Do not print the syllabus! The information will change regularly, and it will be kept up to date here!
There will be no textbook for this course, just some readings, which will be posted on Canvas.
Although all due-dates are fixed (barring extensive notice), the exact topic schedule is tentative and will be updated throughout the course. Please check this page regularly. Click an individual class topic to see that day’s slides or handout (where applicable).
| Week | Date | Topic | Due Dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | January 7 | Course Introduction | |
| 1 | January 9 | Why do we need Phonology? (Group Analysis) | |
| 1 | January 11 | Phonetics Review | |
| 2 | January 14 | Natural Classes | |
| 2 | January 16 | Phonemic Analysis | |
| 2 | January 18 | Finding Phonemes and Allophones in Data (Group Analysis) | HW1: Phonetic Intuitions DUE |
| 3 | January 21 | NO CLASS: Martin Luther King Day | |
| 3 | January 23 | Writing Phonological Rules | |
| 3 | January 25 | Underlying Forms (Group Analysis) | HW2: Muher and Kikuria DUE |
| 4 | January 28 | Features | |
| 4 | January 30 | Describing Sounds using Features (Group Analysis) | |
| 4 | February 1 | Using Features in Phonological Rules (Group Analysis) | HW3: Hungarian and Balantak DUE |
| 5 | February 4 | Syllables | |
| 5 | February 6 | Working with Syllables (Group Analysis) | |
| 5 | February 8 | Multi-Rule Analysis | HW4: Zoque DUE |
| 6 | February 11 | Russian Rule Ordering (Group Analysis) | |
| 6 | February 13 | Derivations and working with Multiple Rules (Group Analysis) | |
| 6 | February 15 | More on Rule Interactions | HW5: Lamba DUE |
| 7 | February 18 | NO CLASS: Presidents Day | |
| 7 | February 20 | Opaque Interactions (Group Analysis) | |
| 7 | February 22 | Mushunguli (Group Analysis) | HW6: Somali DUE |
| 8 | February 25 | Abstract Awesomeness with Yokuts (Group Analysis) | |
| 8 | February 27 | Abstract Awesomeness, Continued (Group Analysis) | |
| 8 | March 1 | Yokuts Wrap-Up | HW7: Tagalog DUE |
| 9 | March 4 | Sonority | |
| 9 | March 6 | Sonority in Language (Group Analysis) | |
| 9 | March 8 | Guest Lecture from Michael: Tone Phonology | |
| 10 | March 11 | Constraint-based Approaches and OT | |
| 10 | March 13 | Group Analysis: Back to the Past! | |
| 10 | March 15 | Course Conclusion | HW8: Tutoring through Time DUE |
| Final | March 20 | NO FINAL EXAM! |
This course is designed to teach you the theory, mechanics, and problem-solving process of Phonology, the study of how sounds pattern and change in human language. Successful students will leave the course with the ability to examine language data and determine the relevant segments, rules, and rule interactions which allow us to understand both the underlying morphemes, as well as their surface representation.
This course is fundamentally data and participation-driven, and your success, both in terms of learning and in terms of grades, depends substantially on your engaging directly with the data provided, both in class and in homeworks. Successful students, then, will…
Finally, remember that this course is a collaborative process, and we all share a goal. You want to learn the material and earn a good grade, and we want you to learn the material and earn a good grade. If you put in the effort, attend the class, and complete the assignments, we hope that earning a great grade will be easy for you, and know that if you’re working hard and still struggling, the instructional team is here to be a resource for you in office hours and on TritonEd.
This course will be using an online learning management system (LMS) to manage content and/or grades. Currently, there are two LMSs, TritonEd and Canvas. This particular course will be managed using Canvas, our newest LMS, while some of your other courses may appear in TritonEd. The Course Finder page (https://coursefinder.ucsd.edu/) will display all of your TritonEd and Canvas courses. Therefore, it is recommended that you use the Course Finder page to access your classes. Select the login button and enter your Active Directory credentials to see your courses.
If you have not used Canvas before, refer to the student help guides and videos, which are located on the left-side menu’s help section (the question mark icon). Should you need any technical assistance with Canvas, please alert your instructor and send an email to servicedesk@ucsd.edu. In the header of the email, please write “Canvas”. Make sure to include your name, course title and section, as well as your contact information in the email body. A representative will get back to you within 2 business days. Thank you for helping UC San Diego start our journey as we migrate from TritonEd to Canvas!
Your final grade is based on the below formula:
| Item | % of Final Grade |
|---|---|
| Homeworks | 55% |
| In-class work and Participation | 40% |
| Experiment Participation | 5% |
Put differently, your grade = (55 * [Average % score of homeworks]) + (40 * [Participation and In Class work % Score]) + (5 if you’ve participated in an experiment, 0 if you haven’t).
