Schedule

This is the current view of how the semester will proceed, but the schedule will be adjusted from time to time. Do not rely on a printed copy; instead, consult this page. Homework will generally be assigned on Thursdays and due on the following Thursday (the “assignment” column in the table, therefore, represents the time you have to work on the assignment, an assignment is due on the class that occurs after the time you have to work on it ends. E.g., homework 1 is given out on Sep 5 and is due Sep 12). The readings in the Readings column are those that pertain to the lectures that week. Readings listed as “Related” constitute (part of) the source material for the discussions they are listed with, but it is not necessary to read “related” papers (usually because they assume a fair amount of background). Handouts are linked in the “class topic” column and presentations in the “date” column, when available.

Theme Date Class topic Readings Assignment
Logical problem of language acquisition Tue
Sep 3
Overview (Lust 2006, ch. 2) Survey
Thu
Sep 5
Development of syntax, root infinitives Lust (2006), ch 3, M sec 2.1. (no homework)
L1A syntax,
morphosyntax
Tue
Sep 10
Agreement, case, ATOM (no reading)
Thu
Sep 12
Schütze & Wexler (1996) HW1
Tue
Sep 17
Null subjects (Guasti 2002, ch. 5, 160-185)
Thu
Sep 19
Specific language impairment (Rice et al. 1997, 1999, Schaeffer et al. 2002) HW2
Tue
Sep 24
The definiteness effect in L2A White et al. (2009)
Thu
Sep 26
Optimality Theory, French L1 morphosyntax (Legendre et al.) (Await government shutdown)
Experimental
methodology,
data analysis,
and reporting
Tue
Oct 1
Experimental methods, design, analysis, and write-ups.
CHILDES demo
Snyder (2007), chapter 4 CHILDES lab
Thu
Oct 3
Snyder (2007), chapter 5
Second language
acquisition
Tue
Oct 8
Parameters, transfer, markedness M 4.4, 5.2, MacLaughlin (1995)
Phonological
development
Thu
Oct 10
Amahl, prosodic development (Smith 1973) (Await government reopening)
Tue
Oct 15: Monday schedule, no class
Phonetic
perception/
discrimination
Thu
Oct 17
Perception/discrimination (Guasti 2002, Smith 2010) (no homework)
Neurons, Morphological
development
Tue
Oct 22
Pattern recogntion (Pinker & Prince 1988, Rumelhart & McClelland 1986)
Conceptual
development
Thu
Oct 24
(Impossible class has become. There is no try.) Final project:
Proposal
Tue
Oct 29
Conceptual development (Markman, Carey)
BUCLD Tue
Oct 31: BUCLD/SLD – no class
Tue
Nov 5
Quantifier interpretations (Lidz & Musolino, Gualmini et al.) Final project:
Design
TBA Thu
Nov 7
TBA TBA
Tue
Nov 12
TBA TBA Final project:
Data collection
Semantics/
pragmatics
Thu
Nov 14
Quantifier interpretations TBA
Tue
Nov 19
(Class canceled)
Topics Thu
Nov 21
TBA TBA Final project:
analysis
Tue
Nov 26
TBA TBA
Thu Nov 28: Thanksgiving break (no class)
Presentations Tue
Dec 3
TBA TBA Final project:
write-up
Thu
Dec 5
Presentations
(??) EG
(??) AH
(??) JC
(??) LB
(??) GL
(??) KE
(??) LB
(??) —
 
Tue
Dec 10
Presentations
(??) —
(??) —
(??) —
(??) —
(??) —
(??) —
(??) —
Semester ends