LING 181 A-Z - Special Studies in Linguistics

Semester Hours: 1-3

Current Special Topics:

LING 181C - US Forensic Ling Applications

Primarily through the lens of U.S. law enforcement, counter-intelligence, and threat management, this week-long intensive course offers a case-based approach to solving legal and law enforcement problems through linguistic analysis.  The course will use data from actual cases taken from the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit, U.S., State, and local police, and will discuss the path from investigation to prosecution in U.S. courts.  This course demonstrates how forensic linguistics augments legal analysis by applying rigorous, scientifically accepted principles of linguistic analysis to legal evidence such as letters, confessions, contracts and recorded speech. 

LING 181L - Linguistic Landscapes

Language surrounds us in our everyday lives. We communicate through linguistic means, and we are constantly bombarded by signs and other forms of linguistic communication both verbal and visual (as in road signs, billboards, street names, commercial shop signs, and signs on government buildings, to name just a few). The aim of this course is to offer an overview of research on linguistic/semiotic landscapes, focusing in particular on the insights that can be gained from a spatial perspective on languages and other multimodal meaning-making practices such as how language is visualized via images, sounds, drawings, movements, graffiti, tattoos, colors, clothing, and smells. The course will also equip students with different methodologies for analyzing languages in various spaces and places. In this course, we will explore not only the public sphere, but at times the digital sphere as well. We will begin with an overview of the field of linguistic landscapes, moving into examples of linguistic landscape research broadly, as well as through particular foci such as bilingualism/multilingualism, local vs. global advertising, history and the past, tourism, protest, sexuality, and linguistic injustices (when language used in a sign can have legal and other real-world implications for public safety). The focus of the course will thus involve investigating which languages appear where, when, by whom, for whom, in which format, and to what end. From our reading of the linguistic landscape, we can then begin to see the power, meaning, and significance of individual languages in society.

Cross-Listed as LING 281L

LING 181P - Psycholinguistics

Psycholinguists have shown that the production and comprehension of even the simplest language is a highly complex process. This course shows how psycholinguistic research can act as a window to the workings of the human mind and the study of consciousness. What do we know when we know a language? How can such a complex system be learned so quickly and universally by children? What is special about our brains that enables this to happen? What is the relationship of language to our broader capacities for thinking and social interaction? This course will introduce you to the ongoing scientific project to tackle these kinds of questions. You will both (1) become familiar with major psycholinguistic research questions and results, and (2) hone your scientific thinking about language and the human mind.

For the QR component, we will cover statistics intended for students in a wide variety of areas of study. Topics discussed include displaying and describing data, the normal curve, probability, statistical inference, with applications in psycholinguistics. 

LING 181S - Literary Stylistics

Literary stylistics examines how readers interact with literary works, how they understand and are moved by them. we consider how meanings and effects are generated in the three major literary genres, carrying out stylistic analyses of poetry, drama, and prose fiction in turn. We will analyze brief texts and extracts from English literature, adopting an approach to the analysis of literary texts which can be applied easily to other texts in English and in other languages.

Literary Stylistics provides a clear and broad-ranging introduction to stylistic analysis – covering all three literary genres in detail. The course provides an overview of stylistics as a whole and discusses the links between linguistics and literary criticism and shows the practical ways in which linguistic analysis and literary appreciation can be combined, and illuminated, through the study of literary style.

We will cover all the major theories, concepts and methods required for the investigation of language in literature, from meter to metaphor, dialogue to discourse. It also captures the latest major developments in stylistics, such as corpus, cognitive and multimodal approaches to the study of style,

The course begins with samples of stylistic analyses. Detailed analysis of each genre follows in subsequent modules, with writing assignments designed to develop skills in stylistic analysis. The course also includes a series of checklists of style features to look for when analyzing literary texts.

Cross-listed as: CLL 151  

 

Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes:
Subjects to be announced yearly. May be repeated when topics vary.

View Course Offering(s):

Fall 2025

January 2026

Spring 2026