ARTS1691 Course Outline

This course outline is to be read in conjunction with A Companion to Course Outlines, available on the School of Languages and Linguistics website at: http://languages.arts.unsw.edu.au/undergraduate/

1. Location of the Course

FACULTY SCHOOL COURSE CODE COURSE NAME SEMESTER Arts and Social Sciences Languages and Linguistics ARTS1691 The Use of Language

YEAR

2011

2. Table of Contents
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. Location of the Course Table of Contents Staff Contact Details Course Details Course Timetable Rationale for the Inclusion of Content and Teaching Approach Teaching Strategies Assessment Academic Honesty and Plagiarism Course Schedule Expected Resources for Students Course Evaluation and Development Other Information Page 1 1 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 4 8 8 8

3. Staff Contact Details

Name Dr D. Aarons Office Phone 9385 3468 Email Contact Time Tuesdays 2:00 3.30 or by appointment and Availability OTHER TEACHING STAFF Name Ms Carmella Hollo Office Phone 9385 2813 Email Contact Time and Availability Name Dr Nicoletta Romeo Office Phone Email Contact Time Wednesday 2-3 and Availability MB233 d.aarons@unsw.edu.au

MB221 c.hollo@unsw.edu.au

n.romeo@unsw.edu.au

4. Course Details
Credit Points Summary of the Course UOC 6 ARTS1691 examines how contemporary linguists deal with issues of language use: the nature of human communication, the influence of social attitudes on language, first and second language acquisition, the historical development of languages, language universals and
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ARTS1691 Course Outline

Aims of the Course

Student Learning Outcomes

language typology, regional and situational variation in language. This course will enable students to examine the social, 1. psychological, historical and typological aspects of language in use. The course aims to enable students to develop basic analytical 2. skills in the analysis of language use from the perspectives of descriptive linguistics. 3. At the end of the course students should be able to: 1. explain the social and regional dimensions of language variation explicate the main principles of language change and to 2. recognize the main principles of first and second language acquisition exemplify cross-linguistic variation with reference to language 3. universals and typology Students will be encouraged to develop the following Graduate Attributes by undertaking the selected activities and engaging with the knowledge content. These attributes will be assessed within the prescribed assessment tasks. 1. Understanding of the knowledge base of descriptive linguistics; 2. Skills in critical analysis; 3. Problem solving skills; 4. The ability to engage in independent and reflective learning.

Graduate Attributes

5. Course Timetable
Class Type/Number Day Time Location Lectures/7688 Monday 4-6 CLB1 7689 Wednesday 11 - 1 CLB 1 Tutorials/7695 Monday 2-3 MAT 1021 7696 Monday 3-4 MB 310B 7694 Monday 6-7 MB G3 7698 Wednesday 1-2 MAT310 7690 Thursday 11-12 MB G5 7691 Thursday 12-1 MB G5 7692 Thursday 2-3 MB G5 7693 Thursday 3-4 MB G5 * Course timetables are subject to change without notice. Students are advised to check regularly for updates on the Online Timetable at www.timetable.unsw.edu.au.

6. Rationale for the Inclusion of Content and Teaching Approach

ARTS1691 is one of the two gateway courses in the Linguistics Program. Along with ARTS1690 it provides an introduction to general linguistics, and the foundation on which students can select Level 2 and 3 courses relevant to their interests.

7. Teaching Strategies
The teaching strategies involve lectures and tutorials. The tutorials are designed to foster individual problem solving skills as well as engagement in collaborative teamwork.

