Teaching

At Reed, I've had the privilege of teaching courses that focus on my own scholarly interests, at both introductory and advanced levels. Every year, I teach two courses that form part of the core of formal linguistic research and have no prerequisites, plus three of my rotating courses that incorporate my own specializations. I've included descriptions and recent syllabi for my courses below.

Courses without prerequisites (offered every year)

Introduction to Linguistic Analysis (LING211): This course is an introduction to the scientific study of human language. Starting from basic questions such as “What is language?” and “What do we know when we know a language?”, we investigate the human language faculty through the hands-on analysis of naturalistic data from a variety of languages spoken around the world. We adopt a broadly cognitive viewpoint throughout, investigating language as a system of knowledge within the mind of the language user (a mental grammar), which can be studied empirically and represented using formal models. We begin with a brief overview of the field and discuss some of the goals and methods of linguistic analysis. The main part of the course surveys the core subfields of linguistic analysis, each of which focuses on a different domain of organization (or module) within mental grammar.

Phonetics (LING320): This course will introduce you to the study of the physical aspects of speech. You will learn how to produce, perceive, and transcribe the sounds of the world’s languages, while learning the acoustic and articulatory properties of each sound. You will also gain practical skills in recording and measuring acoustic data in Praat (a program for acoustic analysis and other phonetic work), transcribing data in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), and producing both familiar and foreign sounds in isolation and in varying contexts. Ultimately, you will apply these skills towards describing a language unknown to you, synthesizing speech, and analyzing research in articulatory, acoustic, and perceptual phonetics.

Courses with LING211 or LING320 as a prerequisite (offered on a rotating basis)

Phonological Theory (LING321): This course explores many of the classic and current topics in the patterns and structures governing the sounds of the world’s languages, and the theories and skills used to analyze them. We will briefly review the rule-based approach introduced in LING211, covering the psychological reality of the phoneme, productivity of patterns, and interactions with phonetics, morphology, and syntax. We will then progress to the more current constraint-based approach, following Optimality Theory, including analyses of stress patterns, syllable structure, lexical classes, infixation, truncation, and reduplication. We will repeatedly ask: what do speakers know about the wellformedness of a sound or sound sequence? What do they know about different classes of words? What do they know about how words are related? Are some processes more “natural” than others?

Research Topics in Phonetics and Phonology (LING322): The way we understand the phonological grammar has changed as formal phonological theory and psycholinguistic research continue to evolve. Through engaging with both classic and current research, we will seek to answer the question: what do speakers need, in order to know about the sounds and sound patterns of their language? Topics to cover include: the role of phonetic naturalness, our sensitivity to the gradient nature of phonotactics, the role of lexical statistics, word frequency, and phonological neighborhood density, and our awareness of fine acoustic and non-acoustic details of how speech is produced. We will also cover how our phonology is affected by those we speak with, and how our attention to certain acoustic cues can result in perceptual stretching and illusions, especially in cases of producing and perceiving foreign languages, adapting loanwords into the native phonology, and even juggling multiple phonologies in one’s own mind.

Intonation (LING352): This course is an in-depth study of intonation—the manipulation of pitch, stress, and length to signify sentence-level meaning—in varieties of English as well as in several other languages, including Dutch, German, Swedish, Japanese, Bengali, Korean, and others. This course will have two components, which will overlap considerably. In the laboratory skills component, you will learn how to collect, transcribe, measure, and analyze intonational data in Praat (a program for acoustic analysis and other phonetic work), while in the theoretical component, you will read about and test the claims of various theories of intonation. With these skills, you will conduct independent research over the course of the semester. The course will also cover the interface between intonation and other aspects of the mental grammar, including the realization of morphology, syntactic structure, and focus through prosody.

Languages of South Asia (LING350): The Indian Subcontinent is home to five typologically divergent language families (Indo-European, Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman, Austroasiatic, Tai-Kadai) in addition to at least two language isolates, creating an ideal setting for the areal spread of linguistic features across genetic affiliations, affecting all areas of the grammar, from phonetics and phonology to morphology and syntax. In class, we will take a broad typological view of the languages of South Asia while also making more detailed observations of specific languages representing the diversity of the region. Outside of class, each student will focus on a South Asian language (SAL) of their choice—collecting data from native speakers or available language grammars—to examine its phonetic, phonological, lexical, morphological, and syntactic features, from a synchronic formal perspective as well as historical and sociolinguistic perspectives.

Linguistic Field Methods (LING336): This course is an extensive exercise in learning how to document a language primarily by interacting with a native speaker of that language. By eliciting data from our consultant, systematically analyzing the data, engaging with theories to describe the language, and testing predictions, we will all have a chance to practice our skills as linguists, while also getting an intimate glimpse into a language previously unfamiliar to us. Moreover, this exercise will help highlight the value in language documentation for both scientific and cultural purposes.

Methods of Design and Analysis (LING337): The tasks of designing, carrying out, and interpreting linguistic research vary across subfields, traditions, and time; in particular, quantitative methods have become increasingly crucial in both formal and social approaches to linguistics. Using L-darkening/vocalization as a unifying topic, this course will guide students through the process of research from the choice of topic and research design through statistical analysis and presentation. Class meetings will cover (1) phonetic, phonological, and sociolinguistic studies of L-darkening/vocalization and (2) understanding and applying methods and skills across the research process.