Department of Linguistics

Introduction

Courses in the department are offered for the general student and for those who wish to receive the bachelor of arts with a major in linguistics. Courses in linguistics are intended to open up systematic perspectives on the nature of human language by means of detailed studies of language structure, language change and language acquisition, the sound system of language, and the syntactic/semantic system of language. The major is designed to provide a fundamental understanding of modern linguistics for the student seeking a general education in the liberal arts as well as for the student preparing for graduate study.

Advising

All majors and minors have a primary academic advisor from the Academic Advising Program. Students are strongly encouraged to meet regularly with their advisor and review their Tar Heel Tracker each semester. The department’s director of undergraduate studies works with current and prospective majors and minors by appointment. Departmental academic advising is particularly important for those majors who are considering going on to graduate school or who are considering the dual B.A.–M.A. program.

Graduate School and Career Opportunities

The Department of Linguistics offers an M.A. program with opportunities for specialization in a number of subareas, and to obtain a certificate in computational linguistics. Detailed information is available from the department website. Additionally, more than 100 colleges and universities offer linguistics programs, including several dozen that are considered major doctoral programs nationally. Faculty members are pleased to advise students regarding programs best suited to their needs and interests.

In general, the linguistics major is good preparation for a number of career paths because it develops problem solving, the ability to find patterns in complicated data, and writing and argumentation skills. Law and journalism schools and other professional schools are becoming increasingly aware that students with a major in linguistics have strengths in these important areas. Companies in the tech industry often hire linguists to solve problems relating to the development of software for speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and natural language processing and generation. United States citizens with a background in linguistics also may find jobs with United States government agencies.

Some students choose to continue specializing in linguistics teaching or research. For this, they typically need to obtain a graduate degree in linguistics. Other possible careers for linguistics majors that have a close connection to language and linguistics include language teaching, speech pathology/speech and hearing science, language and information technologies (including speech synthesis and recognition, text-content analysis, and machine translation), information and library science, or editing and publishing; some careers in these areas may require a graduate degree.

Professors

Misha Becker, Elliott Moreton, Paul Roberge, Jennifer Smith, David Mora-Marín.

Associate Professors

Katya Pertsova, J. Michael Terry.

Assistant Professor

Brian Hsu.

Teaching Assistant Professor

Caitlin Smith.

Adjunct Faculty

Becky Butler (Carolina Asia Center), Benjamin Frey (American Studies), Jim Michnowicz (NCSU), Jeff Mielke (NCSU), Jeff Reaser (NCSU), Erik Thomas (NCSU).

Linguists and Language Scholars in Other Departments

Jennifer Arnold (Psychology and Neuroscience), Mohit Bansal (Computer Science), Uffe Bergeton (Asian Studies), Lucia Binotti (Romance Studies), Bruno Estigarribia (Romance Studies),  Nina Furry (Romance Studies), Peter C. Gordon (Psychology and Neuroscience), Lamar Graham (Romance Studies), Thomas Hofweber (Philosophy), Joseph Lam (Religious Studies), Wendan Li (Asian Studies), Patrick O’Neill (English and Comparative Literature), Jim Pryor (Philosophy), Martha Ruiz-Garcia (Romance Studies), Patricia E. Sawin (American Studies), Khalid Shahu (Asian Studies).

Professors Emeriti

Randall Hendrick, H. Craig Melchert.

Courses

LING–Linguistics

Undergraduate-level Courses

IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 60.  First-Year Seminar: How Reading Works: Language, Cognition, and Literacy.  3 Credits.  

How do we go from looking at symbols on a page or screen to understanding the writer's message? How do children learn to read, and what ways of teaching reading best promote success for all students? We will explore these questions through analysis of language and writing structure and discussion of research data. Your final project will address a real-world question about reading, literacy, or reading education from the perspective of language and cognition.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR, RESEARCH.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 70.  First-Year Seminar: Language in the U.S.A.  3 Credits.  

The linguistic landscape of the United States in historical and contemporary perspective: American English dialects, language maintenance and shift among Native American and immigrant groups, language politics and policy.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: AMST 70.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 89.  First-Year Seminar: Special Topics.  3 Credits.  

Special topics course. Content will vary each semester. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 101.  Introduction to Language.  3 Credits.  

Introduction to the formal analysis of human language, including sounds, words, sentences, and language meaning, plus child language acquisition, language change over time, social attitudes toward language, and similarities and differences among languages. Other topics may include writing systems, animal communication, and language analysis by computers. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING or FC-NATSCI.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 138.  Linguistic Anthropology.  3 Credits.  

