Concentrations available in the USC Linguistics Program:

Historical Linguistics

Second Language Acquisition/Teaching

Sociolinguistics and Linguistic Anthropology

Phonetics and Phonology

Psycholinguistics and Language Cognition

Syntax and Semantics

Historical linguistics is the study of the way language changes over time, and involves examining the development of individual languages and the comparison or related languages.  The discipline partakes of a dualism which is basic in linguistics in that on the one hand its material consists of particular listable phenomena and events, and on the other hand we are able to generalize from these data about how people talk.  For instance, if a structural unit of language has changed in its nature or distribution in linguistic history, that unit has thus been shown to exist, as effectively as if that unit were observed to change in the course of language acquisition or in a language disorder. Because language change thus provides one sort of laboratory for the study of basic linguistic phenomena, historical linguistics at the present time is an area of lively theoretical discussion as well as of concrete scholarly investigations.
    Subdisciplines of historical linguistics include historical phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and sociolinguistics.  Program faculty have expertise in these general areas as well as in comparative Celtic, Germanic, Romance, Slavic, and Indo-European linguistics.  Trained historical linguists find employment in departments of Linguistics, English, foreign languages, and Anthropology.
 

LING 530     Language Change [= ENGL 580] (3)
Major ways in which phonetics, phonology, syntax, morphology, and semantics change through language history; social factors which promote innovation.

LING 730    Historical Linguistics (3)
(Prereq: LING 600, 710)  Innovation in phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics; evidence from texts, social and regional dialects; emphasis on theories of language change.

LING 731     History of the English Language [= ENGL 781] (3)
The historical background of modern English with attention to the major linguistic and cultural developments which distinguish English from other related languages. No prior knowledge of Old English or Middle English is required.

LING 732     History of the French Language [= FREN 715] (3)
Development of the French language from its origins to 1600.

LING 733     History of the German Language [= GERM 715] (3)
(Prereq: reading knowledge of High German)  Relationship of German to the other Germanic Languages.  Phonological and morphological development of German.  Attention also to syntax, vocabulary, and dialects.

LING 734     History of the Spanish Language [= SPAN 715] (3)
Development of the language from its origins to the present day.
 

Historical Linguistics Research Group (HLRG) -   Meets first Friday of each month.
Historical Linguistics Research Group is organized by professors Cooper, Disterheft, and Goblirsch.  Each meeting consists of a presentation by one of the faculty members or students with a discussion afterward.  These meetings are potluck--and some of the best eatin' you can get in Columbia!

Historical Linguistics Mailing List (HISTLING)
Dorothy Disterheft moderates HISTLING, a discussion list devoted to all topics within historical linguistics.  It currently has approximately 475 subscribers from all continents and most countries of the world.  To subscribe, send a message to listserv@vm.sc.edu .  In the text area type: subscribe histling <firstname lastname>, where you substitute your names for the bracketed material.  Send all inquiries to Dorothy Disterheft, disterh@vm.sc.edu .
 

Second Language Acquisition/Teaching

Second language acquisition is the study of how people learn a second language (hereafter, L2) given the kind of exposure they have to it.  This field of study, then, encompasses both the cognitive processes which determine learning (traditionally thought of as SLA) and the pedagogical practices which effect and enhance that learning (traditionally thought of as ESL).  By nature, this field of study is interdisciplinary, since learning processes are understood especially, but not exclusively, via linguistic, sociolinguistic, and psycholinguistic perspectives, while classroom practices are informed by educational linguistic perspectives.

        Here at the University of South Carolina, we take seriously the intimate relationship between what kind of input learners get and what they do with it, providing a core set of classes designed to present the fundamentals of L2 acquisition and teaching.  In addition to the core classes, students have ample freedom to tailor their L2 curriculum to their own needs and interests, focusing either on understanding how students learn or on how best to teach, or a combination of the two.  The program of study culminates in the writing of a thesis or dissertation on a topic of the student's choosing.  Recent M.A. theses and dissertation titles attest to the interdisciplinary nature and diversity of studies on L2 acquisition here at South Carolina (see the Alumni page ).  The diversity of topics reflect in part the range of interests and expertise of our faculty, as can be seen below.

