Issues in Linguistic Research

This subject is not offered in 2013.

2 contact hours/week, 8 additional hours/week. Total of 10 hours per week.

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If not admitted to Honours or PG Diploma in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, students are recommended to have contacted the subject coordinator prior to enrolling in the subject.

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For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry.The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

This subject takes a broad and historically based view of some of the great topics that have preoccupied thinkers in linguistics, and how they interrelate, by juxtaposing the history of ideas on each of a dozen topics with relevant contemporary debates. Topics to be covered include defining properties of language, sign and system, arbitrariness versus constraints on the system, the role of typology, the role of formal modelling of language systems, linguistic relativity, synchrony versus diachrony, linguistics as a science, the linguistic system and the community of usersm, the boundaries of the language system, functionalism, adaptation and evolution of language systems. categories, classical and otherwise, and language, mind and brain.

• see how the great questions and puzzles of the present are shaped by the historical concerns of the past.
• understand how developments in one field are built on those of another.
• read and understand ideas as formulated by their original discoverers sympathetically, but critically.
• have a broad overview of, and be able to articulate, the great questions in the field of linguistics.

Class presentation and write up (1500 words equivalent) during semester: 30%. Discussant for topics during semester 10% (500 words equivalent). Written paper for 3000 words due at the end of semester: 60%.

This subject has the following hurdle requirements:

• Regular participation in tutorials is required with a minimum of 75% attendance.
• All pieces of written work must be submitted to pass this subject.

Assessment submitted late without an approved extension will be penalised at 10% per day and in-class tasks missed without approval will not be marked.

A subject reader will be available

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This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

• develop their skills in research.
• develop their skills in critical thinking and analysis.