Courses offered in 2024-2025

FALL 2024

Linguistics 9501 - Graduate research seminar

As part of your training in linguistics, you will develop valuable transferrable skills that can be effectively applied in a wide range of job settings. This course aims to help students identify and strengthen their marketable skills and learn to present themselves effectively to prospective employers both within and outside of academia. These skills include time management, oral communication, grant writing, teaching, leadership, research, project management, editing, interpersonal skills, and an appreciation of ethical and civic responsibility.

Linguistics 9621 - Phonology

Description TBA

WINTER 2025

Linguistics 9601 - Syntactic Analysis

The main goal of this course is to familiarize the students with current syntactic theory, by investigating the notions of raising and control and how they been analyzed over the past 60 years. Students will be expected to read original literature in the Principles and Parameters/Minimalism frameworks and will learn about different approaches to syntax (e.g. Relational Grammar, Lexical-Functional Grammar). Students will also learn to apply what they have learned to new data from different languages.

By the end of the course students should

  • feel confident reading formal syntactic literature
  • be able to apply theoretical analyses to original data
  • be able to critique and present research papers
  • feel confident about doing original research within the frameworks provided
  • be able to communicate their research results (in the form of abstracts, squibs, and oral presentations)

Format of the course:

  • lectures
  • discussion groups on concepts introduced in the papers
  • presentation of language logs
  • solving empirical problems in class and at home (assignments)
  • student presentations of relevant literature
  • original research

Linguistics 9724 - Language Attrition

This course examines language change, variation, relearning, and reactivation in bilingual and multilingual immigrant communities through linguistic, social, and cognitive lenses. We will explore empirical studies on significant phenomena in the speech of bilingual and multilingual communities worldwide. Languages considered will include, but are not limited to, English, Spanish, Italian, Persian, Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, and German.

Linguistics 9811 - Dialectology

This course offers a solid grounding on the fundamental theoretical and descriptive concepts of dialectology as well as practical experience for developing scholars. Students are invited to deepen their knowledge in the field by carrying out a four-phase research project (annotated bibliography, abstract, in-class presentation, final paper) on a specific topic of particular interest to them chosen in consultation with the instructor. The course addresses areas such as the origins of dialectology and its relationship to other branches of linguistics, linguistic geography, dialectometry, urban dialectology and dialect topography. Materials and readings draw on a variety of languages and language families.

The language of instruction and required readings will be English but students have the option of submitting written work in English, French or Spanish. Students in French Studies are required to submit written work in French.

Courses offered in other departments

TBA