Students

LING109 – Language, Culture and Communication

2017 – S2 External

General Information

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Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit Convenor
A/Professor David Butt
Contact via david.butt@mq.edu.au
C5A 563
By appointment - please email me.
Co-convenor
Canzhong Wu
Contact via canzhong.wu@mq.edu.au
C5A566
By appointment - please email me.
Credit points Credit points
3
Prerequisites Prerequisites
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description
This unit investigates language through issues the major linguists have asked over the last century. These questions begin with: what counts as a sign and how sign systems begin in a community, but organise the brain of the individual. We track the emergence of language in the child and variations of language which are a consequence of new pressures to act, talk, and think throughout our social networks. The unit also examines the variation of languages across 'language families', and the extent to which linguistic tools can be applied in diverse areas of cultural analysis – from electronic channels to verbal art. We consider the power of language by looking at the relationship of language to the ideologies of everyday experience, as well as those that are actively produced and maintained by powerful groups with vested interests.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  • Begin the study of Linguistics as a formal discipline
  • Understand some of the complexities of studying language as a meaning making system
  • Recognize and analyse patterns in language
  • Relate these patterns to what language is doing for its speakers in a given social and cultural context
  • Understand how language grows and develops in human culture and individuals
  • Understand some of the ways that language varies in different cultures and contexts
  • Be familiar with basic tools and techniques for the study of language data
  • Make judgments about the social and cultural implications of linguistic patterns in natural language data

General Assessment Information

Clear instructions will be given in relation to 2 general requirements:

1) the requirement that assignments will be submitted through Turnitin;

2) the requirement that the work be your own composition.

The course takes up many debates about language, and emphasis will be placed on how well you have argued for your point of view, and for your evaluations of the views of others. This is to say: 'Pay attention to the argument in the topic discussed in lectures. You have to reflect on the evidence and on your view".

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Hurdle Due
Tutorial tasks/preparation 30% No See task description
Module study 40% No 5pm Friday Week 12
A university, timetabled exam 30% No Exam period S2

Tutorial tasks/preparation

Due: See task description
Weighting: 30%

Tutorial preparation, participation and task completion/submission constitutes 30% of the overall mark for this unit. Each week you are required to read an article, and do a task in preparation for the tutorial, which for you will be on Saturday Sept. 9th and then on Saturday Oct. 21st.. You must bring your notes on the reading and the task for discussion in the tutorial. These tasks are submitted for marking at two points in the semester: end of week 7, and end of week 12. You will receive a mark out of 15 on each of these submissions. The mark will take account not only of the work submitted, but of your participation and contribution in the tutorials.

To comply with the university's assessment policy (which is to check early on whether a student has problems with the literacy demands of the subject), you will also submit the first two tutorial tasks at the end of week 3. We will review this submission, but it will not be marked. We  may give you some feedback at this point - in particular, tutors will be looking to determine whether you need further support wth academic study skills.

NOTE: TUTORIALS are held for external candidates on Saturday September 9th (after week 6) and Saturday October 21st (after week 10).


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Begin the study of Linguistics as a formal discipline
  • Understand some of the complexities of studying language as a meaning making system
  • Recognize and analyse patterns in language
  • Relate these patterns to what language is doing for its speakers in a given social and cultural context
  • Understand how language grows and develops in human culture and individuals
  • Understand some of the ways that language varies in different cultures and contexts
  • Be familiar with basic tools and techniques for the study of language data
  • Make judgments about the social and cultural implications of linguistic patterns in natural language data

Module study

Due: 5pm Friday Week 12
Weighting: 40%

 Data collection, analysis and interpretation (1500 words), based on a topic that you choose, aligned to one of the unit's four modules (see unit schedule).

You are offered wide scope here to find a topic over which you may have a special interest, a particular access to data, or some background experience. For example, those who have lived and worked in different cultural contexts, in different linguistic sub-communities, or in a specific profession, may choose that area of society for the module work. You are required to take up a topic that you can relate to at least one of the 4 main groups of lectures in the course; but you may find that your topic of interest in fact links with many different aspects of the issues raised in the lectures. That is all to the good.