The grading scale used for this course is the UCSD standard scale, where A+ is 97% or more, A is 96.99% to 93%, A- is 92.99 to 90%, B+ is 89.99 to 87%, and so forth. Plus and Minus grades are not assigned below “C”, and no grade changes will be considered from A to A+. Up-to-date grade information will be provided automatically in TritonEd.
There are eight homework assignments which will be assigned this quarter. We will automatically drop your lowest homework. You will still be responsible for knowing the material covered in any dropped homeworks.
Because we drop your lowest grade automatically, we won’t accept late homework without prior arrangements or a doctor’s note, and no make-up assignments are given. If you know you won’t be able to turn it in on time, you can turn it in early or drop that homework like it’s hot.
Assignments should be typed wherever possible, although we will accept scanned handwritten assignments, so long as it’s legible. There are many good programs for typing up assignments, and everything needed here should be doable within Word or Google Docs. Scanned homework must be actually scanned to a multi-page PDF using a real scanner, we will not grade a series of images from your smartphone camera.
Assignments may be worth a different number of points, but the grade is always stored as a percentage of final points (e.g a 75/100 on one assignment counts the same as a 30/40 on the next). All assignments are weighted equally and are equally important.
I’m happy to have you work in groups on the assignments for this class. However, you will always need to disclose who you worked with, and each of you will turn in your own copy of the assignment. If working in groups, each person will need to interact with each question (meaning that it’s not acceptable for one person to do question one, with the next person doing question two, etc). You’re welcome to work together and discuss the problems as a group, but if you just “split it up” and copy each other’s answers to the questions you didn’t do, not only is that not allowed, but you won’t learn anything.
This is a class which depends heavily on your participation and engagement with the data, and in fact, a sizable proportion of each class-week will be dedicated to in-class work on actual phonology problems. Any student who regularly attends class, actively participates in group work and problem set discussions, and engages with the in-class discussions should recieve the full 40%.
It’s worth noting that we will be taking attendance each day in class, whether directly or by looking at submitted group work. You get three missed sessions “for free” (meaning that we will drop the lowest three weeks’ participation grades), but repeated failure to attend class, engage, and participate in the group problem discussions will lead to a proportional reduction in your participation grade, at our complete discretion.
You must also participate in one SONA credit worth of Linguistics, Psychology or Cognitive Science experiments. Sign up here:http://ucsd.sona-systems.com/. Do not wait until the last week to participate, there may not be experiments available! The last week to fulfill this requirement is Week 9, so get on it! If you are opposed to experiment participation, you must request an alternative assignment from the instructor via email within two weeks of the start of class at the latest. Detailed Instructions are here
Come to Will’s office hours within the first three weeks of class to introduce yourself and discuss your educational ambitions, I’ll add half a percentage point to your final grade.
Beyond that, no extra credit is available.
For all class periods (except where otherwise specified), you’re welcome to use a laptop, tablet, or smartphone to take notes, or look at the slides. Please refrain from Instagramming, Snapchatting (👻), or Tumbling during class, though, as it’s distracting to the people sitting around you, and it’s pretty disrespectful generally, and can lead to a swift reduction in your participation grades. And remember, you’re way worse at multitasking than you think you are.
You are highly encouraged to come in to office hours to ask content questions, ask for clarifications about assignments, to ask for more information on a subject that interests you, or to get help on homeworks. Helping you learn this material is quite literally our job, so having students in office hours is no inconvenience.
You’re also encouraged to ask us content questions by posting on TritonEd, such that everybody can benefit from the answers (because chances are, they’re struggling in the same places). And, if there’s a question you don’t feel comfortable posting publicly, feel free to email the instructor or TA, although I will likely just post the question (anonymously) on TritonEd myself and answer there.
I encourage you to consult with me if you have questions about the grading of a homework assignment, or if you feel a grade was assigned in error. To make things easier for everybody, you’ll need to follow the below steps:
This means that you’ll want to look over all work after it’s given back, so that any possible errors can be addressed, and so that you’ll learn from your mistake. This also means that at the end of the quarter, there won’t be a flurry of last minute grade-change requests.
Although you’re welcome to form study groups to discuss questions and help each other out with understanding the material, you should be the only person working on your copy of your assignment, and every answer should reflect your own learning and work. And of course, you will always need to disclose who you worked with. Please, don’t be a cheater, for your sake and ours, and refer to the UCSD policy below for more information.
