This course provides origins and historical perspectives on sign language, basics of sign language linguistics, the communication debate between manualism vs. oralism, Deaf education and the establishment and growth of Deaf communities. Students will acquire basic vocabulary and grammar through interactive activities in development of basic conversational skills in ASL.

Full details for ASL 1100 - Survey of American Sign Language and Deaf History

Students with no previous background in American Sign Language (ASL) will be introduced to basic conversational techniques in ASL, including both expressive and receptive skills. Basic grammar and vocabulary will be covered, including explanations of the fundamental parts of a sign, proper use of fingerspelling, and the significance of non-manual features. Instruction will be supplemented with videos, allowing students to begin exploring the visual literature of the Deaf community in the United States. Readings and class discussions will acquaint students with American Deaf culture, history and education, and the historical development of ASL.

Full details for ASL 1101 - American Sign Language I

This is the second in a sequence of courses in American Sign Language and Deaf Culture offered at Cornell. This course is a continuation of ASL 1101 and focuses on development of conversational and storytelling skills in ASL. Grammatical principles and functions will be emphasized. Appropriate cultural behaviors and conversational regulators in ASL will continue to be an important part of class. Readings and class discussions will acquaint students with American Deaf culture and social issues related to the Deaf community.

Full details for ASL 1102 - American Sign Language II

This course is a continuation of ASL 2201, comprehension and production skills emphasizing on complex grammar, short stories, narratives, and interactive use of ASL. The student will continue a study in depth about the Deaf Community and Deaf Culture globally.

Full details for ASL 2202 - Intermediate American Sign Language II

This course, taught by a culturally Deaf individual, will offer students an opportunity of learning first-hand about a culture within the American cultural context, with constructions of Deaf people as a linguistic minority. A major focus of this course is to bring students to an understanding of how differently the world can be viewed through Deaf eyes and how understanding this worldview can account for views toward the teaching and enculturation of deaf children, Deafhood, biomedical ethics, oppression of signed languages, the provision of accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and a host of other issues at the interface between hearing and Deaf cultures.

Full details for ASL 2301 - Modern Deaf Culture

In this course the students learn the skill of writing at the university level. Instructors offer themes for their courses within their own special areas of expertise.

Full details for LING 1100 - FWS: Language, Thought, and Reality

Overview of the science of language, especially its theoretical underpinnings, methods, and major findings. Areas covered include: the relation between sound and meaning in human languages, social variation in language, language change over time, universals of language, and the mental representation of linguistic knowledge. Students are introduced to a wide variety of language phenomena, drawn not only from languages resembling English, but also from many that appear to be quite unlike English, such as those native to the Americas, Africa, Asia, Australia, and the South Pacific.

Full details for LING 1101 - Introduction to Linguistics

Where do the words we use come from? This course examines the history and structure of the English vocabulary from its distant Indo-European roots to the latest in technical jargon and slang. Topics include formal and semantic change, taboo and euphemism, borrowing, new words from old, learned English loans from Greek and Latin, slang, and society.

Full details for LING 1109 - English Words: Histories and Mysteries

This course is a survey of the languages and language families of the world and the people who speak them. We will look at historically, culturally, and linguistically important and interesting languages around the world and ask questions like “What do all languages have in common and how do they differ?”, “How can languages be used to trace different peoples and their past?” Assuming no prior knowledge of linguistics, at the end of this course, the students will have a good understanding of (i) the nature of the world’s linguistic diversity, (ii) the known history of the world’s major language families, and (iii) the ways in which contact among languages affects language structure.

Full details for LING 1141 - Languages of the World

An introduction to the history and theory of writing systems from cuneiform to the alphabet, historical and new writing media, and the complex relationship of writing technologies to human language and culture. Through hands-on activities and collaborative work, students will explore the shifting definitions of writing and the diverse ways in which cultures through time have developed and used writing systems. We will also investigate the traditional divisions of oral vs. written and consider how digital technologies have affected how we use and think about writing in encoding systems from Morse code to emoji. (ARKEO-COS)

Full details for LING 2212 - Hieroglyphs to HTML: History of Writing

Provides an introduction to the psychology of language. The purpose of the course is to introduce students to the scientific study of psycholinguistic phenomena. Covers a broad range of topics from psycholinguistics, including the origin of language, the different components of language (phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics), processes involved in reading, computational modeling of language processes, the acquisition of language (both under normal and special circumstances), and the brain bases of language.

Full details for LING 2215 - Psychology of Language

In this writing intensive course, we will explore how language and society affect each other. How do class, age, ethnicity, gender, and geography affect the way people speak? Why are some ways of speaking considered prestigious and others stigmatized? How does increased use of online communication and social media affect how we communicate? How are power relations captured in language? How does national policy-e.g., English-only policies-affect both politics and language use? What are the linguistic issues behind the Ebonics debate? In this course, through extensive discussion and various types of writing, we consider these questions both in the context of the United States and other parts of the world.

Full details for LING 2221 - Language and Society

This course explores the wide variety of languages indigenous to the Americas. There were thousands of languages spoken in the Americas before the arrival of Europeans and hundreds of these languages are still spoken today. We will look at several of these languages in terms of their linguistic structure as well as from social, historical, and political perspectives. No prior linguistic background is required and no previous knowledge of any Native American languages is presumed.

Full details for LING 2248 - Native American Languages

An introduction to the phonology, morphology, and syntax of Proto-Indo-European and the chief historical developments of the daughter languages.

