Hey everyone. I was just wondering if anyone has taken the Phonetics, Syntax, or Child Language Acquisition. The course codes are Ling2l03, Ling2sy3, and Ling3C03. There aren't too many reviews/comments for these courses and I was wondering if anyone who has taken these courses recently could give me their opinion of them.

I've heard the workload for phonetics wasn't too bad, but that there was some calculus. Will I generally be fine if I study the crap out of the textbook, since that's where he gets his midterm questions?

I don't think there are any reviews on Syntax/Child language, though. Thanks for any help

I'd definitely recommend syntax. Weekly problem sets (30%), a midterm (25%), final (40%), and iClicker (5%). I found this course to be the easiest and most interesting of all linguistics courses taken, and tree-drawing is explained much better and makes much more sense after this course. I'd go for this, for sure!

Child Language Acquisition has a grading scheme that varies from year to year. From what I remember, there were two tests, two easy assignments (one was summarizing a research paper into a "news article" and the other was analyzing data from CHILDES and answering simple questions), a lecture summary (you get assigned into groups to do collaborative notes for one lecture and I think the 5% for this is a give-away), 10% for iClicker, and a final. The assignments were very easy, but the tests were hard to do well on, and the final was kind of tricky. That said, Dr. Anderson is a great lecturer, and I still managed to get a 12 in her class.

I also took psycholinguistics, which was similar to Child Language (same prof, similar rubric), but I found it kind of boring.

Semantics is pretty interesting too!

IMO: syntax > semantics > child language acquisition > psycholinguistics

Ooooh, syntax actually seems pretty manageable. Would you say the difficulty was about the same as 1AA3? I found the first half of that course pretty straightforward. It was just the latter half about psycholinguistics, and how languages travelled or something that bored the crap out of me :'(.

I've taken Phonetics with Dr Yoon in Fall 2011. It is an extension of what you do in LING 1A03, where you get into greater description of the articulation of sounds, and you cover the entire IPA chart (including diacritics). However, for the majority of the semester, Dr Yoon focuses on Acoustic Phonetics, which involved reading spectrograms and waveforms to discern sounds. This was hit or miss for most people. I personally found it fascinating and enjoyed deciphering them.

You will be taught how to use the program Praat to carry out a variety of easy assignments (which are mostly acoustic based). Our first midterm was a take-home midterm, where you had to listen to and transcribe sounds. The second one was in-class, which involved transcription based on description of symbols and vice versa, and a bit of spectrogram/waveform reading. His final was fair as well. I'd say the best way to prepare for it is with a friend or a study group.

There's also a free 10% iClicker mark if you attend class.

If you're interested in the content, attend class, and pay attention, it's an easy 12.

Oh dear. Reading spectrograms and waveforms. This reminds me of organic chemistry...MAKE IT STOP :'O. I actually really enjoyed the transcription portion of 1A03, but this wave-reading stuff sounds pretty difficult. I hear he pulls questions from the textbook though, right? I really enjoyed 1A03/AA3 because it wasn't a lot of work and i t was pretty fun...'cause I kinda like those symbols and drawing trees >: O.

I can't take Syntax because it's in term 2 :(. Maybe phonetics, then? How difficult did you find the spectrograms to read? Was it as hit-or-miss as infrared spectroscopy from Orgo, 'cause that stuff was ridiculous :(.

Originally Posted by Angoose

Ooooh, syntax actually seems pretty manageable. Would you say the difficulty was about the same as 1AA3? I found the first half of that course pretty straightforward. It was just the latter half about psycholinguistics, and how languages travelled or something that bored the crap out of me :'(.

I felt that in 1AA3, there were several different topics that were skimmed over. In 2SY3, you start from the beginning, and learn concepts that are much more advanced, but because the focus is more narrow and there is more time to practise, I'd say that it was easier.

I registered in 2L03 too, but it sounds terrible. Looks like I'm gonna look for a new elective!

I ended up taking Econ2j03 instead. If syntax were in 1st time I'd probably take that. The analyzing spectrogram stuff in phonetics sounds pretty hardcore.