An introduction to linguistic anthropology and anthropological linguistics. The course approaches the complex interconnections between language, culture, and cognition; theoretical approaches employed during the past century (structuralism, functionalism, ethnoscience, universalism, linguistic relativity); common case studies (spatial language, colors, classifiers, deixis); verbal art (orality, literacy), linguistic ideology; and ethnolinguistic vitality.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 138.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 145.  Language, Communication, and Human and Animal Minds.  3 Credits.  

An examination of the differences between natural human languages and other communication systems. Includes a philosophical inquiry into how languages relate to the world and the mind. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: PH.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: PHIL 145.  
LING 165.  Exploring the World's Languages.  3 Credits.  

Students develop an understanding of and appreciation for the diverse range of human languages across the planet, as well as the uniformity that underlies them. Topics include history, classification, and linguistic properties of the world's languages. May substitute for LING 101 with department permission.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: BN.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 200.  Phonology.  3 Credits.  

Description and analysis of sound systems of languages around the world. Introduction to formal phonological models, argumentation, and hypothesis testing. Students may not receive credit for both LING 200 and LING 523.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-NATSCI.
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 101.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 201.  Syntax.  3 Credits.  

Introduction to the representational units and computational principles that underlie word order patterns in language. The course covers key discoveries and theories of generative approaches to syntax, in which grammars consist of formally defined rules and operations that generate grammatical sentences. Students may not receive credit for both LING 201 and LING 530.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 101.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 202.  Linguistic Variation and Language Change.  3 Credits.  

Introduction to the analysis and description of language change, relationships among languages, and types of linguistic structure. Students may not receive credit for both LING 202 and LING 525.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-PAST.
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 101.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 203.  Language Acquisition and Development.  3 Credits.  

Provides an introduction to first-language acquisition, focusing on the acquisition of phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics, as well as on the social context of language acquisition and issues of atypical language development. Students may not receive credit for both LING 203 and LING 528.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING.
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 101.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 225.  Busting Language Myths.  3 Credits.  

"Women talk more than men! Texting means the end of literacy! The language you speak limits the thoughts you can think!" We often hear claims like these, but are they true? And what kind of information would show us the answer? This course examines current debates about language while developing skills in reading and interpreting research results, media reports, basic statistics, and data graphics.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING or FC-VALUES.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 230.  Constructed Languages: Theory and Typology.  3 Credits.  

This course explores linguistic properties of constructed languages (conlangs). The course examines philosophical and creative motivations behind existing conlangs, and how their grammatical properties relate to those of natural languages. Students will explore and apply creative and analytical procedures used to create constructed language grammars.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-CREATE.
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 101.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 260.  Languages of Southeast Asia.  3 Credits.  

This course surveys languages spoken in Southeast Asia, an area rich in linguistic diversity, which is home to more than five distinct language families and well over 1,000 individual languages. Students will investigate the languages--in situ and in the diaspora--through the lens of descriptive linguistics, and will explore the social, cultural, and political aspects of languages in the region. This course is appropriate for students with an interest in linguistics or in Southeast Asia.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-GLOBAL.
Making Connections Gen Ed: BN.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ASIA 260.  
LING 290.  Special Topics in Linguistics.  3 Credits.  

In-depth treatment of a selected issue or topic in linguistics. Topic will vary with the instructor. Course may be taken more than once when the topic varies.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 101.  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit; may be repeated in the same term for different topics; 9 total credits. 3 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 302.  Language and Power.  3 Credits.  

This course provides an overview of language and power studies. Issues: sexist and sex-neutral language; languages of subcultures defined by gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity; hate speech; "politically correct" language.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-POWER.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 302, WGST 302.  
LING 303.  Native Languages of the Americas.  3 Credits.  

This course is an introduction to languages indigenous to the Americas. The course touches on the linguistic structure and classification of Native American languages as well as on social issues.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 303.  
LING 304.  Introduction to Discourse.  3 Credits.  

Focuses on the use of linguistic forms to express communicative intentions. How language is used for the purposes of persuasion, manipulation, irony, humor, poetry, propaganda, and attitudes.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 101.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 305.  Race against Time: Language Revitalization.  3 Credits.  