Full details for LING 2261 - Introduction to Indo-European Linguistics

In this course, we will explore how language interacts with power: how does language reflect, shape, threaten and reinforce power relations in human society? From childhood through old age, language is an ever-present source of symbolic power. We use it to develop and express our identities, to position ourselves in hierarchies, and to establish group membership and exclusion throughout life. Language shapes ourselves, our families, our social lives, and our institutions. Understanding how people use language can provide a window into hidden aspects of both individuals and the social world.

Full details for LING 3150 - Language and Power

This course is an introduction to both phonetics (the study of the physical properties of the sounds of human language) and phonology (the organization and patterning of those sounds). The first part of the course focuses on the main areas of phonetics: articulation, acoustics, and perception. Students acquire basic skills, such as production and perception of speech sounds, transcription using the International Phonetic Alphabet, and instrumental analysis of speech. In the second part of the course students are introduced to key concepts in phonology, including rules, representations, and analysis of sound patterns. Throughout the course aspects of the sound systems of a wide range of world languages are studied.

Full details for LING 3302 - Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology

Survey of the basic mechanisms of linguistic change, with examples from a variety of languages.

Full details for LING 3314 - Introduction to Historical Linguistics

The purpose of this course is to further develop the elementary reading skills acquired in Old Norse I. We will review some of the grammar from Old Norse I, cover additional grammar, and, through a primary focus on translation, develop a deeper understanding of how Old Norse grammar was used in practice. By the end of the semester, we will have translated the entire Icelandic saga, Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða.

Full details for LING 3316 - Old Norse II

A continuation of LING 3324, with further exploration of Cayuga (Gayogo_hó:no?) language and culture. Language instruction continues in an immersive learning environment with a focus on plants and growing in the spring.

Full details for LING 3325 - Cayuga Language and Culture II

Addresses the basic issues in the study of words and their structures. Provides an introduction to different types of morphological structures with examples from a wide range of languages.

Full details for LING 4423 - Morphology

This course provides structure and guidance to students doing an honors thesis in linguistics. The course consists of biweekly meeting of all honors thesis writers with the course instructor. Students will submit drafts of the introduction, methodology, results, and conclusions. Students will comment on each others drafts. Students will also work on presentation skills.

Full details for LING 4492 - Honors Research Workshop II

Directed honors thesis research for students working on an honors thesis, taken with the student's honors thesis chair or other committee member.

Full details for LING 4494 - Honors Thesis Research

This course explores the wide variety of languages indigenous to the Americas. There were thousands of languages spoken in the Americas before the arrival of Europeans and hundreds of these languages are still spoken today. We will look at several of these languages in terms of their linguistic structure as well as from social, historical, and political perspectives. No prior linguistic background is required and no previous knowledge of any Native American languages is presumed.

Full details for LING 6248 - Native American Languages

An introduction to the phonology, morphology, and syntax of Proto-Indo-European and the chief historical developments of the daughter languages.

Full details for LING 6261 - Introduction to Indo-European Linguistics

Survey of the basic mechanisms of linguistic change, with examples from a variety of languages.

Full details for LING 6314 - Introduction to Historical Linguistics

A continuation of LING 6324, with further exploration of Cayuga (Gayogo_h?') language and culture. Language instruction continues in an immersive learning environment with a focus on plants and growing in the spring.

Full details for LING 6325 - Cayuga Language and Culture II

A continuation of LING 6401 with a focus on developing research skills.

Full details for LING 6402 - Phonology II

A continuation of LING 6403, focusing on syntactic dependencies, including the theory of control, an examination of locality constraints on movement, covert versus overt movement, and the syntax of quantification. The purpose of the course is to develop the background needed for independent syntactic research.

Full details for LING 6404 - Syntax II

Addresses the basic issues in the study of words and their structures. Provides an introduction to different types of morphological structures with examples from a wide range of languages.

Full details for LING 6423 - Morphology

Provides a forum for presentation and discussion of ongoing research, and development of professional skills.

Full details for LING 6603 - Research Workshop

Provides a forum for presentation and discussion of ongoing research, and development of professional skills.

Full details for LING 6604 - Research Workshop

Reading and linguistic analysis of Old Irish texts. In this semester we will read some complete works of Old Irish literature such as Scéla Muicce Mac Dathó, Táin Bó Froích, The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, The Poems of Blathmac, etc.

Full details for LING 6624 - Introduction to Old Irish II

The phonetics data analysis workshop provides students with practice in analysis and visualization of phonetic data, using Matlab, R, and Praat. Experiment design and statistical methods are emphasized.

Full details for LING 6692 - Phonetic Data Analysis Workshop

This seminar provides a venue for discussion of ongoing research, technical tutorials, invited speakers and paper discussions of topics related to experimental and computational approaches to natural language meaning.

Full details for LING 6694 - Linguistic Meaning Lab

This seminar provides a venue for collaborative research, feedback on ongoing research, technical tutorials, invited speakers, and paper discussions within the area of language documentation.

Full details for LING 6695 - Language Documentation Lab Workshop

An independent study for graduate students.

Full details for LING 7702 - Directed Research

Addresses current theoretical and empirical issues in syntax.

Full details for LING 7712 - Syntax Seminar

Addresses current theoretical and empirical issues in phonetics.

Full details for LING 7713 - Phonetics Seminar