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Instructor Class Description

Time Schedule:

Ellen Kaisse
LING 580
Seattle Campus

Problems in Linguistics

Advanced study in current theories of syntax, semantics, phonology, or morphology. Can be repeated for credit.

Class description

Autumn 2008 Interaction of phonology and morphology in English

English stress and other phonological rules of English that are sensitive to the kind of affix on a word; the case for and against lexical strata (Level 1 and 2, a.k.a. stem- and word-level affixation); blocking of derivation by phonology. Some analyses we will consider will be couched in Optimality theory, others will be derivational.

Student learning goals

Understand the simple generalizations about English stress and some of the complexities that obscure them at times.

Learn about the morphology of English

Improve their ability to write an abstract and a research paper that can be submitted to a conference, used as the basis for a senior honors thesis, or developed into a thesis or disseration.

Learn about some additional rules of English phonology beyond stress assignment.

General method of instruction

Seminar style -- some lecture; some class discussion led by either the instructor or a member of the class.

Recommended preparation

Prerequisite: phonology through ling 452 or equivalent preferred. You could probably survive fine with just Ling 451 if you are pretty good at phonology.

Class assignments and grading

Students are responsible for leading the discussion for one article or book section and will write a paper and a conference abstract for that paper. There may also be short ungraded assignments/problems to check on understanding

presentation of chapter/reading; paper and abstract


The information above is intended to be helpful in choosing courses. Because the instructor may further develop his/her plans for this course, its characteristics are subject to change without notice. In most cases, the official course syllabus will be distributed on the first day of class.
Last Update by Ellen Kaisse
Date: 05/12/2008