Students are introduced to the causes and contexts of language endangerment and the complex process of language revitalization. Topics to be covered include assessment of endangerment level, language and thought, language attitudes, bilingual education, and language planning. We will also consider a number of case studies of endangered languages.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-GLOBAL or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: BN, GL.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 101.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 333.  Human Language and Animal Communication Systems.  3 Credits.  

Comparative study of human language alongside selected non-human communication systems. Anatomy, acoustics, combinatorial structure, innateness and acquisition, evolution. Sizable lab and field component.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-QUANT, FC-LAB.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, QI.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 335.  Structure of African American English.  3 Credits.  

This course treats the structural properties of African American English. Students will learn to use sentence data to test hypotheses about language structure by investigating the phonology, syntax and semantics of African American English.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: AAAD 335.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 360.  Introduction to Hispanic Linguistics.  3 Credits.  

Introduction to the linguistic study of sound, meaning, grammatical form, dialectal and sociolinguistic variation, with a particular focus on modern Spanish and the languages of Spain and Latin America. Previously offered as SPAN/LING 377.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, BN, GL, FL.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, SPAN 300 or SPAN 301; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: SPAN 360.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 376.  Spanish Phonetics and Phonology.  3 Credits.  

Introduction to the description of sound systems with a focus on Spanish. Includes the study of the historical development of Spanish and its areal and social variation in Spain, Latin America, and the United States.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, BN, GL, FL.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, SPAN 300 or SPAN 301; permission from the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: SPAN 376.  
LING 383.  Linguistic Structuralism: Sources and Influences.  3 Credits.  

Linguistic structuralism as a background for modern theories of language.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 395.  Group Mentored Research.  1-3 Credits.  

Permission of instructor. Students gain first-hand experience conducting research as part of a research group working together on a single project under the advisement of a faculty member. Topics will vary.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Mentored Research.  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 6 total credits. 6 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 397.  Undergraduate Seminar in Language and Linguistics.  3 Credits.  

Seminar on a previously announced topic.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, SPAN 360 or 376.  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 9 total credits. 3 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: SPAN 397.  

Advanced Undergraduate and Graduate-level Courses

IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 401.  Language and Computers.  3 Credits.  

Uses simple linguistic problems to introduce students to the use of programming languages especially suited to analyze and process natural language on the computer. No prior programming knowledge is presupposed.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-QUANT, FC-LAB.
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 101.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 409.  Cognitive Linguistics.  3 Credits.  

Development of and present state of research in cognitive linguistics. Readings discuss various language phenomena and are drawn from linguistics, psychology, philosophy, artificial intelligence, and literary analysis of metaphor.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, CI.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 410.  Advanced Philosophy of Language.  3 Credits.  

At least two courses in philosophy other than PHIL 155, including PHIL 345, strongly recommended. A study of important contemporary contributions in philosophy of language. Topics include meaning, reference, and truth.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING.
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 6 total credits. 2 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: PHIL 445, LING 445.  
LING 422.  Research Methods in Phonetics and Laboratory Phonology.  3 Credits.  

Focuses on the practical skills required to carry out basic experiments in speech production or perception. Includes training in a general-purpose programming language (such as Perl) for automating repetitive tasks, experiment-control software, audio stimulus manufacture and editing, palatography, aerodynamic measurements, and other laboratory techniques relevant to student interests.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 200, 520, 523, or SPHS 540.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 427.  Morphology.  3 Credits.  

Cross-linguistic investigation of internal word structure: inflection and derivation, word formation rules versus affixation, autosegmental morphology, morpholexical and morphophonemic rules, and the interaction of morphology with phonology and syntax. Previously offered as LING 527.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 101 or 400.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 428.  Bilingualism and Second-Language Acquisition.  3 Credits.  

This course covers theoretical issues in childhood simultaneous bilingualism, and child and adult second-language acquisition, under both naturalistic and classroom learning circumstances.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING.
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 101.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 444.  Origin and Evolution of Human Language.  3 Credits.  

Recommended preparation, at least one higher-level core course in linguistics. Surveys current answers to such questions as, When and how did language first appear? What do other animal communication systems share with language? Do restricted linguistic systems (e. g., pidgins) preserve "fossils" of early human language?

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, WB.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 101.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 445.  Advanced Philosophy of Language.  3 Credits.  

At least two courses in philosophy other than PHIL 155, including PHIL 345, strongly recommended. A study of important contemporary contributions in philosophy of language. Topics include meaning, reference, and truth.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING.
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 6 total credits. 2 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: PHIL 445, LING 410.  
LING 458.  Writing Systems: Past, Present, Future, Fictional.  3 Credits.  

