What is a dialect and who speaks one? Why are some ways of speaking English stigmatized while others are barely noticed? This course explores the dialect diversity that exists in American English and unpacks stereotypes around use of non-standard dialects by showing their rich complexity and deep historical roots. While our case study focus will be on the second most spoken dialect of American English, African American English, we will also discuss dialects like Chicano English, Appalachian English, and others. Throughout the semester, we will examine the linguistic features and usage practices of these English varieties. We will also spend time discussing theories on the origins and development of African American English, its importance to linguistic theory, and its representation in American culture through engagement with the documentary series Talking Black in America.

This course aims to provide a fundamental understanding of Korean culture, society, and the Korean people by focusing on the Korean language. The development of language occurs in dynamic relation to culture and community. Topics include the origin and history of the Korean language, the writing system (Hangeul-Korean alphabet), different dialects (including North Korean dialects), cross-linguistic analysis, intercultural communication, language use in pop culture, language variation across generations, neologism (new word formation) and slang, etc. The historical trajectory of Korean will be examined in relation to relevant sociopolitical and cultural trends. We will also explore diverse issues in contemporary Korean and popular culture using articles, films, dramas, etc. This course is expected to develop cross-cultural perspectives on the Korean language and its rich cultural heritage.

Advances in computer technology have revolutionized the ways linguists can approach their data. By accessing large digital bodies of text (corpora) and searching for phenomena of interest, we can uncover complexities in naturally-occurring data and explore broader issues utilizing linguistic patterns and frequency information. This course presents a practical introduction to corpus linguistics, an extremely versatile methodology of language analysis using computers.

Some of the fundamental questions to explore include; what is a corpus, and what corpora exist? How are corpora constructed and linguistic annotation added? What tools are available for search, annotation, and analysis?  Students will also learn how corpora are used in diverse areas such as sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, child language acquisition, and language change as well as language learning and teaching and develop their own research ideas. Students who register for KOR 246 will be expected to do their coursework using Korean language texts. 

Postwar modernization and industrialization have reshaped Korean, Asian, and global societies. Despite remarkable economic growth and social change, gender inequality persists across many cultural and linguistic contexts. This course examines the relationship between language, gender, and power, focusing on Korea and East Asia while placing these issues in broader Asian and global perspectives. Through the analysis of language use in myths, films, advertisements, and popular culture, students explore how language reflects and constructs gender, identity, and social hierarchy. The course highlights the challenges faced by women and gendered subjects in Asia and beyond.

Designed to familiarize students with some of the essential concepts of linguistic analysis. Suitable problem sets in English and in other languages will provide opportunities to study the basic systems of language organization-phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. Additional topics include introductions to language organization in the brain, child language acquisition, language change, and language in society.

The application of linguistics to the analysis of sociocultural variation in language. We will examine the way information about age, gender, social class, region, and ethnicity is conveyed by variations in the structural and semantic organization of language. We will also examine language attitude and language planning in multilingual societies.

What are all the possible linguistically relevant sounds of the human vocal tract? How does each language organize a subset of those sounds into a coherent system? Examination of the sounds of language from the perspective of phonetics and of phonology. Each student will choose a foreign language for intensive study of its phonetic, phonologic, and prosodic characteristics. Includes extensive use of speech analysis and phonetics software.

This course will consider some basic questions about language: What do we actually know when we know a language? How is the structure of language best described? Are there properties which all languages share, and what do those properties tell us about language itself? We will look at specific problems in morphology, syntax, and semantics, and the strengths and weaknesses of different linguistic theories will be considered. While many of the problems considered in this class will involve English, we will also be looking at other languages, both European and non-European.

An examination of all forms of language change, including sound change, analogical change, semantic and lexical change, and syntactic change. Students will learn and apply the techniques of the comparative method in order to reconstruct earlier stages of various languages and to understand how linguists determine the genetic relationships among languages. Several theories of linguistic change will be explored. Students will also be introduced to the history of the discipline of linguistics, which largely began with the development of the techniques for historical reconstruction.

Exploration of the relationship of language to mind and culture through the study of bilingualism. The bilingual individual will be the focus for questions concerning language and mind: The detection of "foreign" accent, the relationship of words to concepts, the organization of the mental lexicon, language specialization of the brain, and the effects of early bilingualism on cognitive functioning. The bilingual nation will be the focus for questions dealing with language and culture: societal conventions governing use of one language over another, effects of extended bilingualism on language development and change, and political and educational impact of a government's establishing official bilingualism.

Over the centuries, invented, or artificial, languages have been devised for many reasons, including efforts to unite the world, experiments to learn more about language acquisition, and artistic exploration of language. Is there a place for invented language? What do invented languages teach us about natural language? Students will analyze the linguistic components of constructed languages examples and learn about the range of patterns that are possible in languages of the world. We will look at invented languages from a variety of points of view: linguistic, historical, philosophical, psychological, and sociological. We will explore the linguistic underpinnings of various languages, from seventeenth century Real Character to Na'vi, with a look at a successful "reinvented" language, Modern Hebrew. Students will each construct their own language based on the concepts we discuss.