.
COURSE DESCRIPTION

Introduction to the empirical analysis of language. This involves the collection of linguistic data from corpora (collections of texts), native speakers (via interviews, surveys, etc), and other sources. Also, the analysis of this data by means of hypothesis construction and testing.
 
RATIONALE Students in a typical language / linguistics program take courses that cover the primary fields of linguistics -- phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics, history of the language, etc. Depending on the instructors of the courses, these courses may at times be data-oriented, but they are often much more theory-oriented. As a results, students sometimes never develop the ability to carry out work in which they obtain, organize, and analyze their own data. This course is designed to provide them with these skills.
 
OBJECTIVES After successfully completing this course, students will be able to do the following:

ACQUIRING AND ORGANIZING DATA:
 1. Acquire data from native speakers via well-organized interviews, surveys, recordings, etc.
2. Determine which corpora (collections of texts) are the most appropriate for a given research question, and effectively extract the relevant data from the corpora.
3. Organize linguistic data to show relevant contrasts

ANALYZING DATA:
 1. Construct hypotheses about the linguistic data, and
2. Test these hypotheses

THEORETICAL / GENERAL METHODOLOGY:
 Distinguish empirical research from introspection-based research, effectively using each of the two (by itself or in conjunction with the other) for the research topic at hand.
 
ASSESSMENT During the course and by semester's end, assessment will include:

A. [70%] Short daily projects (~1-3 paragraph response) to follow up on the material consider the previous day (turned in almost every class period)
B. [20%] Research project
    1. Oct 13. Turn in annotated bibliography of 5-6 articles dealing with research topic
    2. Nov 21. Turn in first draft of final project, discussing how you would carry out research
    3. Dec 8. Turn in final draft
C. [10%] Final exam. Mainly short essay, dealing with the best way to carry out 4-5 hypothetical research questions.
 
TEXTBOOK Projects in Linguistics: A Practical Guide to Researching Languages (Wray, Trott, Bloomer; 1998)