Linguistics Courses (LIN)

Canada Institute of Linguistics course set I, part of the linguistics program at Trinity Western University, or equivalent, is required before any of the following courses may be taken.

LIN 510 - Teaching, Listening & Speaking (3 hrs.)
LIN 550 - Principles of Language Survey (3 hrs.)
LIN 555 - Historical and Comparative Linguistics (3 hrs.)
This course introduces students to language change. It considers how and why languages change and the role of language contact. It also presents different theories and methodologies useful for historical and comparative linguistic investigation. Students will investigate a number of related existing languages from language families around the world and seek to reconstruct substantial elements of earlier proto-language stages in terms of phonology, morphology, lexicon and historical dialectology.
LIN 560 - Communication Analysis: Syntax and Semantics (3 hrs.)
This course introduces the rich variety of syntactic and semantic structures found in human language. Students will examine features such as grammatical categories, simple clauses and constituent order typology, grammatical relations, and multi-clause constructions. Discussion of these and other topics will be applied to the analysis of data from non-Indo-European languages, giving students the skills to write short grammatical descriptions (grammar sketches). The emphasis of the course is on understanding how language is used, and seeking to explain how language forms are themselves shaped by their use.
Corequisites: LIN 570, LIN 580
LIN 562- Language Survey Practicum (2 hrs.)
LIN 566 - Principles of Sociolinguistic Survey (3 hrs.)
This course introduces the students to the rudiments of linguistic and sociolinguistic survey. As such students exposed to methods of linguistic documentation: the determination of language and dialect boundaries including lexical similarity and inter-variety intelligibility. Further, students are presented with sociolinguistic profiling including tools for the assessment of bilingual proficiency, models for assessing language attitude, documentation of language use, the collection of evidences for language maintenance or shift, and techniques for the identifying language endangerment. The focus is on purpose-driven language survey design and appropriate subsequent reporting of the findings. Consideration is given to current issues in social science research such as the ethics of sampling, and statistically significance of sample populations.
LIN 570 - Language and Culture Acquisition (3 hrs.)
This course introduces students to theories of second language and second culture acquisition. Students develop and evaluate self-directed strategies based on personal learning styles. Practical experience in the above topics is gained by working with a speaker of a non-Indo-European language.
Note: LIN 560 and 580 are recommended in the same semester.
LIN 571 - Training Across Cultures for Linguistics (3 hrs.)
This course provides linguists, translators and literacy trainers with principles of adult learning to increase their knowledge, skills and attitudes as effective trainers of adults in cross-cultural settings. Students will interact with literature in adult education; describe how these principles might apply cross-culturally; practice teaching using these methods; then analyze and compare approaches used in other cultures with practical application to training across cultures. While the focus is for training linguists, the principles can be applied to training adults in a wide variety of training situations.
LIN 574 - Literacy Materials (3 hrs.)
This course teaches students how to prepare basic pedagogical materials and early readers in languages that may not have a long written tradition. Special emphasis is given to teaching techniques for involving the local language community in the production of these materials.
Co-requisite: LIN 584
LIN 575 - Scripture Use (3 hrs.)
This course focuses on literature use as the goal of a language development project. The course is designed to create an early awareness of the interrelated parameters of literature use, its timing in language development planning, and the logistics of promotion and distribution. Topics covered include: culture variation and cross-cultural communication, the role of religion in culture, literacy strategies, promotion and distribution methods and strategies, and the role of non-print media.
LIN 576 - Acoustic Phonetics (3 hrs.)
This course introduces students to fundamental principles of acoustics that are relevant to the study of human speech sounds. Students will gain a basic understanding of properties of speech sound waves and learn how to investigate these properties instrumentally using acoustic analysis software. There will be extensive practice interpreting acoustic displays such as waveform graphs, fundamental frequency graphs, and spectrograms. A major focus of the course is the effective use of these displays as an aid to correctly transcribing speech sounds and understanding their phonetic properties in the context of descriptive phonetic and/or phonological fieldwork. Significant attention is also given to the complex interrelationships among acoustic, articulatory, and perceptual correlates of speech sounds.
LIN 580 - Field Methods: Data Management and Analysis (3 hrs.)
This course introduces students to aspects of linguistic fieldwork with an emphasis on practical methodology for managing and analyzing language and cultural data. Working with a native speaker of a non-Indo-European language, students gain experience in the ethics of fieldwork, data collection and application of the scientific method in linguistic analysis. A significant part of the course is devoted to using current software for recording, analyzing and archiving data. Students produce phonological and grammatical sketches, interlinearized texts and a small dictionary.
Note: LIN 560 is recommended in the same semester.
Corequisites: LIN 560, LIN 570
LIN 581 - Anthropological Linguistics: Ethnography (3 hrs.)
This course introduces crucial concepts in anthropology and ethnography to linguists. It focuses on cross-cultural communication with an emphasis on participant observation as an effective methodology for such research. Students collect and analyze data related to topics such as oral traditions, kinship, and social structure. They are introduced to various tools for ethno-semantic analysis, including analysis of cultural themes and worldview, semantic domain analysis, and taxonomic analysis.
Prerequisites: Course in Cultural Anthropology or one-week seminar offered through CanIL.
LIN 582 - Issues in Community Literacy (3 hrs.)
This course focuses on issues relating to literacy programs in a community of speakers of a minority language. It deals with various program issues, including bridging the gap to oral communities and introducing change in a community, motivation and mobilization, capacity-building and sustainability, training and evaluation, the challenges of working in multilingual societies and with those in stressed situations, and using participatory approaches in all aspects of the programer, poverty, funding, and the nature of intercultural community work as related to literacy.
