Linguistics?

[Melanie]

My son is watching and enjoying The Teaching Company's Understanding Linguistics. He'd like to make a course out of it. I'm thinking of using this MIT course as a guide. He would finish the TC lecture series, work through An Introduction to Language, do the MIT assignments and the squib project (probably focusing on Hawaiian and other Polynesian languages given our location), and then.... I don't know what. Just a few popular nonfiction books? (I have several, but their focus is the development of the English language.) Has anyone here done a introductory linguistics course with their high schoolers? Do you have any suggestions? :bigear:

[Ester Maria]

Not as a distinct course, but as a part of their native language and literature lessons on a high school level, yes. I cannot help you regarding the specific materials, but I can chat about what to include (topics-wise, concepts-wise), what not to include, how to flesh it out, etc., if you are interested.

[rieshy]

Not as a distinct course, but as a part of their native language and literature lessons on a high school level, yes. I cannot help you regarding the specific materials, but I can chat about what to include (topics-wise, concepts-wise), what not to include, how to flesh it out, etc., if you are interested.

 

:bigear:

[Melanie]

Not as a distinct course, but as a part of their native language and literature lessons on a high school level, yes. I cannot help you regarding the specific materials, but I can chat about what to include (topics-wise, concepts-wise), what not to include, how to flesh it out, etc., if you are interested.

 

Yes, please! I was hoping you'd see this, Ester Maria. :001_smile: I'm especially interested in what NOT to include. I've only just started reading, and there is so much. (Please tell me I can ignore all or most of the philosophy. :tongue_smilie:)

[Emerald Stoker]

nm

[Ester Maria]

(All the standard disclaimers such as "this is only a suggestion, one possible way of doing it, etc." apply.)

 

 

A fairly general introduction: linguistics (with an overview of subdisciplines), linguistics vs. philology, symbol, semiotics

 

Jakobson's model of communication / linguistic functions

 

General characteristics of human language: de Saussure's dichotomies (langue vs. parole, signifier vs. signified, synchrony vs. diachrony), the sign in linguistics, the language being arbitrary and conventional, sintagmatic and paradigmatic relationships

--- A link with classical education: Plato, Cratylus

--- Aristotle, Peri Hermeneias / De Interpretatione (this is good for basic logic and history of logic too)

 

I typically do not consider it important to go further than de Saussure for the purposes of *general education*, so I would NOT include history of the discipline, especially later developments. I am having second thoughts about including or not including Chomsky, in BRIEF, simply to come across the theory of generative grammar as I find it quite crucial (I do it to demonstrate differences between types of logical analyses). Wittgenstein, which often accompanies Chomsky in this part of a typical general linguistics course, is out in my opinion on a high school level, as it has more potential to confuse than anything else.

Sapir-Whorf is cool to include, though.

 

Levels of the language: phonetics vs. phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, etc.

(A study of the specifics of each in brief on mother tongue examples - for example, in grade 9 the specific part can deal with phonetics and phonology of mother language, in grade 10 morphosyntax and analyses of periods can be revised, etc. That way every year you have something language-y to do / review / deepen as a part of your native language courses, but of course keep in mind we are talking about fairly basic concepts here. I also recommend covering lexicology and a short linguistic history of one's mother tongue. This is actually the biggest part of the "course".)

 

The psycho-philosophical part does not have to be extensive. Here you talk about nervous system, animal communication (choose an example or two, it can be interesting), mind vs. brain, innatism vs. empiricism, etc. Basic notions are more than enough.

 

Written language: you need a basic idea of the history of script and how it developed, types of script, transcription and transliteration;

--- A link with classical education: I recommend a short excerpt from Havelock's The Muse Learns to Write (which actually deals with the problem of oral and written culture, not language per se, but it is a handy book on many levels, yet accessible for a high school student) which specifically deals with Greek and Hebrew (okay, that was more relevant for me) for a link with classical education, though you get a bunch of ties with classical education here if you study Linear B etc.

 

Classification and genealogy of languages (basic); I do the linguistic map of Europe (IE and not-IE languages); language death phenomenon (I tie it to dialectal discussions too)

--- A link with classical education: find a Proto-Indo-European reconstruction of a story (the textbook example which is perpetuated all the time) and IE language comparisons and analyze it, esp. using the knowledge of classical languages; general historical linguistics can be fun for many classically educated children

 

Sociolinguistics of one's native language (varieties of language, the issue of standard language, dialects, jargons, tendencies of change in the language and so forth - but it all needs examples to work well, so it can only work on the example of one's native language)

 

This is all quite random :glare:, but that is pretty much what I think could be covered. Of course the *major* part is actually the work on various aspects on one's native language (as I think phonology, morphosyntax, etc., are best approached in small, digestible chunks, on known examples, on languages where grammar had probably already been studied too).

 

I think this is more than enough for high school. :lol: I know that many people would complain about leaving out the whole historical part and practically limiting the basic conceptions to de Saussure, but I think those considerations are for Linguistics students, not high school.

[Corraleno]

McWhorter has a 2nd TC course as well, The Story of Human Language, as well as a number of trade books (Power of Babel, What Language Is, etc).