        Students graduating from our M.A. Program with a specialization in L2 studies have obtained jobs teaching either English as a second language or foreign languages to speakers of English in public and private schools, both here in the United States and abroad.  Our doctoral graduates have mainly gone to academic positions in second language acquisition.

LING 790    Second Language Acquisition (3)
Study of current theory and research in second language acquisition and exploration of relationships between such work and classroom second language learning and teaching. Examination of research techniques used in applied linguistics.

LING 791     Theory and Methodology in Second Language Acquisition (3)
(Prereq: LING 600, 790)  Current issues and research in adult second language acquisition, with special attention to developments in theory and to methodological issues and considerations.

LING 795    Teaching English as a Foreign Language (3)
(Prereq: LING 600)  Problems in learning and teaching English pronunciation, word morphology, syntax, and vocabulary including supervised practice in tutoring non-native speakers of English.

LING 798     Practicum in TEFL (3)
(Prereq: LING 600, 795)  Observation and supervised teaching of English as a foreign language in an individually designed classroom setting. May not be taken by M.A. or Ph.D. students as part of their required courses.

LING 890     Seminar in Language Acquisition (3)
(Prereq: consent of instructor)  Special topics in the acquisition of language such as first language acquisition of English or other languages, cross-linguistic effects on acquisition, or issues in acquisition theory.

LING 891     Seminar in English as a Second Language (3)
(Prereq: consent of instructor)  Special topics in teaching English as a second language such as materials design, program design and evaluation, or teaching a particular language skill.
 

Sociolinguistics describes and seeks to explain variation in choices between languages, dialects, or styles/registers, and the association of these choices with speakers' social group memberships, as well as with situational features (e.g. topic, interaction type).  Researchers also study how speakers' motivations or goals are associated with their choices in interpersonal interactions.

    Discourse Analysis involves research which aims to arrive at underlying principles of how grammatical structures and lexical  features are organized above the sentence level.  It considers especially the relationship between choice of certain formal structures and pragmatic intent.

    Language Contact is an area of linguistics that seeks to describe and arrive at explanatory generalizations about the effects of contact on linguistic systems when their speakers speak more than one language.  Research in language contact includes the study of borrowing, codeswitching, convergence, attrition, and development of pidgins/creoles.

    Linguistic Anthropology is a field of research in which language and culture are considered to be inextricably intertwined.  Linguistic anthropologists view language as a form of social action, a way to create cultural worlds, and a foundation for all cultural practices.  Naturally occurring conversations, written texts, and oral texts are analyzed with reference to their social contexts.  Texts and contexts are treated as inseparable.
   

LING 541    Language and Gender [= ANTH 555, WOST 541] (3)
Approaches to gender and language emphasizing the social grounding of both; how language reflects sociocultural values and as a tool for constructing different types of social organization.

LING 565    Philosophy of Language [= PHIL 517] (3)
(Prereq: PHIL 202 or consent of instructor)  An examination of concepts and problems such as meaning, reference, analyticity, definition, and the relation between logic and philosophy.

LING 740     Introduction to Sociolinguistics (3)
(Prereq or coreq: LING 600)  An examination of choices speakers in the same community make between styles, dialects, and languages; their association with social group memberships; speakers' perceptions of interpersonal relationships.

LING 742     Analysis of Conversation [= ANTH 756] (3)
Types of interactive organization found within conversation and the methods and procedures used by participants to achieve order.

LING 744    Language Contact Phenomena(3)
(Prereq: LING 600)  The structural effects of contact between speakers of more than one language on the language involved. Borrowing, code-switching, convergence, language death, development of pidgins and creoles.

LING 745    Varieties of American English [= ENGL 782] (3)
Social and regional variation in American English since the colonial period.

LING 747    Language as Social Action [= ANTH 757] (3)
Examines language as a social, cultural, and political matrix.  Topics include ideology, gender, race, power, agency, and resistance. Students will apply linguistic theories in their own analyses of everyday speech.