Prerequisites: LING 310; LING 330; LING 484
Corequisites: LIN 584
LIN 583 - Language Programs Design and Management (3 hrs.)
This course investigates the sociolinguistic and background factors upon which a language development program for speakers of vernacular languages may be based. Students learn to work with local people and agencies in designing and implementing a program to effectively meet the needs of specific language groups.
Available online.
LIN 584 - Priniciples of Literacy (3 hrs.)
This course covers principles involved in the introduction of literacy to ethno-linguistic minority groups. It includes orthography design, consideration of socio-historical issues, strategies for literacy programs, stimulation of local authorship, reading theory and instructional methodologies.
LIN 585 - Principles of Translation (3 hrs.)
This course covers the theory and practice of translating from a source language to a target language. It is designed to give the student the necessary skills for transferring meaning from one language to another. Discussion includes source language, target language, and cross-language transfer, with particular attention to the translation of Scripture
LIN 586 - Advanced Phonological Analysis (3 hrs.)
This course introduces students to advanced concepts of phonological theory. Employing the theoretical models they are learning, students develop a clearer understanding of the typological behavior of phonological systems by analyzing data from a variety of languages. Students are also taught how to integrate insights from phonological theory into the development of practical orthographies
LIN 587 - Lexicography (3 hrs.)
This course provides the students with a theoretical and practical basis for analyzing the semantics of the lexicon, and recording the results of this research in a dictionary. The goal is to promote effective cross-cultural communication, especially translation. The methodology includes analysis of a large collection of texts using the computer, observing the meanings of lexical items in context in the texts. Emphasis is placed on the relationship of the lexicon to multiple strata of language and communication, including semantics, morphology and syntax, and the referential or real world. The student will gain experience in developing a beginning dictionary using this approach.
Prerequisite: LIN 570, 580
LIN 590 - Philosophy of Language (3 hrs.)
This course examines a range of topics within philosophy of language. It overviews classical works (i.e. Wittgenstein, Quine, Searle, Alston, Grice, etc.) as well as reviews two major schools of thought in rmegard to language and criticism (deconstructionism and phenomenology). Insights from linguistics, particularly psycholinguistics, text linguistics, and cognitive science are applied to the critique of these schools of thought.
Prerequisite: : LING 310; LING 330; LING 360 or 6 hrs. PHIL or consent
Available online
LIN 599 - Philosophical Perspectives in Linguistics (3 hrs.)
This course will examine the philosophical basis of human language and communication, with special attention to issues relating to semantics, discourse, lexicon, metaphor, and translation--all the areas that deal with meaning creation. There will be a critical review of some major schools of thought within philosophy of language and hermeneutics. These will be examined in light of current insights in text linguistics, cognitive linguistics, and integrational linguistics.
LIN 600 - Tone Analysis (3 hrs.)
Historically, tone studies have played (and continue to play) a crucial role in the development of phonological theory. Students in this course are taught a) a methodology for tone analysis, b) how to integrate current tone theory into clear and accurate descriptions of tonal languages, c) how to design practical orthographies for tonal languages, and d) how to use relevant computer tools.
Prerequisite: LIN 560, 570, 580
Co-requisite: LIN 586
LIN 611 - Discourse Analysis (3 hrs.)
After completing this course, the student will be able to analyze the discourse structure (macrostructure) of a text. He/she will be able to describe typical features of different types of prominence and cohesion. He/she will have charted a few sample texts and analyzed how a discourse may be segmented into hierarchical units. He/she will be able to indicate evidence for foregrounding and backgrounding (or mainline and supportive information). He/she will focus on the interface between syntactic forms and their functions in discourse.
LIN 650 - Survey of Linguistic Theories (3 hrs.)
This course introduces students to a wide range of linguistic theories. Students read and discuss original works written from various perspectives and gain in the process a clearer appreciation for the range of views that exist concerning the nature of human language and its syntactic, semantic, phonological, and discourse properties.
Prerequisite: LIN 560, LIN 586
LIN 660 - Problems in Morphology and Syntax (3 hrs.)
This course continues to explore the various morphological and syntactic structures found in the world’s languages. In addition to further study of topics previously introduced in LIN 560 (Syntax and Semantics), students also examine features such as: inflection, derivation, and compounding; deixis; grammaticalization; and non-declarative speech acts. The emphasis is on solving problems that arise in data from a variety of language families and types. Students apply the course discussion to the preparation of a linguistic paper.
Prerequisite: LIN 560
LIN 680 - Advanced Field Methods: Analysis and Writing (3 hrs.)
Students analyze a non-Indo-European language by working extensively with a native speaker. A major focus in the course is on developing descriptive writing skills.
Prerequisite: LIN 560, LIN 580, LN 586
LIN 688 - Tone Analysis (3 hrs.)
This course introduces students to a methodology of tone analysis, incorporating the insights of current theoretical approaches. Students also learn to apply insights from the analysis of a tone system to developing practical orthographies.
Co-requisite: LIN 586
LIN 691 - Discourse Analysis (3 hrs.)
This course focuses on the question of how speakers of a given language effectively accomplish their communicative goals through the strategic use and shaping of language in both written and oral discourse. Students learn to identify different discourse genres, to chart texts for analysis, to discern hierarchical units within the macrostructure of a text, and to describe features of cohesion and participant reference, as well as identifying strategies in language for establishing the relative prominence of various streams of information. Special attention is paid to the interaction between alternate syntactic forms and their varying pragmatic functions in context.
Prerequisite: LIN 560