This course provides an introduction to the linguistic structure and historical development of the world's writing systems (e.g. Sumerian, Egyptian, Chinese, Greek, Semitic scripts, Indian abugidas, Olmec, Mayan, Incan), the methods for their decipherment and analysis, the cross-script generalizations that can be proposed through their comparative study, and the techniques for developing a new writing system for a previously unwritten language, as well as for inventing a language and writing system from scratch.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, WB.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 101; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 460.  Making Sense of Big Data: Textual Analysis with R.  3 Credits.  

The course covers methods for working with textual data (corpora, databases, etc.) that include data cleaning techniques, graphing, statistical analysis, web-scraping, and categorization models. Students will complete their own data project by the end of the course.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: RESEARCH.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 484.  Discourse and Dialogue in Ethnographic Research.  3 Credits.  

Study of cultural variation in styles of speaking applied to collection of ethnographic data. Talk as responsive social action and its role in the constitution of ethnic and gender identities.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, CI, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 484, FOLK 484.  
LING 490.  Advanced Topics in Linguistics.  3 Credits.  

Directed readings on linguistic topics not covered in specific courses.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit; may be repeated in the same term for different topics; 9 total credits. 3 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 493.  Internship in Linguistics.  3 Credits.  

Permission of instructor. This course allows students to integrate theoretical knowledge with practice through an internship experience in the field of linguistics. Students may work with businesses or organizations in the areas of computational linguistics, language documentation, education, publishing, or other related fields. Activities must be approved by faculty and supervised by a mentor.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: HI-INTERN.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Academic Internship.  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 6 total credits. 2 total completions.  
Grading Status: Pass/Fail.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 495.  Individual Mentored Research.  1-3 Credits.  

Permission of instructor. Students carry out a research project of their own design under the direct supervision of a faculty mentor. This course is intended for advanced, motivated students who would like to pursue an in-depth research project within a single semester.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Mentored Research.  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 6 total credits. 6 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 496.  Independent Study in Linguistics.  1-3 Credits.  

LING 101 and additional coursework in linguistics strongly recommended. An intensive directed readings course or a mentored project; topic to be determined in consultation with the instructor. Permission of the director of undergraduate studies.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit; may be repeated in the same term for different topics; 12 total credits. 12 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 503.  Structure of American Sign Language.  3 Credits.  

Introduces the linguistic structures of American Sign Language, including phonology, morphology, and syntax. Also covers gesture/homesign, sign language acquisition and language transfer.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: GLBL-LANG.
Requisites: Prerequisite, SPHS 402 or permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Global Language: Level 3.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 520.  Linguistic Phonetics.  3 Credits.  

Introduction to the general principles of linguistic phonetics; anatomy of vocal tract, physiology of speech production, universal phonetic theory. Practice in the recognition and transcription of speech sounds.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-NATSCI or FC-QUANT.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 520.  
LING 522.  Experimental Phonetics and Laboratory Phonology.  3 Credits.  

This course relates linguistic theory to experimental findings. Students design and carry out experiments to test theoretical issues of current theoretical importance.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisites, LING 520, and 200 or 523.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 523.  Phonological Theory I.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor for undergraduates. Introduction to the principles of modern generative phonology. Methods and theory of phonological analysis. Students may not receive credit for both LING 200 and LING 523.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 520, or SPHS 530 or 540.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 523.  
LING 524.  Phonological Theory II.  3 Credits.  

Intermediate phonological theory and analysis.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 200 or 523.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 525.  Introduction to Historical and Comparative Linguistics.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor for undergraduates. Theories and methods of historical and comparative linguistics, with emphasis upon the Indo-European family. Students may not receive credit for both LING 202 and LING 525.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 526.  Second-Language Phonetics and Phonology.  3 Credits.  

Production, perception, and phonological patterns and processes in second-language learning and use. Effects of first-language transfer and universal linguistic factors. Seminar-style class based on primary literature.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 101.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 528.  Language Acquisition I.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor for undergraduates. One course in phonology or syntax recommended. Child language from a theoretical perspective. Topics include segmentation problems, acquisition of phonology, morphology and syntax, lexical acquisition, and language development in blind and deaf children and in bilinguals. Students may not receive credit for both LING 203 and LING 528.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 529.  Language Acquisition II.  3 Credits.  

