanish language a plus, though not required.

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LING B113 Introduction to Syntax

Fall 2025

Introduces the investigation of sentence structures in human language, emphasizing insights from linguists over the past 40 years. The class will develop increasingly complex theory starting with basic assumptions and seeing where they lead. Students will gain a clearer understanding of grammar, develop and refine skills of analysis, writing, and argumentation. We will focus on English, occasionally using other languages to look at ways human languages are similar and how they differ.

Course does not meet an Approach

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

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LING B114 Introduction to Semantics

Not offered 2025-26

This course is designed to introduce you to the formal study of meaning in language: semantics. We will discuss elements of word meaning, formal logic, generative semantics, and pragmatics, slowly building our theory as we incorporate new linguistic phenomena from multiple human languages. No linguistic or logic background is assumed, but we will be using tools from set theory, model theory, and syntax in order to construct semantic analyses.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Scientific Investigation (SI)

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LING B125 Sociolinguistics: Language, Culture, and Society

Fall 2025

This is an introductory survey course focusing on the interaction between language, culture and society. We will explore how these three aspects fit together so we can begin to understand how language shapes and is shaped by the world we live in. Students will be introduced to quantitative and qualitative approaches to linguistic analysis through a focus on spoken languages as they are used in the real world. Some topics we will cover: multilingual speech, language and power, raciolinguistics, linguistic ideologies, research ethics, and the interaction of language and social systems such as race, gender and class.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

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LING B399 Senior Thesis Seminar

This seminar exposes students to linguistic research methods and guides them through the conceptualization of a topic, the research, and the writing of a senior thesis. All linguistics majors must write their senior thesis in this seminar or Ling S100 or S195.

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ANTH B246 The Everyday Life of Language: Field Research in Linguistic Anthropology

Not offered 2025-26

The goal of this course is to develop an awareness of how language operates in various interactional and other (eg. ritual, performance, political) contexts that we commonly experience. The focus will be on gaining hands-on experience in doing linguistic anthropological data collection and analysis, and putting the results of individual student projects together as part of initiating an ongoing, multi-year project. Topics that students explore ethnographically may include: language and gender; language, race and social indexicality; sociolinguistic variation; codeswitching; register and social stance; language and social media. Student research will involve ethnographic observation, audio-recording of spoken discourse, conducting interviews, and learning how to create a transcript to use as the basis for ethnographic analysis. Students will work in parallel on individual projects cohering around a particular topic, and class time will be used to discuss the results and synthesize insights that develop from bringing different ethnographic contexts together. For the praxis component of the course, students will use the experience they have gained to generate ideas for components of a middle school/high school language arts curriculum that incorporates linguistic anthropology concepts and student-driven research on language.

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ANTH B281 The Power in Language: Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology

Not offered 2025-26

This course provides an introduction to the concepts and methods of linguistic anthropology, which can help us understand the role language plays in constructing identities, creating social and political hierarchies, and shaping understandings and experiences of the world. The course considers topics relevant to the everyday life of language in the U.S. context, including the relationship between language and gender, race, and socioeconomic inequality, and uses ethnographic materials from a variety of cultural contexts to explore three perspectives that are central to linguistic anthropology. These are: language, power, and the linguistic market: how different languages and the ways of speaking get associated with particular social groups and become valued or devalued; linguistic ideologies and semiotic processes: how language as a system of signs becomes meaningful, to whom, and in what ways; poetics and performance: how people "do things with words" and how the non-referential (sonic, poetic) aspects of language matter.

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CMSC B325 Computational Linguistics

Not offered 2025-26

Introduction to computational models of understanding and processing human languages. How elements of linguistics, computer science, and artificial intelligence can be combined to help computers process human language and to help linguists understand language through computer models. Topics covered: syntax, semantics, pragmatics, generation and knowledge representation techniques. Prerequisite: CMSC B151 , or CMSC H106 or CMSC H107, and CMSC B231 or CMSC H231 or MATH B231 or MATH H231, or permission of instructor.

Counts Toward: Computational Methods; Linguistics; Neuroscience; Philosophy.

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SPAN B216 Introducción a la lingüística hispánica

Not offered 2025-26

A survey of the field of Hispanic linguistics. We will explore the sounds and sound patterns of Spanish (phonetics and phonology), how words are formed (morphology), the structure and interpretation of sentences (syntax and semantics), language use (pragmatics), the history and dialects of the Spanish language, and second language acquisition. Prerequisite: SPAN B120 or permission of the instructor. Critical Interpretation (CI)

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Counts Toward: Linguistics.

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