Undergraduate Course: The Grammar of Variation (LASC10091)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Just like every other area of linguistics you study, speakers¿ knowledge of linguistic variation is complex, and structured. In this course, you¿ll learn about how quantitative probabilities can be combined with linguistic grammars in order to understand language variation, with a focus on language internal factors. Specifically you will learn
- how researchers model linguistic variation using variable rules,
- the basics of how probabilities are calculated and combined,
- how to use the statistical package R to do these analyses.
Each week will consist of 2 hours of lectures or student presentations, and 1 hour of R practicals.
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| Course description |
Not entered
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2014/15, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
196 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Completion of practical exercises (10%)
The practical exercises will be associated with learning the R programming language. Feedback will be provided on the students' code, and full credit will be received on submission of each exercise.
1 hour in class exam in week 6 (30%)
Final essay (4,000 words) (60%) |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
- A foundational understanding of how language internal factors on linguistic variation can be described by grammars.
- A basic understanding of probability, and how it can be applied to linguistic phenomena.
- The ability to load, organise, summarise and visualise data using R.
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Reading List
Labov, W. (1969). Contraction, Deletion, and Inherent Variability of the English Copula. Language, 45(4), 715¿762.
Cedergren, H. J., & Sankoff, D. (1974). Variable Rules: Performance as a Statistical Reflection of Competence. Language, 50, 333¿355.
Labov, W. (1989). The child as linguistic historian. Language {V}ariation and {C}hange, 1, 85¿97.
Guy, G. R. (1991). Explanation in variable phonology: An exponential model of morphological constraints. Language Variation and Change, 3(1), 1¿22.
Smith, J., Durham, M., & Fortune, L. (2009). Universal and dialect-specific pathways of acquisition: Caregivers, children, and t/d deletion. Language Variation and Change, 21, 69¿95.
MacKenzie, L. (2013). Variation in English auxiliary realization: A new take on contraction. Language Variation and Change, 25(01), 17¿41. doi:10.1017/S0954394512000257
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr Josef Fruehwald
Tel: (0131 6)50 3983
Email: Josef.Frueh@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Francesca Kerr-Dineen
Tel: (0131 6)50 3961
Email: f.kerr-dineen@ed.ac.uk |
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