8. Assessment
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ARTS1691 Course Outline

Assessment Task

Weight

In-class problem 35% 22 or 24 August set Class test 30% 1, 2, 3 1, 2, 3, 4 26 or 28 September Take home 35% 1, 2, 3 1, 2, 3, 4 24 October problem set Submission of Assessment Tasks and Late Assignments (see also under 13 Other Information). In addition to fulfilling the above assessment requirements, students are expected to attend at least 80% of their lectures and tutorials in order to pass the course. All results are reviewed at the end of each semester and may be adjusted to ensure equitable marking across the School. Grades The proportion of marks lying in each grading range is determined not by any formula or quota system, but by the way that students respond to assessment tasks and how well they meet the objectives of the course. Nevertheless, since higher grades imply performance that is well above average, the number of distinctions and high distinctions awarded in a typical course is relatively small. At the other extreme, on average 6.1% of students do not meet minimum standards, a little more (8.6%) in first year courses. For more information on the grading categories see https://my.unsw.edu.au/student/academiclife/assessment/GuideToUNSWGrades.html

Learning Outcomes Assessed 1, 2, 3

Graduate Attributes Assessed 1, 2, 3, 4

Due Date

9. Academic Honesty and Plagiarism

Plagiarism is presenting someone elses thoughts or work as your own. It can take many forms, from not having appropriate academic referencing to deliberate cheating. In many cases plagiarism is the result of inexperience about academic conventions. The University has resources and information to assist you to avoid plagiarism. The Learning Centre assists students with understanding academic integrity and how to not plagiarise. Information is available on their website: http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au/plagiarism/ . They also hold workshops and can help students one-on-one. If plagiarism is found in your work when you are in first year, your lecturer will offer you assistance to improve your academic skills. They may ask you to look at some online resources, attend the Learning Centre, or sometimes resubmit your work with the problem fixed. However more serious instances in first year, such as stealing another students work or paying someone to do your work, may be investigated under the Student Misconduct Procedures. Repeated plagiarism (even in first year), plagiarism after first year, or serious instances, may also be investigated under the Student Misconduct Procedures. The penalties under the procedures can include a reduction in marks, failing a course or for the most serious matters (like plagiarism in a honours thesis) even suspension from the university. The Student Misconduct Procedures are available here http://www.gs.unsw.edu.au/policy/documents/studentmisconductprocedures.pdf

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ARTS1691 Course Outline

10. Course Schedule

Date Week 1 (18 July or 20 July) Week 2 (25 July or 27 July) Week 3 (1 Aug or 3 Aug) Week 4 (8 Aug or 10 Aug) Week 5 (15 Aug or 17 Aug) Week 6 (22 Aug or 24 Aug) Lecture Topic/Content* Introduction; Brain & Language Acquisition Language processing Language in use Language in use In-class problem set (35%) Readings Required Textbook, Ch. 1-2 Textbook, Ch. 8 Textbook, Ch. 9 Textbook, Ch. 10 Textbook, Ch. 10

Week 7 (29 Aug or 31 Aug)

Textbook, Ch. 11 *** 5 September 11 September Mid-semester break*** Historical Linguistics Languages of the world Textbook, Ch. 11 Textbook, Ch. 11

Historical Linguistics

Week 8 (12 Sep or 14 Sep) Week 9 (19 Sep or 21 Sep)

Week 10 (26 Sep & 28 Sep) Week 11 (? & 5 Oct) Monday 3 Oct is a public holiday Week 12 (10 Oct or 12 Oct)

Class test 2 (30%) on: 26 September or 28 September Writing systems Summary and conclusion Textbook, Ch. 12 TBA

Take-home problem set (35%) Due: 24 October Tutorial schedule and exercises Attendance at your weekly tutorial is compulsory. Tutorials start the week beginning 25th July. If for some reason you are unable to attend your regular class, try to attend at an alternative time in the same week. For each tutorial you are expected to prepare answers to the specified exercises from the textbook. The tutorial exercises are directly related to the assignment, the test and the essay. *Please note that topics of tutorials are subject to revision. TUTORIAL 1 (Week 2) (Based on Chapters 1-2: Introduction; Brain and Language) (a) (b) Exercise 2, p.60 Exercise 3, p.60
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(Aphasic speech)

ARTS1691 Course Outline

(c)

Exercise 14, p.62

TUTORIAL 2 (Week 3) (Based on Chapter 8 Language acquisition) (a) Exercise 1, p.347 (baby talk) Think of three baby talk words for the purpose of this exercise and comment on them with respect to (a) and (b). (b) Exercise 7, pp.348-9 (holophrastic utterances) Choose any three words and comment on them with respect to (a) and (b). Exercise 7 (Ch. 1), p.28 (emotional postures of wolves) Exercise 8 (Ch.1), p.28 (dog language)

