COURSE SYLLABUS: WLAN 2350: World Languages
Course Title: World Languages
Catalog Description: An introduction to the languages of the world from geographical, historical, social, and psychological perspectives. Emphasis on the diversity in the world’s verbal communication systems as well as the universal aspects underlying all human symbolic behavior. Basic introduction to language structure, phonetics/phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics.
Required Texts: 1. Lyovin, Anatole V. An Introduction to the Languages of the World. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. (Identified in assignments as AVL.)
2. Clark, Virginia P., Paul Eschholz & Alfred Rosa, Eds. Language. Introductory Readings, 6th ed. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995. (Identified in assignments as LIR.)
Course Goals: To acquaint students with the diversity of language systems in the world; to present a survey of the language families of the globe and to trace their historical development to their present status; to impart basic general information regarding linguistic structure, morphology, syntax, phonetics and semantics; to point out the linguistic interrelatedness of many diverse cultures around the globe; to explore the facts and fictions concerning both first and second language acquisition.
Evaluation: There will be four quizzes. In addition, individual students will be responsible for presenting to the class a project on a non-Indo-European language or language family of their choice. These projects will be presented on the next to last day of the term. Groups of students will write and hand in detailed responses to worksheets on the materials of the reading assignments. Evaluations of the project and responses will be weighed as follows:
Quizzes - 40% of final grade
Individual Project - 20% of final grade
Small-group responses - 40%_of final grade
- 100%
COURSE TOPICS & READING ASSIGNMENTS
1. Introduction to course and general comments on syllabus and policies for the term.
Video film: In Search of the First Language (response sheet).
2. General Introduction on Human Language & Classification of Languages
Readings: LIR: “Language: An Introduction” by W. F. Bolton [61-73].
AVL: Chapter 1, pp. 1-24.
3. General Introduction on Human Language (cond.)
Reading: LIR: “Nine Ideas about Language” by Harvey A. Daniels [43-62].
4. The Origins of Language
Reading: LIR: “Comparative and Historical Linguistics” by Jeanne H. Herndon [411-415].
5. The Origins of Language (cond.)
Reading: “The Indo-European Language” by Paul Thieme. **Copies available.
!!! Quiz 1 !!!
6. Europe [Indo-European Family]
Reading: LIR: “A Brief History of English” by Paul Roberts [420-430].
AVL: Chapter 3, pp. 45-54.
7. Europe [Uralic, Languages of the Caucasus, Basque, Turkic]
Reading: AVL: Chapter 3, pp. 54-61.
8. Europe [Russian & Finnish]
Reading: AVL: Chapter 3, pp. 61-101.
9. Asia [Turkic, Mongolian, Tungusic, Korean-Japanese-Okinawan, Ainu, Paleosiberian, Sino-Tibetan, Hmong-Mien, Tai-Kadai, Austronesian, Austroasiatic, Afro-Asiatic & Indo-European Languages]
Reading: AVL: Chapter 4, pp. 109-127.
10. Asia [Uralic, Eskimo-Aleut, Sketch of Mandarin Chinese]
Reading: AVL: Chapter 4, pp. 127-146.
11. Asia [Sketch of Classical Tibetan]
Reading: AVL: Chapter 4, pp. 146-170.
!!! QUIZ 2 !!!
12. Africa & the Middle East [Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Niger-Congo, Khoisan, Austronesian, Indo-European, Sketch of Modern Literary Arabic, Sketch of Swahili]
Reading: AVL: Chapter 5, pp. 185-236.
13. Languages of Oceania [Austronesian, Papuan Languages]
Reading: AVL: Chapter 6, pp. 245-256.
14. Languages of Oceania [Australian, Sketch of Hawaiian, Sketch of Dyirbal]
Reading: AVL: Chapter 6, pp. 256-301.
15. Native Languages of the Americas - North America [Eskimo-Aleut, Na-Dene, Haida Isolate, Algonquian-Ritwan, Muskogean, Various Isolates, Siouan, Iroquoian, Caddoan, Yuchi, Yuman, Various Small Families and Isolates, Languages of Meso-America, Totonacan, Mixe-Zoquean & Mayan]
Reading: AVL: Chapter 7, pp. 309-333.
16. South America [Northwest Region, Western Amazonia, Northern Foothills Region, Andes Region, Southern Foothills Region, The Cone, Chaco Region, Eastern Brazil, Northeastern Brazil, Central Amazonia, Northern Amazonia, Sketch of Ayacucho Quechua]
Reading: AVL: Chapter 7, pp. 333-392.
!!! QUIZ 3 !!!
17. Pidgins & Creoles
Readings: LIR: “Pidgins and Creoles” by David Crystal [321-327];
AVL: Chapter 8, pp. 401-432.
Artificial Languages
18. Writing Systems of the World
Alphabets, Syllabaries, Pictographies
Reading: LIR: “Languages and Writing” by John P. Hughes [705-722].
AVL: Chapter 2, pp. 29-42.
19. The Child’s Acquisition of Language
Reading: LIR: “The Acquisition of Language” by Breyne Arlene Moskowitz [529-555].
20. Second Language Acquisition (SLA):
Reading: “Learning and Using a Second Language” by Jeannine Heny. **Copies available.
21. Presentations of Projects I
22. !!! QUIZ 4 !!!