Undergraduate Special Topic courses for 2022-2023
The School of Linguistics and Language Studies is pleased to announce two special topic LING courses and two special topic ALDS courses for the 2022-2023 academic year. Students can register for these courses at the same time as their other courses.
Fall 2022
LING 4009 A – Special Topic in Linguistics: Phonetic Imitation
Prerequisites: LING 2007 and third-year standing
Instructor: Dr. Beth MacLeod
This course is also available for graduate students as LING 5009 F
Have you ever found yourself changing your pronunciation to sound more like the person you’re talking to? Do you know someone who takes on different people’s accents wherever they go? In this Special Topic course, we will explore this phenomenon, which is known as phonetic imitation. We’ll learn about which aspects of pronunciation change, why people imitate and what the social consequences are of doing it (or not doing it). We’ll look at different methods of studying and measuring imitation and try them out in the course. We’ll also consider how people perceive that someone else has imitated and which changes in pronunciation lead them to perceive imitation.
Winter 2023
ALDS 3903 A – Special Topic in Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies: Forensic Linguistics
Prerequisites: third-year standing or permission of the instructor
Instructor: Dr. Natasha Artemeva
This course is being offered online asynchronous
Forensic linguistics is a relatively new and fast-growing sub-field of forensic science which addresses the use of language as it pertains to criminal evidence and judicial proceedings. It has applications in legal and criminal investigations and makes important contributions to forensic psychology, legal studies, criminology, as well as literary, historical, and cultural studies. This course introduces you to forensic linguistics and provides a survey of such key topics as analysis of linguistic evidence, authorship profiling, legal language, investigation of plagiarism, roles of forensic linguists and document examiners, and more.
ALDS 3903 B – Special Topic in Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies: Language, Media, and Digital Discourse
Prerequisites: LING 1001 or ALDS 1001, and third-year standing
Instructor: Dr. Rachelle Vessey
In this course, we will investigate and critically assess the issues involved in the study of language, media and digital discourse. We will explore why the study of language, media and digital discourse is important not only for the field of linguistics, but also for the digital literacy required in everyday life, where we produce and consume media in our personal and professional lives. One important aim of this course is to become a reflexive and critical thinker in your use of digital communication. To this end, we’ll be addressing a range of different media – from print newspapers to TikTok.
LING 3801 A – Structure of a Specific Language: Persian
Prerequisites: LING 2005 or LING 2007
Instructor: Dr. Mortaza Taheri-Ardali
Description and analysis of the structure of a specific language applying phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. This year’s focus will be on Persian, a language in the Iranian branch of the Indo-European family. From Old Persian to Modern Persian, this language has been written and documented for two and a half millennia. It has been an influential language over much of Asia over history and today is spoken by an estimated 120 million people as a first or second language. After a brief history and social overview of Persian, we will discuss the internal characteristics of the language, including the sound system, word and sentence structure, and the structure of meaning. We will also examine how the written language, which today uses an Arabic-based writing system, corresponds to the spoken language. Topics for course assignments will include diagramming of phonological and morphosyntactic data, phonemic transcription of recorded Persian speech, and practice in writing with the various alphabets that have been used for Persian across time and space.
“Beyond the BA”, which has previously been offered as an ALDS special topic course, has now been given a permanent course code – ALDS 3801. This course will also be offered in the Winter 2023 semester.