(c) (d)

TUTORIAL 3 (Week 4) (Based on Chapter 9 Language Processing) (a) (b) (c) Exercise 1, p.391 Exercise 4, p.393 Exercise 13, p. 395 (complex sentences) (spectrograms) (lexical access)

TUTORIAL 4 (Week 5) (Based on Chapter 10 Language in Society) (a) Exercise 7, p.440 (words in British/American/Australian English)

(b)

Exercise 8, p.440

(sentences in British and American English)

(c) Consider Labovs hypothesis about the distribution of /r/ in three New York City department stores (as discussed in lectures last week). Can you think of three types of stores in Sydney that are socially differentiated in a similar way? Identify at least one phonological feature that you hypothesize might be differentiated in these stores, and formulate a question that customers could be asked in order to provide data to confirm your hypothesis. TUTORIAL 5 (Week 6) (Based on Chapter 10 Language in Society) (a) Think of an Australian television personality or politician whose pronunciation of English you regard as being distinctive. Identify at least two distinctive features and consider if they may be related to social and/or regional factors. (b) (c) Exercise 19, p.442 (gender differences) Exercise 20, p.441 (/h/-dropping)

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ARTS1691 Course Outline

(d) Exercise 23, p.443 (Washington Post wordplay) Provide the expressions from which five of the examples are derived and, and think up one expression of your own. TUTORIAL 6 (Week 7) (Based on Chapter 10 Language in Society) (a) Exercise 12, p.441 (informal speech between friends)

(b) Exercise 13, p.441 (the jargon of a profession or trade) Identify three terms from a particular profession or trade and provide a brief definition for each term. (c) Exercise 15, p.441 (Cockney rhyming slang)

TUTORIAL 7 (Week 8) (Based on Chapter 10 Language in Society) (a) Think of two slang words that are currently used by you and/or your friends for each of the following concepts: good/excellent, bad/terrible, attractive/desirable person of the opposite sex. How do the two words for each concept differ from one another in their connotations? In what kinds of contexts would you use them? (a) Write down three recent headlines and be prepared to discuss characteristic features of the register of headlinese that they contain (e.g. the omission of common function words such as a, the, is). (c) Comment on the syntactic features of the register of recipes, as exemplified by the following (NB lists of ingredients have been omitted): SAUTEED BRAINS Parboil the brains as in preceding recipe. Drain and dry. Dip them in flour, then in beaten egg, and then in freshly made breadcrumbs. Saute quickly in hot butter until golden brown on both sides. Season with salt and pepper and serve with lemon wedges. ORANGE DELIGHT Peel oranges, remove pith and slice thinly. Place a layer of orange in a pie-dish or casserole. Sprinkle with cocoanut. Cover with portion of custard. Continue in this manner until pie-dish is full. Heap meringue on top and brown lightly in oven or under griller. Serve cold. FISH CROQUETTES Mash potatoes finely. Break up fish, removing bones. Mix together, and add salt, pepper, butter, lemon rind, parsley and well beaten egg. Form into balls with a little flour. Brush over with beaten egg. Shake in breadcrumbs. Fry in hot fat. Drain on white kitchen paper. Serve on a dish. Garnish with lemon. TUTORIAL 8 (Week 9) (Based on Chapter 11 Language change)

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ARTS1691 Course Outline

(a) (b) (c)

Exercise 1, p.482 Exercise 2, p.483 Exercise 3, p.483

(sound changes in Old English) (the Great Vowel Shift) (syntactic rules)

TUTORIAL 9 (Week 10) (Based on Chapter 11 Language change) (a) Exercise 4, p.483 (new words) Think of one example of each. Exercise 5, p.483-4 Exercise 6, p.484 (Latin ancestors of modern French words) (Indo-European languages)

(b) c)

TUTORIAL 10 (Week 11) (Based on Chapter 11 Language change) (a) (b) Exercise 7, p. 484 Exercise 14, p. 487 (linguistic diversity) (case marking)

