Course Description:  Linguistics is the science of language.  In a survey of features of many languages, including English, we will study topics like phonology, morphology, history, and grammar.  We will discuss some properties languages have in common and some ways they differ.  The course will also cover various subfields in linguistics and will introduce a large number of special terms and concepts.  Experience in the study of a foreign language is very helpful but not required.

Course Objectives:  This course will help you understand the nature, structure, and use of language.  You will look at how language works.  You will be equipped with basic tools for the analysis of language structure and will be prepared for future studies in language theory and for the use of basic linguistic concepts.

Quizzes, Exams (and Graduate Report)                                                                              90%

Four quizzes will be given—they will come approximately every other week.  Your best three quizzes will count.  The quizzes, midterm and final will combine “objective” questions with some short discussions, short essays, problem solving, etc.  You will have at least a one-week warning before any quiz or exam. 

Graduate students in ENG 678 will answer extra questions on exams, and will do a graduate report on an agreed-on topic.  (The reports will be given on the last class day, Thursday, March 11.)

Online discussion group <eng47801@wright.edu>                                                          10%

I have created an electronic discussion group for this class. To use it, you must have an email address (not necessarily a WSU email address) and must be able to send and receive email.  The discussion group is set up with your WSU email address as a "default."  All messages sent to the distribution list will go to all members of the class.  

If you would prefer to use another email address instead of (or along with) your WSU address, you must give that address to me.  I can add any new address to the list.  If you want to use your WSU email account but need assistance or instructions on how to access it, please see the CATS help desk in the library basement (775-4827).  I strongly encourage you to begin using your Wright State email account!

Use the discussion group to converse with your classmates about the current topic, the readings, and class discussion, to respond to my questions, to raise your own questions, to clarify points we can't always get to in class, etc.  I also encourage you to find an interesting example of language use (newspapers and popular culture are full of interesting examples!), describe it, and frame your own discussion around it.

In order to receive a grade of C for discussion group participation you will need to make FOUR substantive postings. A grade of B requires SIX substantive postings, while a grade of A requires EIGHT substantive postings.  A "substantive posting" will raise a new issue for discussion and comment in depth on it, or it will respond in depth to an ongoing discussion.  It will be at least a paragraph in length (usually four or more complete sentences), and it must address the general subject of language, approached from a linguistic perspective.  Although I will not “grade” your writing in these entries, I expect substantive postings to meet the normal standards of grammaticality, clarity, coherence, and mechanical accuracy that one expects from college-level writing.  Postings that do not conform to those standards will not be counted as substantive.

Do not put your participation off until the end of the quarter.  I will count no more than two entries in each of the final three weeks of the course, so if you want an A for the discussion group section of the course, you will need to post at least two substantive messages during weeks one through seven.  Start early and post often!

Instructor: Henry Limouze <henry.limouze@wright.edu>

• Office: 466 Millett
• Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 12-2 and by appointment
• Phone: 775-2093 or 775-3136