Syllabus

ILCC: Introduction to Linguistics: A Crash Course

Instructor Information:

Instructor: Asar Imhotep

Office Hours: via email and by appointment

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Course website: www.asarimhotep.com

Prerequisites: No prerequisites.

Required Texts:

Webb, V. and Sure, K. (2000). African Voices: An Introduction to the Languages and Linguistics of Africa.(must purchase hard copy)

Danesi, M. (2000). A Basic Course in Anthropological Linguistics.(ebook provided)

Bauer, L. (2007). The Linguistic Student’s Handbook. (ebook provided)

In addition, there will be various articles and readings made available by the instructor (TBA).

Description: This introductory-level crash course is targeted to students with no linguistics background.  The course is designed to introduce and provide an overview of methods, findings, and problems in eight main areas of linguistics: Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, Semantics, Pragmatics, Psycholinguistics, and Sociolinguistics. Through video lectures, online activities, and problem sets, you will come away with an overview of various linguistic phenomena, a sense of the diversity across languages, skills of linguistic analysis, an awareness of connections between these linguistics and applications of linguistics more broadly, and a basis for understanding the systematic, but complex nature of human language.  While much of the course uses English to illuminate various concepts, the student will be exposed to many phenomena in African languages by compare and contrast.  By the end of the course, you should be able to explain similarities and differences of human languages, use basic linguistic terminology appropriately, apply the tools of linguistic analysis to problems and puzzles of linguistics, understand the questions that drive much research in linguistics, and explain how understanding linguistics is relevant for a variety of real-world phenomena. As this is a crash course, it is meant to facilitate and enhance one’s own self-study regarding the many facets of linguistics. It is impossible to cover all the pertinent issues relevant for a first year student of linguistics in such a short time. The additional material provided will be more than enough to continue your self-study of linguistics. By the end of this course, one will come away with a better sense as to why Linguistics is an indispensable tool in the field of Africology (the Afrocentric study of African history and culture). It is assumed that the majority of the students taking this course are interested in Africana-Studies in general. Therefore, the students of this course will not only learn the insights and skills of general linguistic theories, and knowledge, but will also learn some knowledge, theories, and skills relevant to Africa.

Student Learning Outcomes:

• To understand theoretical linguistics—its concepts, theories, ways of argumentation, data collection, data analysis, and data interpretation.
• Be introduced to the languages and linguistics of Africa, thus providing them with the knowledge and skills required to handle the language and language-related problems typical of Africa.

• Recognize some of the similarities and differences between human languages. and other animal communication.
• Discuss some of the key methods that linguists use to explore language.
• Apply linguistic frameworks to social and literary questions and problems.
• Experience working with a language corpus.
• Debate your own linguistic experiences with a wide community of language-users.

ATTENDANCE, PARTICIPATION AND MAKE-UP WORK:

This is an online course and there is no scheduled time for class. As students from around the world will be taking this course, it is impossible for everyone to meet at a given time. Therefore, the video lessons will be prerecorded and you can review the material on your own time. There will be no attendance taken for the course but all assignments are due on time.  All students are required to participate in the discussion forum. Part of the learning process is peer-review and group discussion. Also, there is no make-up work.

Assignments:

Students will be required to prepare all readings before the end of each week and all assignments are due on Wednesday by midnight Pacific Time (United States). It is best to get all of the reading done at the beginning of the week (which starts on Thursday) so that you have time to absorb the information, participate in the forum discussions, and complete the assignments. 

The rest of the course grade is comprised of four (4) quizzes on the course material. The dates are noted in the course calendar. No exam make-ups are given. You will have one final paper to turn in at the end of the course (details will be given in Week 4).

Grading Policies:

Quizzes (4):          30%

Homework (3):       20%

Final                       40%

Forum participation:   10%

GRADING SCALE:

A+ 97-100%               C+ 77-79.9%

A 93-96.9%                 C 73-76.9%

A- 90-92.9%               C- 70-72.9%

B+ 87-89.9%               D+ 67-69.9%

B 83-86.9%                 D 63-66.9%

B- 80-82.9%                D- 60-62.9%

F 59.9-0%

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

Students are expected to demonstrate honest scholarship at all times. Academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to: turning in another person’s work as one’s own, copying work from another student, cheating on an exam, lying about absences, etc. Students who break this policy will more than likely not be given credit for this course and there are no refunds.

Calendar of topics and assignments