Span 200g: Boston Speaks

Here it is: updated-plan-for-weeks-5.doc

The first lab report (on chapter 1 of the Jo Napoli’s textbook) is due today. Here you have an optional reading that you may find useful if you want to write a paper on the topic (Yang, Charles. (2006) “Colorless Green Ideas” Chapter 6 of The Infinite Gift. How Children Learn and Unlearn the Languages of the World. Scribner.)

Please bring to class two copies: one with your name on it and another without it. Today, you will spend the whole class giving your classmates feedback on their assignments. We will follow this handout.

On Thursday we will start talking about the relation between language and thought. As stated in the syllabus, there are three required readings:

1. Napoli, ch. 3.
2. Napoli, ch. 4.
3. Pinker, ch. 3.

Besides that, we will make use of the following two readings:

1. Motluck, A. (2002) “You Are What You Speak” New Scientist
   
2. Boroditsky, L. (2003) Linguistic Relativity In Nadel, L. (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science. MacMillan Press: London, UK, pages 917-921.

We will use this questionnaire to find out about some of the linguistic myths that we are surrounded by.

Welcome to the Fall 2010 rendition of Span 200g “Boston Speaks”, an Intermediate Seminar that will introduce you to the fascinating world of modern linguistics!

To get started, you can check the syllabus here.