 

OnlineG3 has a one-semester Linguistics class that includes prep for the Computational Linguistics Olympiad.

 

I highly recommend The World's Writing Systems, published by Oxford University Press. It's an incredible resource for any language geek, and includes lots of really beautiful and obscure writing systems, from the glyphs of Easter Island to the shockingly alien/futuristic looking ancient Irish script, Ogham, as well as providing extensive historical and linguistic analysis from more than 80 scholars. Some of the reviews:

"A remarkable reference....This volume is the only comprehensive resource covering every major writing system and the way scripts relate to the languages they represent. It is a resource that belongs in every library's reference section and in the personal library of anyonw with a deep-seated interest in language."--Cryptologia

"Without question the most comprehensive work ever published on this subject."--Times Literary Supplement

"It is difficult to imagine that anything more comprehensive will ever supersede this work."--Andrews University Seminary Studies

It's really expensive new, but I bought an excellent used copy for $75 and it was worth every penny. It's one of my absolute favorite reference books ever.

 

Some fun resources:

Ardalambion, an extensive website covering all of Tolkein's invented languages, including a downloadable mini-course in Quenya!

In the Land of Invented Languages: Adventures in Linguistic Creativity, Madness, and Genius

The Language Construction Kit (walks you through the process of inventing your own language)

On the Dot: The Speck That Changed the World (brilliantly eclectic book about the role of the dot in language — from bulleted lists in ancient Egypt to the addition of accents & punctuation to Greek, to morse code, braille, computer languages, etc.) The same author has books on the history of Greek & Latin as well.

 

Jackie

Edited October 26, 2011 by Corraleno
additional resource

[Melanie]

:001_wub: Thank you both so much! That is more than enough to get us started.

[laughing lioness]

Ya'll are amazing. Really, truly. :thumbup:

[Kareni]

Investigate the NACLO: North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad. My daughter was very interested in doing this while in high school, but the timing never worked out.

 

Steven Pinker has some interesting books dealing with linguistics. Here's one:

The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[NancyNellen]

My freshman is using this course for the base of an Intro. to Linguistics credit this year. I have fleshed it out by including all of the essential reading recommendations listed in the Course Guidebook. So each week he watches the lecture while taking notes, turns the notes into an outline which he compares with the outline in the Course Guidebook, and writes a summary of the week's topic. He will be assigned a mid-term paper and a final paper. The required books for the year are:

 

Language: An Introduction by Sapir

Phonetic Symbol Guide by Pullum and Ladusaw

Word and Rules by Pinker

The Language Instinct by Pinker

Atoms of Language by Baker

Language: Structure and Use by Finegan

Introduction to Historical Linguistics by Arlotto

The Mother Tongue by Bryson

How Children Learn Language by O'Grady

Power of Babelby McWhorter

The Story of Writing by Robinson

Saramaccan Grammar by McWhorter and Good

 

Each week also has a "Questions to Consider" section in the Course Guidebook. I may begin assigning a question to be answered each week, but have not yet done so. Currently, he reviews these orally.

 

HTH,

[Corraleno]

Just wanted to add a couple of quick things:

 

The other McWhorter course, The Story of Human Language, is on sale through Nov. 3rd. The Priority Code is 60217, and Coupon Code X9Z8 will get you free shipping through Nov. 4th.

 

There are lots of practice problems in computational linguistics available for free download here on the NACLO website. (For even more problems, you can click on the database link and sign in as a guest.) DS has been having a lot of fun working on these!

 

Jackie

[angela in ohio]

Investigate the NACLO: North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad. My daughter was very interested in doing this while in high school, but the timing never worked out.

 

Dd took this last year, and both dds are signed up for it this coming year. She took it at U of M. We could have done it at home, but she liked the group dynamic, and she got to meet linguistics majors from the uni. She really enjoyed it, and there are some interesting materials linked from their site.

 

Oldest is incredibly interested in linguistics and languages (I just ordered the TC course a few days ago when the catalog came. :D)

 

I am :bigear:.

[quark]

Not sure if it'll help but The Lukeion Project offers an inexpensive 4-week workshop on ancient languages and alphabets.

[Corraleno]

Dd took this last year, and both dds are signed up for it this coming year. She took it at U of M. We could have done it at home, but she liked the group dynamic, and she got to meet linguistics majors from the uni. She really enjoyed it, and there are some interesting materials linked from their site.

How does this work? :bigear:

 

On the website I could only find information about signing up, as a student, to take the test at a registered university or high school site, or registering as a teacher to administer the test at a high school. Can homeschool parents register as teachers and designate their homeschool as a site? There aren't any university or high school sites listed for our state, so I would love for DS to be able to do this at home.

 

Jackie

[Corraleno]

Not sure if it'll help but The Lukeion Project offers an inexpensive 4-week workshop on ancient languages and alphabets.

 

DS did this last summer! It's four 1-hr lectures, which are presented once/wk for 4 weeks during the semester, or four days in a row in the summer. I think a student who's read a bit about linguistics or watched a TC course on the subject would already know the material, but it's a really fun introduction for someone with no background in the area.