Examining language and languages inevitably leads to discussions of gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, politics, nationality, etc. Opinions are welcome, but all students must be mindful and respectful of others in the class. Speak with others using respectful and kind language, just as you’d like them to do with you, and focus your discussion on the ideas, rather than individuals. Finally, remember that as we discuss and evaluate our conversations, the focus will be on the impact on an individual or group, not the intention or motivation of the actor.
All requests for special accomodations must be brought to the instructor in the first two weeks of class, ideally sooner. This includes things like religious holidays, university-sponsored events, athletic schedules, conflicts with exam dates, and disability services notes. Because running a big course is quite complex, if I don’t find out about it in the first two weeks, I may not be able to help.
It’s better to ask permission than forgiveness! If something’s gone wrong (whether it be in class, recitation, or life in general), let me know (even if just in general terms) ASAP by email or in office hours. There are many exceptions that I’m willing to authorize ahead of time to a student who’s trying that I won’t offer after the fact.
Do not come to class if you’re not feeling well. We’ll accept same-time e-submission of assignments, and all materials will be made available online. Do not be our classroom’s Typhoid Mary.
We will gladly honor your request to be addressed using your preferred name or gender pronoun in cases where it differs from that on the course roster. Please let us know quickly, remind us often, and accept our apologies if we forget.
Will will unabashedly use as many really awful puns as possible given the course content. If you have a pun allergy, run. Flee. Escape. There is still time!
Information contained in the course syllabus, other than the grading policies, may be subject to change, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.
Thanks very much to Eric Bakovic and Sharon Rose, who provided me with materials from their prior LIGN 111 courses, and on whose courses this course is loosely based. All errors, though, are my own.
Students requesting accommodations for this course due to a disability must provide a current Authorization for Accommodation (AFA) letter issued by the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) which is located in University Center 202 behind Center Hall. Students are required to present their AFA letters to Faculty (please make arrangements to contact me privately) and to the OSD Liaison in the department in advance so that accommodations may be arranged.
Contact the OSD for further information - osd@ucsd.edu | 858.534.4382
Each student in this course is expected to abide by the UC San Diego Policy on Integrity of Scholarship and to excel with integrity. Any work submitted by a student in this course for academic credit will be the student’s own work.
Academic dishonesty (actions like cheating, plagiarism, aid of academic dishonesty, fabrication, lying, blackmail, bribery, and threatening behavior) will generally result in poor recall and learning of the material, and aren’t acceptable at UCSD. In cases of academic dishonesty, possible in-class academic sanctions can include anything from a zero on the assignment/test/project in question, to a blanket lowering of your final grade by X%, to an assigned and non-negotiable grade of “F” in the course. These sanctions are assigned at the sole discretion of the instructor, and as every case is unique, additional sanctions not listed above may apply. But again, remember that doing the assignments honestly is a part of the learning process, and failure to do so will hurt you more than anybody else.
It is the policy of the university to make reasonable efforts to accommodate students having bona fide religious conflicts with scheduled examinations by providing alternative times or methods to take such examinations. If a student anticipates that a scheduled examination will occur at a time at which his or her religious beliefs prohibit participation in the examination, the student must submit to the instructor a statement describing the nature of the religious conflict and specifying the days and times of conflict.
For final examinations, the statement must be submitted no later than the end of the second week of instruction of the quarter. For all other examinations, the statement must be submitted to the instructor as soon as possible after a particular examination date is scheduled.
If a conflict with the student’s religious beliefs does exist, the instructor will attempt to provide an alternative, equitable examination that does not create undue hardship for the instructor or for the other students in the class.
The University of California, in accordance with applicable federal and state laws and university policies, does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy (including pregnancy, childbirth, and medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth), physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, ancestry, marital status, age, sexual orientation, citizenship, or service in the uniformed services (including membership, application for membership, performance of service, application for service, or obligation for service in the uniformed services). The university also prohibits harassment based on these protected categories, including sexual harassment, as well as sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking. The nondiscrimination policy covers admission, access, and treatment in university programs and activities.
If students have questions about student-related nondiscrimination policies or concerns about possible discrimination or harassment, they should contact the Office for the Prevention of Harassment & Discrimination (OPHD) at (858) 534- 8298, ophd@ucsd.edu, or reportbias.ucsd.edu.
Campus policies provide for a prompt and effective response to student complaints. This response may include alternative resolution procedures or formal investigation. Students will be informed about complaint resolution options.
A student who chooses not to report may still contact CARE at the Sexual Assault Resource Center for more information, emotional support, individual and group counseling, and/or assistance with obtaining a medical exam. For off-campus support services, a student may contact the Center for Community Solutions. Other confidential resources on campus include Counseling and Psychological Services, Office of the Ombuds, and Student Health Services.
CARE at the Sexual Assault Resource Center - 858.534.5793 or sarc@ucsd.edu Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) - 858.534.3755