Courses

This course introduces students to advanced concepts of phonological theory. Employing the theoretical models they are learning, students develop a clearer understanding of the typological behavior of phonological systems by analyzing data from a variety of languages.

Provides a theoretical and practical basis for analyzing the semantics of the lexicon, managing a lexical database, and producing dictionaries for a variety of audiences including the local community, translators, and linguists.

This course teaches students how to prepare basic pedagogical materials and early readers in languages that may not have a long written tradition. Special emphasis is given to teaching techniques for involving the local language community in the production of these materials.

An examination of special topics or issues in linguistics that are not covered in depth in other courses.

This course focuses on the question of how speakers of a given language effectively accomplish their communicative goals through the strategic use and shaping of language in both written and oral discourse. Students learn to identify different discourse genres, to chart texts for analysis, to discern hierarchical units within the macrostructure of a text, and to describe features of cohesion and participant reference, as well as identifying strategies in language for establishing the relative prominence of various streams of information. Special attention is paid to the interaction between alternate syntactic forms and their varying pragmatic functions in context.

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.

Discusses foundational principles of translation as cross-linguistic communication, with a focus on minority and minoritized language environments. Students will study the principles involved in understanding a message as originally communicated in one language and cultural setting, and in communicating that message in a very different language and culture. Students will apply theories from different schools of thought regarding communication and the idea of quality in translation.

Provides an overview of the process of Bible translation, paying particular attention to problems related to the translation of sacred texts. Students will apply existing skills in biblical exegesis and linguistic analysis to cross-linguistic communication, with particular consideration given to key biblical concepts and themes, figurative language, identification of genre, and concerns about authenticity among receptor language communities. Special emphasis will also be placed on Bible translation best practices, inclusion of key stakeholders in the translation project context, quality assurance mechanisms, and utilization of tools specific to Bible translation.

This course examines the philosophical bases of human language and communication, with special attention to issues relating to semantics, discourse, lexicon, metaphor, and translation, etc.; all the areas that deal with meaning creation. There is a critical review of some major schools of thought within philosophy of language and hermeneutics. These are examined in light of current insights in text linguistics, cognitive linguistics, and integrational linguistics.