Midterm Exam scheduled for W 10/13

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As I’ve mentioned in this week’s class meetings, your first midterm exam will be next Wednesday, October 13.  (Note that we’ve postponed the exam one day from the original schedule, which had the midterm occurring on Tuesday, October 12.  Since I didn’t hear any objections to this postponement over email, I’m assuming that everyone is fine with it.)

The exam will cover all of the material from our readings and lectures, up to and including this Friday’s class meeting.  However, the majority of the questions will address our more recent material:  nature vs. nurture (empiricism vs. nativism) in language learning; the “poverty of the stimulus” argument for innate knowledge of language; Universal Grammar, principles, and parameters; and the stages of language development in children.  The exam will consist of several very-short answer questions (just a few sentences should be enough to answer each of these), as well as a longer, essay-style question.

Reading for F 10/1: Chomsky 1988 excerpt #2, Cook 1988 excerpts

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There are two readings for Friday, 10/1.  The first is another excerpt from the following book, which is where your previous reading also came from:

Chomsky, Noam. 1988. Language and Politics. (Carlos P. Otero, ed.) Montreal: Black Rose Books.

The excerpt that you’ll read for Friday deals with innate knowledge of language, and the concept of ‘Universal Grammar’.

Your other reading for Friday also deals with these topics, and consists of an excerpt from the first chapter of the following book:

Cook, Vivian J. 1988.  Chomsky’s Universal Grammar: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.

As usual, both readings can be downloaded from the Readings section of this website.

Reading for M 9/27: Chomsky 1988 excerpts

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Your reading for Monday, 9/27 consist of several excerpts from the following book (as usual, the reading can be downloaded from the Readings section of this website):

Chomsky, Noam. 1988. Language and Politics.  (Carlos P. Otero, ed.) Montreal: Black Rose Books.

In fact, the title of the book is rather misleading:  it is a collection of interviews that Chomsky has given over the years, covering a wide range of topics (both linguistic and political).  All of the excerpts that you will read have to do with his views concerning children’s capacities for learning language, and why some aspects of this capacity must be innate.

REVISED: Reading for F 9/24: Chomsky (1959), pgs. 26-44 & pgs. 54-58

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For Friday, 9/24, your reading assignment will be pgs. 26-44 (sections 1-5) and pgs. 54-58 (section 11) of the following article, which can be downloaded from the class website

Chomsky, Noam. 1959. Review of Verbal Behavior. Language 35: 26-58.

(Note that pgs. 26-44 of the article were originally assigned for tomorrow.  Even though our discussion of that material is now scheduled for Friday, I still suggest that you get a head start on it:  this is probably the toughest reading assignment of the semester, and parts of it may require re-reading.  Our task in Friday’s class will be to derive an overall picture of Chomsky’s goals in the article, and to clarify some of its more difficult sections.)

Reading for M 9/20: Newmeyer 1986 exerpts; Searle 1972 sects. 1,2,4

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For Monday 9/20, please read the following, which can be downloaded from the Readings section of this website:

Newmeyer, F. 1986. Linguistic Theory in America. Excerpts from Chapters 1 & 2.

Searle, J. 1972. “Chomsky’s Revolution in Linguistics”. Sections 1,2 & 4.

(Sections 3 & 5 of the Searle reading address certain debates that were relevant to linguists at the time of writing, but are no longer discussed in the field.  Those of you who have taken other linguistics courses, and/or are curious about the history of the field, may enjoy reading these sections as well.  But we will not be discussing them in class.)

Writing Assignment #1: Due Monday, 9/20

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Your first writing assignment is due in class on Monday, September 20.  (Note that this is different from the original due date listed on the syllabus, which was Friday, September 17.  We are about a half-lecture behind schedule right now–hence the change.)  Here’s a copy of the assignment, in case you missed it in class today:

Writing Assignment #1 (Due Monday, September 20)