In brief: if you have language or cultural or professional experience which provides a contrast with aspects of Australian culture, then that is an asset in this course, and particularly in developing a module assignment. You may find that writing about your family customs, or your language experience, or about your work context, becomes an interesting way of exploring cultural variation. While there is a fieldwork orientation to this central piece of work, you must also be mindful of general ethical guidelines in research ( eg. the role of permissions in relation to recordings and privacy).  


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Begin the study of Linguistics as a formal discipline
  • Understand some of the complexities of studying language as a meaning making system
  • Recognize and analyse patterns in language
  • Relate these patterns to what language is doing for its speakers in a given social and cultural context
  • Understand how language grows and develops in human culture and individuals
  • Understand some of the ways that language varies in different cultures and contexts
  • Be familiar with basic tools and techniques for the study of language data
  • Make judgments about the social and cultural implications of linguistic patterns in natural language data

A university, timetabled exam

Due: Exam period S2
Weighting: 30%

The exam is a straightforward, conventional exam (no notes or other aids permitted).

The content and structure of the exam are explained in considerable detail in the lectures so that those who have been attentive to the lectures and to tutorial activities will find a very close correspondence with the unseen exam.

The exam is 2 hours in duration (+ 10 minutes reading time), and it combines choice over a number of shorter questions (eg.over definitions) with a longer piece of text analysis and commentary. 

The date of the exam depends on the timetabling unit in the University; and this is not settled until later in the semester. Please do not book trips away for the days of the exam period. If there are medical or other issues affecting your completion of the course, please take these up with the appropriate campus support unit representatives: they take up the matter through an official channel. 


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Begin the study of Linguistics as a formal discipline
  • Understand some of the complexities of studying language as a meaning making system
  • Recognize and analyse patterns in language
  • Relate these patterns to what language is doing for its speakers in a given social and cultural context
  • Understand how language grows and develops in human culture and individuals
  • Understand some of the ways that language varies in different cultures and contexts
  • Be familiar with basic tools and techniques for the study of language data
  • Make judgments about the social and cultural implications of linguistic patterns in natural language data

Delivery and Resources

 

Class work: one 1-hour lecture + tutorial  tasks to be completed each week.

Independent work: four hours per week, to include reading time, some writing and some fieldwork. All readings are available on e-reserve.

Students are expected to study the lectures recorded each week and to attend the 2 Saturday tutorial days, do preparatory reading, and complete a tutorial task each week. Tutorials are on the 9th Sept. and 21st October. Tutorial work is organised around language data and analysis, and around how your ideas relate to those of your fellow students, and how your collective views align with those experts who have written about language, about communication and about culture. On tutorial days we do also review the topics of the lectures to address difficult ideas that arise in working with language. Tutorial preparation is assessed.

 

Technologies: iLearn

Unit Schedule

 

 

 

 

UNIT SCHEDULE

Week

Topic

Lecture topic

1

MODULE 1:

Signs and social networks

 

Starting with signs in writing systems

Speech is difficult to study since it comes to us and goes in the moment; but writing systems offer us a static start – we can look at words and examine the basis of writing. Early writing systems, and many contemporary schemes are based on the ‘syllable’ – a chunk of combined sounds. An alphabet appears to be based on single sounds, and this singularity produces the smaller set of symbols of the Greek, Latin, English system that we use. Japanese has 2 syllabic scripts and an additional use of Chinese characters, which can be called upon for their value as sounds or as meanings. Chinese characters are neither iconic (pictures) or syllabic. How does all this variety work out in a wider world of global communication? How do writing systems affect literacy? What about printing and computers? Why is writing an art form in some cultures? Why is the spelling of many words unlike their actual sound? What, then, is punctuation? These basic beginnings allow us to reflect on what counts as a linguistic sign.

2

How do you mean? Signs and linguistic sign systems.

If you think you know what a sign is, think again. While we are sensitive to meanings, humans generally show a poor sense of how their meanings come about. Even linguists trade in simplifications in order to avoid the paradoxical nature of our first steps in linguistics. But the complexity of sign behaviour – when we confront that complexity– becomes a source of wonder, and a new way of seeing our society and its interaction with our brains. When you make a mistake in ‘reading’ the world about you, then you are likely to be amidst a sign system that you have misinterpreted. But a linguistic sign is not simply a piece of sound aligned to a human meaning! Signs are social and psychological; psychological and social. How does this 2 way relationship come about? And how can we put our knowledge about sign systems to work as we look around us at society, at literature, at film, and in the propaganda and advertising that sweep around us with their dazzling claim on our attention and our beliefs? This lecture opens up the fields of linguistics and of semiotics (the general study of systems of signs). 

