BA with Linguistics at Tyndale

Introduction to core ‘technical’ areas of linguistics: phonetics, phonology, morphology and syntax. Interplay of linguistics with the related disciplines of psychology, neurology, sociology and literature. Additional topics covered include: animal communication, language and culture, and how languages change over time. Understanding of how human languages are structured in the mind, how language develops in children, and how language is used in human communities. Exposure to data and analysis of languages from around the world.

Continuation of LING 101.

Introduction to the broad range of human speech sounds used in languages of the world. Students receive training and practice in recognizing, describing and producing speech sounds from a variety of languages, and transcribing them with phonetic symbols. Focuses on the articulatory bases of speech production, but some discussion of the acoustic properties of speech sounds is also provided.

Provides an introduction to the theory and practice of analyzing sound systems in spoken languages. Opportunity to apply the principles of phonological analysis to data from a wide variety of natural languages. Application of phonological analysis to issues of orthography development. Prerequisite: LING 201.

This course introduces theoretical concepts and analytical principles pertaining to the study of words and word-stems (morphology), and phrases and sentences (syntax) in human language. Problem solving with data from a variety of languages is a major part of the course.

Introduction to language as a context-dependent social phenomenon. Students examine how various contexts and social factors, such as age, gender, social class, status, setting and topic, influence linguistic choices, with special attention to multilingual societies. Other topics include language attitudes, the maintenance, shift or loss of languages, language and technology and language in education.

Prerequisites: 6 credit hours in LING.

Practical introduction to language and culture learning for linguists, missionaries and professionals who find themselves in areas where no formal language instruction is available. Students learn foundational principles of language acquisition and are exposed to a diverse range of language learning methodologies. Students exercise these methodologies in regular sessions where they meet with a speaker of a non-Indo-European language. Students learn how to plan their own language learning, tailoring strategies to their individual learning styles.

Prerequisites: 6 credit hours in LING.

Builds upon LING 203 by exploring recent developments and current issues in phonological theory. Attention is given to the interplay between theory and analysis. Experience extending theoretical models to new data, and develop constructive critical thinking in light of problems encountered.

Prerequisites: 6 credit hours in LING, including LING 203.

This course explores the rich variety of morphological and syntactic constructions and processes found in human language, deepening the students’ understanding of morphosyntactic phenomena from a typological perspective. The topics are examined within the framework of a current theory of Syntax.

Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in LING including LING 204.

Being able to gather and organize data, form hypotheses and work ethically with human subjects in research are essential professional skills for any linguistic researcher. Work with speakers from a non-Indo-European language community to transcribe utterances, build a rudimentary dictionary and gather data for phonological and grammatical analysis. Involves learning some special computer tools for the creation of lexical databases, and the gathering and organizing of language data.

Prerequisites: LING 201, 203, 204, 211

Analysis of structures and meaning beyond the sentence to how information is organized in texts. Consideration of text genres and the study of concepts such as topic, focus, foregrounding, new and old information, etc. Exploration of techniques of narrative text discourse analysis in various languages of the world.

Prerequisite: LING 201, 203, 204

This course provides students with the theoretical tools with which to study meaning at the word and sentence levels, and to explain how people interpret utterances in context. Students will study various models of semantics and pragmatics, and learn how to apply different approaches to the study of meaning in natural language.

Prerequisite: LING 204 Morphology and Syntax I

Designed to give students practical experience in field-based language work, including language documentation, description, and development. Students will work with a Tyndale faculty supervisor and a field mentor to develop their ability as field linguists by making a contribution to a language project. Requires a minimum of 240 hours in a field project. Available only to students enrolled in the BA LING major or minor with a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.5 and the approval of their faculty advisor.

Prerequisite: LING 405. Permission required.