Linguistics 2B (U03164)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 8 ? Acronym : PPL-2-LI2B-LS

The course will introduce students to basic instrumental phonetics, to basic phonetic ear training, and to basic empirical methods for evaluating hypotheses about language behaviour, including speech. It will focus on the practical skills of phoentic transcription and interpreting instrumental records of speech, and on deepening students' understanding of the relationship between "messy" data and "neat" idealisations and theoretical conclusions. The section of the course on empirical methods will be based on group projects done in tutorial groups, at least partly on the basis of independent group work. These projects will work with language data of some sort, which may change from time to time: examples include the relationship between information structure and phonetic form of referring expressions in unscripted speech, and the relationship between social variables and linguistic variables.

Entry Requirements

? Pre-requisites : Prior attendance at Linguistics 2A (U00578)or equivalent

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Language Sciences, (School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, Schedule I)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 2nd year

? Delivery Period : Semester 2 (Blocks 3-4)

? Contact Teaching Time : 5 hour(s) per week for 11 weeks

First Class Information

Date	Start	End	Room	Area	Additional Information
07/01/2008	10:00	11:00	Faculty Room North, David Hume Tower	Central

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Monday	10:00	10:50	Central
Lecture	Tuesday	10:00	10:50	Central
Lecture	Wednesday	10:00	10:50	Central
Lecture	Friday	10:00	10:50	Central

? Additional Class Information : Tutorials Thursday 1000-1050 or 1110-1200. During the Empirical Methods section of the course additional tutorial group meetings will replace lectures at certain times.

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course, students will have learned
- to use basic acoustic analysis software such as Praat;
- to interpret instrumental records of speech, especially spectrograms;
- to understand the elements of acoustic theory as it applies to the analysis of speech;
- to recognise a wide range of sound types used in human languages and to acquire basic skills in phonetic transcription;
- to formulate hypotheses about various aspects of language behaviour;
- to think clearly about the kinds of data required for testing such hypotheses.