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Ling 313 Phonological Analysis

Dr. Nick Danis, nsdanis@wustl.edu
Washington University in St. Louis
https://www.nickdanis.com/syllabi/fa2022-ling313

Description

“There are several important abilities involved in the use of human language, one of these being the ability to organize speech sounds. The system that the brain uses to accomplish this task is the subject matter of phonology. This course will explore phonology from several perspectives within generative linguistics, including both traditional rule-based and current Optimality Theoretic approaches. Topics to be discussed include phonological features, lexical phonology, prosodic morphology, tone, and metrical stress. Assignments will help students learn to analyze phonological problems in a variety of languages and to evaluate the consequences of using different analytic approaches. Prerequisite: Ling 170D or permission of instructor.”

Course Info

Course Number L44 Ling 313
Semester Fall 2022
Time 1:00-2:20pm
Location Eads 204
Office January 206
Office Hours Fridays 12:30-1:30pm
Homepage https://wustl.instructure.com/courses/95257

Goals

  • Understand fundamentals of phonological theory
  • Identiy and model basic phonological alternations
  • Create generative segmental and prosodic representations

Required Materials

The primary textbook for this course is listed below. Any additional readings will be posted as PDFs.

Grade

Your grade breakdown is shown below.

Item pct
Assignments 60%
Participation & group work 20%
Final 20%

Assignments are assigned (roughly) weekly. The lowest grade is dropped.

Letter grades

Letter grades are assigned based off the following scale. Numerical grades are not rounded.

  • 100 ≥ A+ ≥ 98
  • 98 > A ≥ 93
  • 93 > A- ≥ 90
  • 90 > B+ ≥ 87
  • 87 > B ≥ 83
  • 83 > B- ≥ 80
  • 80 > C+ ≥ 77
  • 77 > C ≥ 73
  • 73 > C- ≥ 70
  • 70 > D+ ≥ 67
  • 67 > D ≥ 63
  • 63 > D- ≥ 60

If you are taking this class pass/fail, you must receive at least a C- (70%) to pass.

If you believe there has been an error in grading, I am happy to discuss it with you. However, you must bring it up to me within one week of the graded assignment being returned to you. After this, the grade is considered final.

Lateness

Unexcused late work incurs a penalty of 0.5% deducted for every hour late (as calculated by the Canvas overlords). This (roughly) translates to one letter grade (and change) each day. Excused late work is a different matter; please contact me as soon as you suspect circumstances will prevent you from completing work on time.

Schedule

Below is a rough schedule of the course material, and is likely to change. Please see Canvas for all up-to-date readings and assignment due dates.

Date Day Week Comment Unit Reading
8/29/2022 Monday 1 First Day of Classes Intro/Phonetics Hayes 1/2
8/31/2022 Wednesday 1   Phoneme  
9/5/2022 Monday 2   Phoneme Hayes 3
9/7/2022 Wednesday 2      
9/12/2022 Monday 3   Features Hayes 4
9/14/2022 Wednesday 3      
9/19/2022 Monday 4   Morphology Hayes 5
9/21/2022 Wednesday 4      
9/26/2022 Monday 5   Alternation Hayes 6 / 7
9/28/2022 Wednesday 5      
10/3/2022 Monday 6   Analysis Hayes 8
10/5/2022 Wednesday 6      
10/10/2022 Monday 7 Fall Break    
10/12/2022 Wednesday 7      
10/17/2022 Monday 8   Underspecification TBD
10/19/2022 Wednesday 8      
10/24/2022 Monday 9   Tone Hayes Tone/TBD
10/26/2022 Wednesday 9      
10/31/2022 Monday 10   Autosegmental Phonology TBD
11/2/2022 Wednesday 10      
11/7/2022 Monday 11   Intro to OT TBD
11/9/2022 Wednesday 11      
11/14/2022 Monday 12   Syllables in OT TBD
11/16/2022 Wednesday 12      
11/21/2022 Monday 13   Stress in OT  
11/23/2022 Wednesday 13 Thanksgiving Break    
11/28/2022 Monday 14   Segmental Processes in OT  
11/30/2022 Wednesday 14      
12/5/2022 Monday 15   Naturalness in Phonology  
12/7/2022 Wednesday 15      

Academic Integrity

This course adheres to the university’s Academic Integrity Policy, and takes cheating and plagiarism very seriously. All work completed online must be done alone unless instructed otherwise, and no resources not approved by the instructor may be used during exams.

ADA Compliance

Washington University is committed to providing accommodations and/or services to students with documented disabilities. Students who are seeking support for a disability or a suspected disability should contact Disability Resources at 935-4153. Disability Resources is responsible for approving all disability-related accommodations for WU students, and students are responsible for providing faculty members with formal documentation of their approved accommodations at least two weeks prior to using those accommodations. I will accept Disability Resources VISA forms by email and personal delivery. If you have already been approved for accommodations, I request that you provide me with a copy of your VISA within the first two weeks of the semester. Please see more information at http://cornerstone.wustl.edu.

Sexual Assault Resources

The University is committed to offering reasonable academic accommodations (e.g., no contact order, course changes) to students who are victims of relationship or sexual violence, regardless of whether they seek criminal or disciplinary action. If you need to request such accommodations, please contact the Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention Center (RSVP) at rsvpcenter@wustl.edu or 314-935-3445 to schedule an appointment with an RSVP confidential, licensed counselor. Information shared with counselors is confidential. However, requests for accommodations will be coordinated with the appropriate University administrators and faculty. Please see more information at https://students.wustl.edu/relationship-sexual-violence-prevention-center.