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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2019/2020

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences : Language Sciences

Undergraduate Course: The Grammar of Variation (LASC10091)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryJust 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.

Course description Not entered
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Students MUST have passed: LEL2A: Linguistic Theory and the Structure of English (LASC08017) AND LEL2B: Phonetic Analysis and Empirical Methods (LASC08018)
Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered
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.
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
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
KeywordsNot entered
Contacts
Course organiserDr Josef Fruehwald
Tel: (0131 6)50 3983
Email: Josef.Frueh@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Samantha Bell
Tel: (0131 6)50 3602
Email: sam.bell@ed.ac.uk
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