Announcements
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This will be your final announcement.
Hello, Linguists!
Test Three is going to be on December 4th. It will be a “traditional” in-class test. Bring a pencil that day.
The Final Quiz — “Quiz 20 – Outro Quizz” — will be available from December 5th to December 15th. DO NOT FORGET TO DO QUIZ 20! Remember, it’s not graded for accuracy, but do your best anyway.
Our last class day is Tuesday, December 9th. We’ll have lots of fun that day.
If you’re doing a final PROJECT, you need to get me something (like a script or an outline) *immediately* if you haven’t already! Do that. Your final project– in whatever form it will take– needs to be turned in to me by December 11th unless you email me asking for an extension until Decebmer 15th at 3pm. I would prefer your group be there “in person” to turn your project in, whenever that is, so we can have a look at it together. (If you’re making a video or a presentation and you can have it mostly ready by Dec 9th, we can watch it in class!)
If you’re doing a final TEST, you’ll get a hard-copy dataset in class on December 9th and your finished product will be due by 10am on December 11th.
I’ve got WIDE OPEN OFFICE HOURS from December 8th to December 16th– I’ll be in my office anytime I’m not in class. Feel free to stop by, though some times have already been requested by other students and you may have to wait. When in doubt, e-mail me first.
You’ve been great, junior linguists. I hope we cross paths again in the spring.
-doug
Looking For Linguists: an extra credit opportunity
Hello, Linguists and Members of Various Communities of Practice!
So, a lot of you have been asking for extra credit opportunities. Here’s a great one– you’ve got until Thursday morning’s class to complete it.
One of the most common ways that we display the categories and communities we belong to is through the use of online profiles– your Facebook profile, your OK Cupid profile, your Soundcloud profile, your LastFM or Pandora profile, your Ello profile, your Tumblr profile, your Twitter profile, your LinkedIN profile, and on and on and on…
Your task for these possible extra credit points is to create a profile for the brand-new social meet-up site:
“Looking For Linguists”
Looking For Linguists is a social meet-up site where linguists are paired with non-linguists for language-related adventures. Choose your role– either you’re a linguist or a non-linguist– and create a profile that would encourage someone to pair with you for an adventure.
A couple things all LFL profiles must have:
1.) Tagline: Eleven words or less. Something that would make people searching LFL want to check out your profile. The title of your post will be LFL: [your tagline]
2.) About Me: Up to 140 characters describing who you are, generally (if you’re not sure how many characters 140 is, use this online tool)
3.) My language: Up to 500 characters. Must include– Geographic Region I’m From / Race~Ethnicity / Two Possible Communities of Practice I engage in / Two unique or interesting ways I use language / and optionally, you can include information on your social class or your gender~sexuality.
4.) Favorite Movies or Music (limit yourself to three things)
5.) Favorite Word. — make sure you describe *why* it’s your favorite– don’t just state the word!
6.) Describe your ideal linguistic adventure. Begin with who you’re looking for (be linguistically relevant!)
7.) Answer the question: “How is linguistics like a pine cone?”
8.) Under post “tags” give five words that describe you or your language experiences
9.) Under “categories” choose Pine Cone Linguistics, Thought Exercises, LFL, and Posts
10.) Finally… make sure you upload a profile picture to include! The profile picture should be oriented in the top-left of your post and should be 150 x 150 pixels (use the WordPress image editing tools if you need to change the size of your picture). Set your profile pic as a “featured image” if you want!
Here’s MINE so you can see what these things should look like.
GRADING: Grading will be a trickle-down system– Whoever has the best LFL profile will get the most extra credit points, and so on down the line. So be aware of things like formatting, spacing, use of good tags, appropriate insertion of links, proper formatting of the picture, use of a good (or interesting) picture, etc. After you post, look at your “LFL profile” and make revisions if necessary. And if you see any of your fellow students’ LFL profiles, make sure to comment on them!
Have fun!
-doug
Fly, you gorgeous moths, fly!
Hello, Linguists!
The workflow and the HW-4 description on the website is now updated. As a reminder, the workflow goes in a specific order for a reason… that’s the order you should be doing it in. Going out of the order suggested will just make things harder for you as you’ll start running into advanced concepts before you’ve been introduced to the basics. So don’t do that. Go in order.
You’re all beautiful butterflies, waiting to unfurl your wings. I believe in you. Have some fun with this stuff!!
-dsb
Revised workflow for Thursday (9-Oct)
Hello, Linguists!
First, please note:
— Emergency Office Hours Wednesday, 1:30-2:30
— Thursday office hours are at the normal time, but are in my office, not Starbucks
WORKFLOW
— will be updated on the LING101 website Wednesday afternoon. Check back on Wednesday. Until then, in this next section (during all of October), we’ll be thinking about how language interacts with, is part of, and is indicative of aspects of society, our roles in society, and the kinds of people we socialize with. We’ll start by thinking about regional variation…
FOR THURSDAY:
• Read Grammar Girl’s How to Write a Blog Comment
— http://www.quickanddirtytips.
• Join in Discussion 2: Tuesday night, Wednesday, early Thursday morning.
— http://dsbigham.net/
• Take some online Dialect Quizzes – What were your results? Are they accurate? Blog about it for extra credit!
Definitely take this first one:
— http://www.nytimes.com/
• Take some of these other quizzes if you have time:
— http://dsbigham.net/
• Watch Doug’s “Regional Accent Challenge Meme” video. What’d you think? Did I say anything or have any pronunciations that seemed strange to you?