LING 765    Studies in Philosophy of Language [= PHIL 718] (3)
An examination of concepts and problems such as meaning, reference, analyticity, and translational indeterminacy; evaluation of accounts of speech acts, the semantics of propositional attitudes, and metaphor and other pragmatic phenomena.

LING 780     Discourse Analysis (3) (Prereq: LING 600)
Underlying principles of how phonological, syntactic, and lexical features are organized above the sentence level; alternative choices of these features and how they contribute to the speaker's/writer's goals.

LING 781     Stylistics [= ENGL 788] (3)
Linguistic Analysis of literary texts. Linguistic definition of style; stylistic choices as the author's voice.

LING 514 Contrastive English-Spanish Phonetics and Phonology [= SPAN 517] (3)
Introduction to the study of phonetics and phonology and their application to the sounds and sound systems of English and Spanish. Includes transcription practice and discussion of relevance to teaching.

LING 610    Introduction to Phonology (3)
(Prereq: LING 600)  The phonetic basis of phonology; phonological structure; lexical representation; cross-linguistic survey of major types of phonological processes; emphasis on data analysis.

LING 712    Phonological Theory (3)
(Prereq: LlNG 600, 710)  Advanced study of theoretical issues in phonology.

LING 715    Applied English Phonetics (3)
Introduction to English phonetics.   Basic concepts of acoustic phonetics, properties of English speech sounds, and their acoustic variability in varying types of linguistic context.  Includes laboratory component.

Psycholinguistics and Language Cognition

 

Faculty having Psycholinguistics and Language Cognition as an area of interest:

LING 565 Philosophy of Language [= PHIL 517] (3) (Prereq: PHIL 202 or consent of instructor)
An examination of concepts and problems such as meaning, reference, analyticity, definition, and the relation between logic and philosophy.

LING 567 Psychology of Language [= PSYC 506] (3) (Prereq: consent of instructor)
Theories of speech perception, linguistic theories of syntax and semantics, the brain mechanisms underlying language, the development of language in children, and the role of language in thought.

LING 570 Introduction to Language Development [= SPAD 570] (3) (Prereq: consent of instructor)
The language acquisition process in normal children, including the development of semantics, morphology, syntax, phonology, and pragmatics; American dialects and bilingualism.

LING 765 Studies in Philosophy of Language [= PHIL 718] (3)
An examination of concepts and problems such as meaning, reference, analyticity, and translational indeterminacy; evaluation of accounts of speech acts, the semantics of propositional attitudes, and metaphor and other pragmatic phenomena.

Syntax and Semantics

 

Faculty having Syntax and/or Semantics as an area of interest:

LING 620     Introduction to Syntax (3)
(Prereq: LING 600)  Foundations of generative grammar, focusing on the syntax of English; universal principles of basic clause structure and derived constructions; emphasis on syntactic argumentation and cross-linguistic generalization.

LING 721     Syntactic Theory (3)
(Prereq: LlNG 600, 720)  Advanced exploration of a principled model of the syntactic component of universal grammar and the interface between this module and semantic interpretations and lexical information. Competing hypotheses are compared.

LING 725    Applied English Syntax [= ENGL 783] (3)
Practical survey of the syntactic structures of English; usage, social and regional variation; emphasis on data.

LING 727     Semantics (3)
(Prereq: LlNG 600)  Traditional and structural approaches to semantics; feasibility of using a semantics-based generative model to account for morphological and syntactic arrangements.

LING 728     Formal Semantics (3)
(Prereq: LING 600)  The formal study of linguistic meaning: includes set theory, propositional and predicate calculus, quantification, meaning and reference, the pragmatics of speech acts, and word meaning.

LING 765    Studies in Philosophy of Language [= PHIL 718] (3)
An examination of concepts and problems such as meaning, reference, analyticity, and translational indeterminacy; evaluation of accounts of speech acts, the semantics of propositional attitudes, and metaphor and other pragmatic phenomena.

 Current activities at USC relating to Syntax:
   Syntax Reading/Research Group (SynRG)