G302 11975 STRUCTURE OF MODERN ENGLISH
Robert Fulk

2:30p-3:45p TR (30 students) 3 cr.

The aim of the course is to examine methods of linguistic analysis and issues of language usage that have the most consequence in daily life, along with those methods and issues that are most useful for teachers of English and other well-educated individuals to be familiar with. Thus there will be some attention to alternative ways of analyzing the sounds, syntax, pragmatics, vocabulary, and morphology of English, but the particular focus of the course will be on social and regional varieties of English and the issues that language variation raise for Americans in general and teachers in particular. There will also be some attention to patterns in children’s acquisition of language and in language change, entailing some study of the history of the English language. There will be four examinations and a small project affording the opportunity to apply linguistic knowledge (to a pedagogical situation, if so desired). Required texts:

Pinker, The Language Instinct,
Hudson, Essential Introductory Linguistics