Introduction to English Linguistics

Instructor: Claire Hsun-huei Chang 張郇慧

Office Hours: 2-5 Tue/Thur and by appointment

Office: T & R Bldg 0924 Tel: ext. 88186/67662
Email: shchang@nccu.edu.tw

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course provides a general introduction to the scientific study of language,
with special emphasis on the English language. Students will explore different aspects of human language
and how language operates through linguistic observation, analyses of language data, discussion of linguistic
problems, group project, and other class activities. With a better understanding of the nature of language,
students are expected to become more objective in dealing with human communications. Topics covered in
the first semester include the nature of human language, morphology, syntax, semantics, phonetics, and
phonology.

REQUIREMENTS:
Attendance: Faithful attendance is required. Failure to show up in the class for more than three times (for
any reason) will result in F.
Homework: Homework assignments will be given. (Late homework will not be accepted.)
Quizzes: In-class writing will be given from time to time.
** Students are strongly urged to do assigned readings BEFORE each class. **
Exams: There will be 4 exams, each on a different field.
Linguistics Journal: Students will be responsible for a linguistics journal (observation of language
phenomena).

GRADING
Homework & Quizzes 15% Exams 40% (10% each)
Ling. Journal 30% Participation & Attendance 15%
Cheating or Plagiarism = Fail

REFERENCES:
1. Bruce M. Rowe, and Diane P. Levine. 2009. A concise introduction to linguistics. 2nd edition. Pearson
Education, Inc.
2. Edward Finegan. 2004. Language: Its structure and use, Fourth edition. Boston: Wadsworth, Thomson
Corp.
3. V. Fromkin, R. Rodman, & N. Hyams. 2003. An Introduction to Language, 7th Ed. Thomson & Heinle.
4. Adrian Akamajian, Richard Demers, Ann Farmer, and Robert Harnish. 2001. Linguistics: An introduction
to language and communication, 5th edition. Cambridge: MIT Press.
5. William McGregor. 2009. Linguistics: An introduction. London and New York: Continuum International
Publishing Group.
6. Steven Pinker. 1994. The language instinct. New York, NY: Harper Perennial Modern Classics

7. 黃宣範著. 2008. 語言、社會與族群意識－臺灣語言社會學的研究。台北：文鶴出版有限公司。

8. 謝國平著. 2011. 語言學概論 (三版)。台北：三民書局。

9. 鐘榮富. 2006. 當代語言學概論(初版) 。臺北：五南書局。

TEXTBOOK:
LANGUAGE FILES: Materials for an introduction to language and linguistics, 11th ed. 2011. Columbus:
The Ohio State University Press. (REQUIRED)

SCHEDULE
Wk Date Content Reading/homework
1 9/18 Introduction
2 9/25 Chapter 1: 2-23
What is linguistics？What is language？
Practice: pp. 30-33
Nature of Human language
3 10/2 Chapter 4: 148-164
MORPHOLOGY：morpheme, Word formation rules,

creation of new words

4 10/9 Holiday
5 10/16 Morphological analysis Chapter 4: 165-177
Practice: pp. 178-194
6 10/23 Exam (1): Morphology Chapter 5: 196-210

SYNTAX：basic ideas, syntactic properties

7 10/30 Syntactic constituency, syntactic categories, Chapter 5: 211-229

constructing a grammar Practice: pp. 230-238
Movie: Alice in Wonderland LJ-1
8 11/6 SEMANTICS: lexical semantics Chapter 6: 240-250
9 11/13 Exam (2): Syntax LJ due
10 11/20 Structural semantics: Meaning and its components Chapter 6: 251-259
Practice: pp. 260-267
11 11/27 Chapter 2: 36-52
PHONETICS：Language sounds

Phonetic symbols, Articulatory Phonetics

12 12/4 Exam (3): Semantics Chapter 2: 53-67
Articulation, suprasegmental features LJ-2
Movie: My Fair Lady
13 12/11 PHONOLOGY: Phonemes, distinctive features Practice: pp. 89-97
Chapter 3: 102-115
14 12/18 Phonological processes, Syllable structure Discussion Chapter 3: 116-134
15 12/25 Practice: Phonology Practice: pp. 135-146
16 1/1 Holiday
17 1/8 Exam (4): Phonetics and phonology
18 1/15 LJ-3 due