This course focuses on the development of syntax in first-language acquisition in children. Topics will include parameter setting, null subjects, root infinitives, aspect, A-movement, binding theory, and control.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisites, LING 203 or 528, and LING 201 or 530.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 530.  Syntactic Theory I.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor for undergraduates. Methods and theory of grammatical analysis within the transformational generative framework. Special emphasis on analyzing syntactic and semantic structures of English. Students may not receive credit for both LING 201 and LING 530.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 533.  Syntactic Theory II.  3 Credits.  

Methods and theory of grammatical analysis, with special reference to transformational grammar.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 530.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 537.  Semantic Theory I.  3 Credits.  

Semantics as a part of linguistic theory: co- and disjoint reference among nominals, "crossover" phenomena, quantifier scope, lexical semantics, Montague grammar and compositional semantics, and explanatory universals in semantic theory.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING.
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 101 or 400.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 538.  Semantic Theory II.  3 Credits.  

A continuation of LING 537 (Semantic Theory I), this course prepares the student to read the formal semantic literature and to do original research in the field.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 537.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 539.  Language of Time.  3 Credits.  

The representation of time and temporal relations in natural languages. Cross-linguistic study of tense and aspect distinctions, modality, temporal adverbials, temporal anaphora, and sequences of tenses.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 101 or 400.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 540.  Mathematical Linguistics.  3 Credits.  

Introduction to topics in logic, set theory, and modern algebra with emphasis on linguistic application. Automata theory and the formal theory of grammar with special reference to transformational grammars. No previous mathematics assumed.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: QI.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 101.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 541.  Sociolinguistics.  3 Credits.  

Introduction to the study of language in relation to society; variation as it correlates with socioeconomic status, region, gender; the social motivation of change; language and equality; language maintenance, planning, shift.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 101 or 400.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 541.  
LING 542.  Pidgins and Creoles.  3 Credits.  

Examination of the social contexts of language contact and their linguistic outcomes, with particular emphasis on the formation of pidgins and creoles. The course investigates the structural properties of these new contact languages and evaluates the conflicting theories that explain their genesis.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 101 or 400.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 542.  
LING 543.  Language in Politics.  3 Credits.  

Examines language as a political issue in the 19th and 20th centuries. Emphasis placed on American and British politics but attention to one other national context as well.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 545.  Language and Mind.  3 Credits.  

The course treats the relationship among linguistics, artificial intelligence, neurobiology, cognitive psychology, and the philosophies of mind, language, and science.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING.
Making Connections Gen Ed: PH.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, ENGL 213, LING 101, LING 400, or PHIL 145; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 547.  Language Deficits and Cognition.  3 Credits.  

Survey of the linguistic properties associated with aphasia, autism, Williams syndrome, dyslexia, and schizophrenia. Emphasis on the implications of these conditions for theories of mind.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING.
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 101 or 400.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 550.  Introduction to Indo-European: Phonology.  3 Credits.  

A survey of the phonological systems of the major Indo-European languages and their development from Proto-Indo-European.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 551.  Introduction to Indo-European: Morphology.  3 Credits.  

Introduction to the major morphological categories in the Indo-European languages and their development from the proto-language.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 550.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 558.  Ancient Mayan Hieroglyphs.  3 Credits.  

This course is an introduction to the ancient scripts of pre-Columbian Mexico and Central America. It focuses on ancient Mayan hieroglyphs, describing their orthographic and linguistic structure, and highlighting methods for investigating the script using the Maya Hieroglyphic Database (5,000 inscriptions comprising 85,565 records). Students will write a research paper consisting of a linguistic and quantitative (descriptive, inferential statistical) analysis of a particular phenomenon of the script.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING or FC-QUANT.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, WB.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 560.  Mesoamerican Languages and Linguistics.  3 Credits.  

Surveys the basic characteristics that unify Mesoamerica as a cultural and linguistic area (e.g. sound systems, word order, color systems, diffused vocabulary, etc.), the basic sources of cultural and linguistic information available (e.g. ancient hieroglyphs, colonial manuscripts, contemporary documents, linguistic fieldwork), and the consequences of ancient and modern cross-cultural interaction.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: BN.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 561.  Native Languages of the Americas.  3 Credits.  

This course explores the phonological and morphological structure of selected Amerindian languages indigenous to the Americas. Emphasis is on the linguistic analysis of original as well as published primary data.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 101 or 400.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 562.  Structure of Russian.  3 Credits.  

