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Linguistics 1AA3 is the follow up course to Linguistics 1A03. They both comprise what is introductory Linguistics at McMaster.

The main topics discussed are Syntax, Semantics, Pragmatics, Sociolinguistics, Historical Linguistics, Typology and Psycholinguistics.

Syntax is the study of sentence structures, and explores the underlying system of rules and categories which determine these structures. We learned about things like Syntactic Categories (such as Noun, Adjective, Noun Phrases, Adjectival Phrases etc), as well as other sentence formation properties like Constituents. We learned how to draw sentence structure trees, which is harder than it looks.

Semantics is the study of meaning, such as the historical and psychological study of changes in the meanings of words, the study of meaning relationships among words and sentences. So things like homonyms and synonyms among other relationships are studied, really easy stuff. Then you learn about Thematic Roles in a sentence, kind of like what role each word in a sentence takes on in a given situation.

Pragmatics, as our teacher Dr. Stroinska described, is kind of the leftover areas in Linguistics that don't really have a place in the more distinguised areas. The 'waste basket' she had said. You learn about Gricean Maxims, Speech Act Theory, Deixis, Pronouns: reference properties, and Ellipsis.

Sociolinguistics explores how language is affected by your status in society, and how it can also be affected by ethnic background, where you live (rural vs. urban). It also explores things like Pidgins and Creoles, Dialects, Language as an instrument of power, Language and Gender, "Canadian" English, and Slang.

Historical Linguistics explores how languages change over time. We paid a lot of attention to English, i.e. from Old English to Middle English to Modern English. Syntax, morphology and phonetics and phonology especially play a role in language change, and so you need to brush up a little bit on what you learned in first term. :]

Typology is the study of language types. Sounds strange, I know, but it's interesting. We learned about different language families. The big one that English belongs to is the Indo-European Family. Our closest relative? German. Our "cousin"? The romance languages. Other random "cousins" include languages like Bengali and Urdu, as well as Russian, Polish and Persian. We don't actually refer to these languages with names like "cousin", but I always did haha. We learned about other big language families, as well as how to classify languages.

Psycholinguistics, one of my favourite parts of Linguistics. We only spent one lecture on this topic, but oh well. It's the study of language and the human brain, where we explores questions like how children acquire language, why learning language becomes difficult with age, why older people start to lose language and how brain injuries, diseases and disorders affect memory and language among others. It's really, really interesting. To me anyways.

Review:

Overall, this course is not as interesting as Linguistics 1A03. A lot of it is sort of like an indepth study of English to an extent. It is easy if you keep up with the work, and there are some very interesting topics that arise like Psycholinguistics, and Sociolinguistics. Dr. Stroinska posts her lectures online, and usually doesn't add anything to them in lecture. She is very helpful and always nice to talk to though. You also have Will Heikoop who is the Instructional Assitant of Linguistics at Mac, and he's there every lecture and exam, and he's very approachable to ask questions. This is an easy elective for those who are interested, and it's a nice and relaxed class. 9/10.

Breakdown:

10% Participation (Tutorial)
25% Homework Assignments (weekly) & Quizzes
30% Midterm Exam
35% Final Exam

do u have to take linguistics 1A03 before taking 1AA3?

Originally Posted by pdpd

do u have to take linguistics 1A03 before taking 1AA3?

Yes, Linguistics 1A03 is a prerequisite for Linguistics 1AA3.

http://registrar.mcmaster.ca /CALEN...nt/pg1878.html

do we need an iclicker?

Originally Posted by syan9184

do we need an iclicker?

3. This component of the course is equally divided between attendance measured by the i-clicker
(5%) and preparation for and participation in tutorial (5%). This is a pass/fail grade (either 0, or 5): a student
must attend at least 75% classes and 75% tutorials to get the full mark.

http://www.humanities.mcmast er.ca/....php?cno =565

haha thanks dude!

When I took this class this past semester (Winter '10), the scope of the course was narrowed to cover only syntax, semantics, child language acquisition, and language disorders (Broca's and Wernicke's Aphasias). The prof was Ivona Kucerova, who I believe is was new to McMaster. At first, I wasn't a huge fan of her teaching style, but after the first few lectures, I found that her slides and explanations were very clear. Overall, I thought she did a great job teaching the course. The syntax section started off slowly, but got more and more complex as certain syntactic principles were introduced (WH-movement, head movement, and NP movement). This course can get quite difficult if you fall behind, as like in a math course, new content builds upon old content, so if you don't master prior work, you can't understand the new concepts. However, as long as you do well on your tutorial assignments, you should have no problem when it comes to tests and exams.

The first midterm was fair, but beware, there are a lot of little marks that are taking off for the syntax trees, so make sure you remember to attach adjuncts at a bar level and to always watch for ambiguity in sentence meaning, as this will affect your tree. The exam was also extremely fair -- the multiple choice questions were fairly straightforward and the trees shouldn't be overwhelmingly difficult. In fact, I found the trees on the exam easier than those on the midterm, but that was likely due to the fact that I had four months to practice drawing them and thus got better at them.

If you're looking for a humanities elective with no essays, I'd recommend Linguistics 1A03 and 1AA3. The work load isn't very intense and they're not overwhelmingly difficult, so it is definitely possible to get a great mark in the course.

course was boring but easy

Anyone has any experience with Anderson C. as the prof? How is her teaching? I think she's teaching this course next year

Originally Posted by AnthraX

Anyone has any experience with Anderson C. as the prof? How is her teaching? I think she's teaching this course next year

I'm wondering the same. Anyone?

I like Dr. Anderson. I think she's a good lecturer. Her tests were challenging, but I took a third-year course with her and the evaluations were writing-based. With 1AA3, it's moreso about doing trees and stuff like that, very applied, and if you know your stuff, you will be fine. I wouldn't at all hesitate to take the course with her.

I have a question..... Why was i able to take linguistics 1aa3 before taking 1a03.... Woww im screwedd.

Originally Posted by Hongmon

I have a question..... Why was i able to take linguistics 1aa3 before taking 1a03.... Woww im screwedd.

I don't think you should have been able to......

But if you need help, check out the Linguistics Society Help sessions, and go to your prof's/TA's office hours.

would i be ok to take 1aa3 without 1a03?? i really need an elective and it's too late for 1a03

I don't think it's possible to register for 1AA3 without 1A03 because 1A03 is a prerequisite. Also, I don't think it would be a good idea. The stuff is pretty related.