(c) In the text (p.477) it is stated: For linguists, the many languages and language families provide essential data for the study of Universal Grammar. Although these languages are diverse in many ways, they are also remarkably similar in many ways. Discuss some of the ways in which languages are essentially similar. Provide at least three specific examples from the domains of phonology, morphology, or syntax. TUTORIAL 11 (Week 12) (Based on Chapter 12 Writing systems) (a) Exercise 1, p.511 (pictograms) Choose any four words. Exercise 4, p.512 (alphabetic vs. syllabic) Choose any four words. Exercise 5, p.512

(b)

(c)

TUTORIAL 12 (Week 13) (Based on Chapter 12 Writing systems) (a) Exercise 12, p.514 (SMS) Provide three examples. Exercise 15, p.515 (emoticons)

(b)

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ARTS1691 Course Outline

11. Expected Resources for Students

Textbook Details Fromkin, V. et al. 2009. An Introduction to Language. (6th, Australian Edition). Cengage. Additional Readings Finegan, E. et al, (1997) Language: Its Structure and Use. (2nd Australian Edition). Harcourt Brace. Websites Ethnologue An encyclopedic reference work cataloging all of the worlds 6,912 known living languages http://www.ethnologue.com The World Atlas of Language Structure Online http://wals.info/

12. Course Evaluation and Development

Courses are periodically reviewed and students feedback is used to improve then. Feedback is gathered using various means including UNSWs Course and Teaching Evaluation and Improvement (CATEI) process.

13. Other Information

For more detailed information relating to the information below and other important administrative information, see A Companion to Course Outlines, available on the School of Languages and Linguistics website at: http://languages.arts.unsw.edu.au/undergraduate/ under Administration. Submission of Assessment Tasks Assignments which are submitted to the School Assignment Box must have a properly completed School Assessment Coversheet, with the declaration signed and dated by hand. It can be downloaded from http://languages.arts.unsw.edu.au/undergraduate/ under Administration. It is individual students responsibility to make a backup copy of the assignment prior to submission and retain it. Assignments must be submitted before 4:00pm on the due date. Assignments received after this time will be marked as having been received late. Late Submission of Assignments Late assignments will attract a penalty. Of the total mark, 3% will be deducted each day for the first week, with Saturday and Sunday counting as two days, and 10% each week thereafter. The penalty may not apply where students are able to provide documentary evidence of illness or serious misadventure. Time pressure resulting from undertaking assignments for other courses does not constitute an acceptable excuse for lateness. OHS UNSW's Occupational Health and Safety Policy requires each person to work safely and responsibly, in order to avoid personal injury and to protect the safety of others. For all matters relating to Occupational Health, Safety and environment, see http://www.ohs.unsw.edu.au/ Attendance
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ARTS1691 Course Outline

Students are expected to be regular and punctual in attendance at all classes in the courses in which they are enrolled. Explanations of absences from classes or requests for permission to be absent from classes should be discussed with the teacher and where applicable accompanied by a medical certificate. If students attend less than 80% of their possible classes they may be refused final assessment. Students who falsify their attendance or falsify attendance on behalf of another student will be dealt with under the student misconduct policy. Special Consideration In cases where illness or other circumstances produce repeated or sustained absence, students should apply for Special Consideration as soon as possible. Forms are available from Student Central on the ground floor of the Chancellery (opposite the Library) or online at the link below. Applications on the grounds of illness must be filled in by a medical practitioner. Further information is available at: https://my.unsw.edu.au/student/atoz/SpecialConsideration.html Student Equity and Disabilities Unit Students who have a disability that requires some adjustment in their learning and teaching environment are encouraged to discuss their study needs with the course convener prior to or at the commencement of the course, or with the Student Equity Officers (Disability) in the Student Equity and Disabilities Unit (9385 4734). Information for students with disabilities is available at: http://www.studentequity.unsw.edu.au Issues to be discussed may include access to materials, signers or note-takers, the provision of services and additional examination and assessment arrangements. Early notification is essential to enable any necessary adjustments to be made.

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