 

Jackie

[Belacqua]

How does this work? :bigear:

 

On the website I could only find information about signing up, as a student, to take the test at a registered university or high school site, or registering as a teacher to administer the test at a high school. Can homeschool parents register as teachers and designate their homeschool as a site? There aren't any university or high school sites listed for our state, so I would love for DS to be able to do this at home.

 

Jackie

 

You can just register as a teacher and high school site. We've done NACLO the last two years, but I didn't find out until this year that we could have been administering it at home. It will be a lot more pleasant now that we don't have to spend three hours traveling for the exam. As Angela said, the group atmosphere has its advantages, but the testing site is just too far from us to make that worthwhile.

 

It's a tremendously enjoyable exam, though. My son got to meet the kid (no longer a kid, of course) who won several years ago and was thoroughly starstruck. :)

[Melanie]

I'm so grateful to all of you for your help! My kid is sitting here wishing he had been born into a different family. :tongue_smilie:

 

How does this work? :bigear:

 

On the website I could only find information about signing up, as a student, to take the test at a registered university or high school site, or registering as a teacher to administer the test at a high school. Can homeschool parents register as teachers and designate their homeschool as a site? There aren't any university or high school sites listed for our state, so I would love for DS to be able to do this at home.

 

Jackie

 

Yes, how does one take it at home? We have family near Carnegie Mellon, and I was actually considering planning our vacation around the testing dates before I came to my senses. :lol:

[Melanie]

You can just register as a teacher and high school site. We've done NACLO the last two years, but I didn't find out until this year that we could have been administering it at home. It will be a lot more pleasant now that we don't have to spend three hours traveling for the exam. As Angela said, the group atmosphere has its advantages, but the testing site is just too far from us to make that worthwhile.

 

It's a tremendously enjoyable exam, though. My son got to meet the kid (no longer a kid, of course) who won several years ago and was thoroughly starstruck. :)

 

I see we were posting at the same time. Thanks for the information!

[Corraleno]

You can just register as a teacher and high school site. We've done NACLO the last two years, but I didn't find out until this year that we could have been administering it at home. It will be a lot more pleasant now that we don't have to spend three hours traveling for the exam. As Angela said, the group atmosphere has its advantages, but the testing site is just too far from us to make that worthwhile.

:party: Thank you so much for this info — DS will be thrilled!!!

 

Jackie

[Kathy in Richmond]

You can just register as a teacher and high school site. We've done NACLO the last two years, but I didn't find out until this year that we could have been administering it at home. It will be a lot more pleasant now that we don't have to spend three hours traveling for the exam. As Angela said, the group atmosphere has its advantages, but the testing site is just too far from us to make that worthwhile.

 

Same here. My daughter enjoyed playing with the NACLO problems in high school; heck, I loved playing with those puzzlers, too.:) Since we live far from any university site, I administered the contest here at home as a registered high school site. No problem at all!

 

My son got to meet the kid (no longer a kid, of course) who won several years ago and was thoroughly starstruck. :)

 

Did he meet him at camp? Several of the kids on the linguistics olympiad team have gone to Mathcamp in the past - that's how dd got hooked on linguistics puzzles. Under their influence, the camp invented its own language back in 2004, and they've been refining and speaking "food tongue" ever since.

[Belacqua]

Did he meet him at camp? Several of the kids on the linguistics olympiad team have gone to Mathcamp in the past - that's how dd got hooked on linguistics puzzles. Under their influence, the camp invented its own language back in 2004, and they've been refining and speaking "food tongue" ever since.

 

Oh, Foodtongue! The kid has been speaking it since he got home from camp in August, and I still haven't much of a clue about what he's saying (and he can't help much, as there's that strict rule about No Direct Translations).

[Kathy in Richmond]

Oh, Foodtongue! The kid has been speaking it since he got home from camp in August, and I still haven't much of a clue about what he's saying (and he can't help much, as there's that strict rule about No Direct Translations).

 

Yep, they can't teach you outright. It was particularly fun when both my kids were speaking foodtongue together...

[Emerald Stoker]

nm

[quark]

DS did this last summer! It's four 1-hr lectures, which are presented once/wk for 4 weeks during the semester, or four days in a row in the summer. I think a student who's read a bit about linguistics or watched a TC course on the subject would already know the material, but it's a really fun introduction for someone with no background in the area.

 

We found it to dovetail well with Ellen McHenry's Excavating English...and to add to what Jackie says, both resources (Lukeion's 4 week ancient languages/ alphabets course and Excavating English) would be good for beginners.

Edited October 27, 2011 by quark
clarification

[Alphabetika]

Not sure if it'll help but The Lukeion Project offers an inexpensive 4-week workshop on ancient languages and alphabets.

 

My middle dd took this course and loved it. It really fanned the flames of her interest in linguistics. I'm reading this thread with great interest!

[TXBeth]

Investigate the NACLO: North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad. My daughter was very interested in doing this while in high school, but the timing never worked out.

 

Steven Pinker has some interesting books dealing with linguistics. Here's one:

The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language.

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

The Language Instinct is good, and Words and Rules is GREAT! (big part of what inspired me to become a linguist)