— https://www.youtube.com/watch?
• Watch (v11) :: Language Variation
— https://www.youtube.com/watch?
See you on Thursday!
-doug
Not Quite Half-Term Survey Time!
Hello, Linguists!
Test One is looking good so far… expect grades on Thursday. Until then a couple of reminders…
(a) Discussion 2 has been postponed until the end of this week.
(b) Start thinking about your Final Projects… who you’ll work with, what you’ll produce, how you’ll explore your understanding of linguistics, and so on. The sky’s the limit for Final Projects– the sooner you start planning, the better it will be.
(c) After Test One, it’s time for a quick reassessment. A time to adjust the schedule if necessary, rethink how we’re prioritizing the different aspects of the class, reconsider our own levels of engagement, etc. Please fill out this Survey Monkey survey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/J5PXMGB). It’s anonymous.
(d) Hold off on HW-4 for now.
See you tomorrow!
-dsb
Weekend Reminders for POS Wizards
Hello Apprentices of Linguistic Wizardy!
A few reminders for the weekend…
First, remember next week has updated office hours (in my office and on virtual chat):
Monday, 29-September: 10:30am-12noon
Thursday, 2-October: 4pm-5:30pm
Second reminder: Quizzes 7, 8, 9 are back online. Don’t forget to take them when you have a chance.
Third reminder: You need to create a Google Doc for your group to collaborate on what’s going in Blog-2. Here’s a video explaining how to create a Google Doc if you’re not sure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKt3-fruLyE
Make sure to send me the link to your Google Doc this weekend.
Finally, think about language this weekend… think about words not as single items, but as… things in need of other things. In order to build a sentence, we need a subject and a predicate. At their most basic, a Subject is a Noun Phrase consisting of the single Noun head and a predicate is a single Verb Phrase consisting of a single Verb head: Miranda sighed. But not all verbs work that way– *Miranda gave is not a normal grammatically acceptable sentence in English. That’s because different verbs have different Thematic Roles they can or must give out. Likewise, when the noun is rock (as in, any plain old rock you find on the side of a mountain), then you can’t have a sentence like *rock sighs. Not only does sighs need to give out a kind of thematic role that rock can’t fulfill, but also, rock is the kind of noun that needs something else in its Noun Phrase (like a determiner, as in The rock rolled down the mountain.).
The people at the Penn Tree Bank have been thinking about this for years. Have a look at how they categorize words and parts of speech and see if you agree or disagree with them. For possible extra credit, Microblog about Penn’s POS-tagging schema on the Language Village Tumblr– or write a full blog post about it on the course website. And take care with your formatting!
Have a great weekend!
-doug
Spanglish at SDSU!
Hello Linguists!
I encourage you to attend a lecture by Antropolitical Linguist Dr. Ana Celia Zentella, titled:
“For and Against Spanglish: With Friends Like These Who Needs Enemies?”
The event will be held on Wed., Sept. 24 at 7:00 p.m. in EBA 345.
Afterwards, you can blog a post about it for bonus points! Ask me how at the lecture.
Flyer: Zentella_GuestLecture_Fall2014_SDSU
HW-2 and Morphology Bonus Options
Going from Week Four to Week Five…
The Workflow Schedule has been updated; adjust your calendars and expectations accordingly!
(a) Group Work.
Given shifting needs and shifting personalities, you can freely form and remix and reform groups as you see fit. There is no “the group” anymore. There is only “this group for this assignment” and those groups will change size depending on the work. It’s okay. If there’s any time you strongly feel like it would be best for you to work in a “group of one”, email me, explain why you want to work alone, and I’ll consider it. The next major group work assignment is Blog-2, due October 2nd, 7pm. For Blog-2 you must work in groups of 3-5.
(b) You have two options for “bonus points” this weekend:
Hanunoo. As a way to boost your homework grade by 2 points, you may complete the Hanunoo problem from the ditto I passed out in class today. Due on Tuesday at the beginning of class. Must be neat. Must be clean. Must clearly show your work, along with annotations/descriptions of your thought processes, failed attempts, and successes. Show Your Work (like in math class). You may work in groups of two. You may all feel free to use the Collaborate page on the course website to discuss and collaborate.
Morphology of Images. For a few free-floating bonus points (up to 4), you may compose a Morphology Of Images blog post. Pick three images (pick from the sites listed below) and describe their morphology. Talk about their parts. Find what patterns repeat across the three images youv’e chosen. Determine what constitutes a “root” and what constitutes an “affix” in these images. What’s the difference between inflectional and derivational in these images? Are there any parts that seem to be allomorphs? See my blog post for an example of how to respond. Make sure your post is well formated, well titled, and well tagged. You may work in small teams of two or three, but make sure to clearly indicate how each member contributed equally. Remeber, this is a thought experiment– there is no one right answer. Open your mind! Due Monday, September 22nd, by 7pm.
Choose your images from one of these sources:
Omni Magazine Reboot (on Tumblr)
Everyday Comics (on Tumblr)
Todd Webb’s Wall Drawings (on Tumblr)
The art of Roy Lichtenstein (from Google image search)
As always– have fun, linguists!
Labor Day Weekend Reminders
Office Hours Correction
Hello linguists!
I realized I made a mistake on the syllabus and when I was talking in class today. My office hours are:
Mondays, 3:30-4:45, SHW 236
Thursdays, 4:00-5:45ish, somewhere near the Student Union Starbucks
Sorry for any confusion.
-dsb
D5 Creation