Linguistics 101H: Introduction to Linguistics (Honors)
UNC-Chapel Hill Linguistics
Fall 2025
Elliott Moreton

Week 17, 2025.12.12.Fr: FINAL EXAM, 4-7 p.m.

Week 16, 2025.12.02.Tu

Week 15, 2025.11.25.Tu

Week 14, 2025.11.19.Th

Week 14, 2025.11.17.Tu

Week 13, 2025.11.13.Th

Week 13, 2025.11.11.Tu

Week 12, 2025.11.06.Th

MIDTERM 2

Assignment for 11/11 Tu:

Week 12, 2025.11.04.Tu

Topics: Overregularization as evidence for grammar induction. Critical (sensitive) periods.

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Reminder: Midterm 2 is next time (11/06 Th)!

Week 11, 2025.10.30.Th

Topics: Grammar induction by children in first-language acquisition.

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Reminder: Midterm 2 is 11/06 Th.

Assignment:

Week 11, 2025.10.28.Tu

Topics: Induction, inductive bias, and language acquisition.

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Week 10, 2025.10.23.Th

Topics: Sentential meaning. Compositional semantics.

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Assignment for Tuesday, Oct. 28: Read O'Grady et al. Ch. 9, through end of Section 4 (methods for studying first-language acquisition; acquisition of phonology, vocabulary, and morphology). There is no written assignment for Monday.

Week 10, 2025.10.21.Tu

Topics: Lexical and phrasal meaning.

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Announcement: Midterm 2 will be on 11/06 (Tu)

Week 9, 2025.10.14.Tu

Topics: Movement and parametric variation.

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Assignment for 10/21 Tu:

Week 8, 2025.10.09.Th

Topics: Syntactic movement.

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Assignment for 10/14 Tu: Read O'Grady et al. Ch. 5, Section 4, on differences in syntax between languages.

Week 7, 2025.10.02.Th

Topics: X-bar theory: heads, complements, specifiers, and modifiers.

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Assignment for 10/09 Th:

Week 7, 2025.09.30.Tu

Topics: Internal structure of sentences (syntactic constituency).

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Week 6, 2025.09.25.Th

MIDTERM 1

Assignment for 9/30 Tu:

Week 6, 2025.09.23.Tu

Topics: Allomorphy and morphophonemics. Abstractness of underlying representations.

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Week 5, 2025.09.18.Th

Topics: Internal structure of words.

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Reminder: The first midterm will be in a week, on Thursday the 25th.

Assignment:

Week 5, 2025.09.16.Tu

Topics: Morphemes, and how to identify them. Words and lexical categories.

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Assignment:

Week 4, 2025.09.11.Th

Topics: Knowledge of language, language universals, Universal Grammar, and other issues raised by Berent et al. 2008. Start morphology.

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Assignment for Tuesday, September 16:

Week 4, 2025.09.09.Tu

Topics: Syllables, syllabification, and syllable-based phonotactics.

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Assignment for Thursday, September 11

Announcement: Midterm 1 will be on Thursday, September 25.

Week 3, 2025.09.04.Th

Topics: Phonological rules. "Natural classes" of sounds.

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Assignment for Tuesday, September 9:

Week 3, 2025.09.02.Tu

Topics: Contrast and allophony; phonemes and allophones.

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Assignment for 9/4 (Th):

Week 2, 2025.08.28.Th

Topics: Consonant manner of articulation. Vowel articulation and IPA symbols.

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Assignment for Tuesday, Sept. 2:

Week 2, 2025.08.26.Tu

Topics: Speech as SOUNDS NOT LETTERS. IPA; what it's for and how it works. Overview of vocal-tract anatomy. Consonant articulations.

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Assignment for Thursday, August 28:

Week 1, 2025.08.21.Th

Topics: Structure of language. Mental grammar and descriptive grammar. The lexicon. Language as an instinct.

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Assignment for Tuesday, August 26:

Week 1, 2025.08.19.Tu

Topics: Course organization. What is linguistics?

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Assignment for 8/21 (Th):