Linguistics

Course title

Y0250002

Linguistics

Middle-level Diploma Policy (mDP)

Program / Major	mDP	Goals
Department of Design Engineering	A	幅広い教養を身につけ、多様性を理解し、世界的な視点から多面的に物事を考えることができる。

Purpose of class

By learning ways of observing and analyzing language, which is one of the closest complex systems to us, we will not only deepen our understanding of language itself but also learn scientific views and ways of thinking. Language is inseparable to human beings, and therefore, deepening our understanding of language leads to deepening our understanding of humans and societies that are created by humans. It is worth adding that the language capacity is part of the cognitive capacity of human beings, which are creatures that obey the natural laws, and hence any attempt to reveal the nature of language is part of biological and natural sciences. Furthermore, linguistics is, needless to say, related to natural language processing by machines, i.e., technology, which has gained much attention recently. Thus, we aim to obtain a broad perspective over humanity sciences, social sciences, biological and natural sciences, and technology by learning the ”design” of humans and human language via linguistics.

Course description

We use our language with no special attention to it in our daily life, but human language turns out to have tremendous complexity. Once we start examining language from various perspectives, we immediately face questions such as what the whole architecture of human language is, how we acquire it, and how it is computed in our brain. In this course, we will learn linguistics, by which we will consider the architecture of human language, the language faculty as part of our cognitive capacity, the functions of our brain related to language, and the analytical tools of language.

Goals and objectives

To understand various aspects of human language and thereby to obtain multifaceted and scientific ways of thinking
To understand diversity of human language and thereby to consider various things from a global perspective
To learn basics of linguistics and thereby to be able to think about relationships between humans, societies, science and technology

Relationship between 'Goals and Objectives' and 'Course Outcomes'

	Final Exam	In-class Assignments	Total.
1.	20%	15%	35%
2.	20%	15%	35%
3.	20%	10%	30%
Total.	60%	40%	-

Evaluation method and criteria

Final Exam: 60%
In-class assignments: 40%
Pass 60% or higher in total (Ex. work on assignments (30 points out of 35) / 50% correct in the exam (30 points out of 60))
Details will be explained in the classes.

Language

Japanese

Class schedule

	Class schedule	HW assignments (Including preparation and review of the class.)	Amount of Time Required
1.	Introduction: Wonders of Language and Linguistics	Reading the syllabus	60minutes
		Reading the relevant chapter	90minutes
		Review of the class	90minutes
2.	Science of Language: Hypothesis Testing and Experimental Methods	Read the relevant chapter	90minutes
2.		Review of the class	90minutes
3.	Grammar of Sounds 1: Phoneme and Allophone	Reading the relevant chapter	90minutes
3.	Grammar of Sounds 1: Phoneme and Allophone	Review of the class	90minutes
4.	Grammar of Sounds 2: Accent and Voicing	Reading the relevant chapter	90minutes
4.	Grammar of Sounds 2: Accent and Voicing	Review of the class	90minutes
5.	Grammar of Words 1: Mechanisms of Inflection	Reading the relevant chapter	90minutes
5.	Grammar of Words 1: Mechanisms of Inflection	Review of the class	90minutes
6.	Grammar of Words 2: Structure of Complex Words	Reading the relevant chapter	90minutes
6.	Grammar of Words 2: Structure of Complex Words	Review of the class	90minutes
7.	Grammar of Words 3: Correspondence between Verb Meanings and Constructions	Reading the relevant chapter	90minutes
7.		Review of the class	90minutes
8.	Grammar of Sentences 1: Hierarchical Structure of Sentence	Reading the relevant chapter	90minutes
8.	Grammar of Sentences 1: Hierarchical Structure of Sentence	Review of the class	90minutes
9.	Grammar of Sentences 2: Movement in Passive	Reading the relevant chapter	90minutes
		Review of the class	90minutes
		Preparation for the exam	60minutes
10.	Grammar of Sentences 3: Restrictions on Movement	Reading the relevant chapter	90minutes
10.	Grammar of Sentences 3: Restrictions on Movement	Review of the class	60minutes
11.	Grammar of Language Use 1: Relationships between Speaker and Hearer	Reading the relevant chapter	90minutes
11.		Review of the class	60minutes
12.	Grammar of Language Use 2: Word Knowledge and Meanings	Reading the relevant chapter	90minutes
12.	Grammar of Language Use 2: Word Knowledge and Meanings	Review of the class	60minutes
13.	Universality and Diversity of Language: Sign Language	Reading the relevant chapter	90minutes
		Review of the class	60minutes
		Preparation for the exam	90minutes
14.	Final Exam	Preparation for the exam	240minutes
Total.	-	-	2670minutes