Examines Russian from the perspective of linguistic analysis. How do sounds, words, and sentences pattern in Russian? How do these compare with patterns in other languages? Also considers the influence of evidence from Russian on the development of linguistic theory.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 101 or RUSS 102; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: RUSS 562.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 563.  Structure of Japanese.  3 Credits.  

Introductory linguistic description of modern Japanese. For students of linguistics with no knowledge of Japanese and students of Japanese with no knowledge of linguistics.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, JAPN 102 or LING 101.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: JAPN 563.  
LING 564.  History of the French Language.  3 Credits.  

The phonology, morphology, and syntax of French are traced from the Latin foundation to the present. Lectures, readings, discussions, and textual analysis. In English.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisites, FREN 300, and one additional course above FREN 330; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisites.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: FREN 564.  
LING 565.  French Phonetics and Phonology.  3 Credits.  

Study of the sound system and prosody features of standard French, emphasizing practical application in a variety of oral activities. Requires learning linguistic terminology and the phonetic alphabet. In English.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, FREN 255, 260, or 262; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: FREN 565.  
LING 566.  Structure of Modern French.  3 Credits.  

Introduction to phonology, morphology, and syntax of modern standard French. Application of modern linguistic theory to the teaching of French. In English.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisites, FREN 300, and one additional course above FREN 330; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisites.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: FREN 566.  
LING 567.  Structure of German.  3 Credits.  

LING 101 recommended for undergraduates. Introduction to formal analysis of German grammar (phonology, morphophonemics, prosodics, morphology, syntax) within the framework of generative grammar.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisites, GERM 302 and 303; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisites.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: GERM 501.  
LING 573.  Linguistic Field Methods I.  3 Credits.  

Analysis and description of a language unknown to the class from data solicited from a native-speaker consultant.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisites, LING 101, and one of LING 200, 376, or 422.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 574.  Linguistic Field Methods II.  3 Credits.  

Continuation of LING 573.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 578.  Comparative History of the Romance Languages.  3 Credits.  

The linguistic study of the evolution of Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian (and other Romance languages) from their common ancestor of Latin. Emphasis on phonological, morphological, syntactic, and lexical commonalities and divergences among the languages.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, FREN 300 or ITAL 300 or PORT 310 or SPAN 300; OR graduate standing; OR permission of instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ROML 578.  
LING 583.  History and Philosophy of Linguistics.  3 Credits.  

Linguistic theories from classical times to the present with special emphasis on the origins of contemporary theories.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, LING 101.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
LING 676.  Advanced Spanish Phonology.  3 Credits.  

Topics in Spanish phonology from a range of theoretical perspectives. Autosegmental theory, optimality theory (OT), syllable structure, stress and accent, and the interaction of phonology and morphology.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, SPAN 376; OR graduate standing; OR permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: SPAN 676.  
LING 678.  History of the Spanish Language.  3 Credits.  

SPAN 376 desirable. A theoretical study of the evolution of Spanish from classical and spoken Latin, focusing on phonological, morphological, and syntactic phenomena. Intended for linguistics majors.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, WB.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, SPAN 360; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: SPAN 678.  
LING 681.  Spanish Semantics.  3 Credits.  

This course is an upper undergraduate/graduate-level introduction to the study of the meaning of words and sentences, with a focus on Spanish. It covers the following topics: truth-conditional theories of meaning, modality, quantification, reference, tense and aspect, Aktionsart. The course also addresses cross-linguistic data collection, e.g., field work and experimental methods.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, SPAN 360.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: SPAN 681.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 691H.  Senior Honors Thesis.  3 Credits.  

See the program for honors in the College of Arts and Sciences and the department honors advisor.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Mentored Research.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoLING 692H.  Senior Honors Thesis.  3 Credits.  

See the program for honors in the College of Arts and Sciences and the department honors advisor.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Mentored Research.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  

Yucatec Maya (MAYA)

Advanced Undergraduate and Graduate-level Courses

MAYA 401.  Introduction to Yucatec Maya.  3 Credits.  

Introduction to basic grammar and vocabulary, as well as cultural context and literary genres.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Global Language: Level 1.  

Department of Linguistics

Visit Program Website

104A Smith Building, CB# 3155

(919) 962-1192

Chair

Misha Becker

Director of Undergraduate Studies

David Mora-Marín

davidmm@unc.edu