3

Social networks and social networking

The familiar notion of a social network has a history going back to the study of families, businesses, accents and dialects; and social class. All of these were studied before our use of social networks as connections through the internet and phone systems. While we generate networks of connections by living, we ask how can such networks be put to practical use – not for surveillance, but  in understanding social conditions and  social change; the dynamics of hospitals and urban systems; and in the ways we might better manage complexity of economies and cities.

4

MODULE 2:

Linguistics in the era of big data

 

 

Linguistics in the era of big data

We live in an era of ‘big data’. More and more scientists and engineers are involved with compiling and analysing big bodies of data, to help communities understand themselves better and to plan for the future. What does ‘big data’ mean in linguistics? This lecture introduces the idea of ‘corpora’, bodies of language data used for scholarly research as well as in many fields of practical application. We will look at the google books corpus, the largest ever corpus of English language data, and consider some technology for analysing texts as well as for visualizing patterns in text, including word clouds, word trees, and the distribution of words across a text.

5

Using technology for corpus studies

In this lecture, we introduce you to some handy technology which automates the study of some kinds of lexical patterns in big data sets. Make sure you bring your laptop or an ipad to the lecture this week. We will step through how to use a concordance programme, how to use IBM's Many Eyes data visualisation tool (http://www-969.ibm.com/software/analytics/manyeyes/), and how to use Voyant Tools ( http://voyant-tools.org/). We will provide some interesting text data for you to start your own explorations.

6

What kinds of questions can you ask of a corpus?

In this lecture, we introduce key notions for shaping and defining a corpus. The ways in which we form a body of texts shapes the kinds of questions we can ask. We discuss the importance of corpora in creating an empirical foundation for linguistics. We explore some important findings from corpus linguistics, and their cultural significance. We also discuss the limitations of automated text analysis.

7

MODULE 3:

A World of Language Variation

 

 

Language, context and text

Carrying over from the previous modules, we come down to details of the way we can describe our transactions with the world, context by context. We are not all members of the same social networks; we become exponents of different forms of discourse – you need a lawyer in court; an architect must defer to an engineer; sports, dance, music all have specific ways of meaning expressed in ways of saying… We divide up contexts into parameters or variables which help us keep track of what is going on. We build in the direction of things by following the choices that speakers make in that field, with a particular emotional tenor, and we examine the way the channel of communication determines aspects of what people can and cannot do in that mode. The tool is simple and allows us to decide how much we need for our social research questions.

 

Accent, register, dialect, code

When there is a different style of discourse for a different social context, this difference can be called register variation. In the previous lecture, we looked at how to bring out this kind of variation in our research by applying field, tenor, and mode. But how does register relate to the more obvious manifestations of a spoken language: namely, the accent someone exhibits, and the differences of dialect (words and grammar that separate the speakers whom we describe as ‘speaking’ the same language)? We set out the important distinctions in relation to the 3 terms: accent, register; dialect. We then move back to the different semantic expectations we have in the living of life – how authority is expressed; how it might be contested; how it leads us to make assumptions about something which is still ‘a work in progress’ – namely, what makes sense; how the world is to be ordered and regulated by a silent code.

 

9

A world of languages

100 years before Darwin proposed evolutionary “descent with modification”, linguists noted that languages appeared to change according to a system of family relationships. Today, the languages of the world present us with a mesmerising spectrum of practical ways of interrelating aspects of our social and material worlds. Languages sort out things, events, times, forms of evidence, human hierarchies, intimacies, predictions; agency; prominence of information…and so much more, into categories that we call grammar. To discover this breadth of variation between humans is much like finding a new continent with abundance of life forms not previously imagined. This raises many issues for us to ponder – the loss of ‘species’ of language as languages disappear; translation as an art; the experience of being bi-lingual; cross cultural thinking; and teaching! 

10

MODULE 4: Language, culture and education

 

Language and schooling: how culture shapes learning

What actually happens in a classroom? Is primary school an extension of home knowledge? What differences are there in the talk of teachers as we go up to high school and university? How are we different from peoples who did not learn to write and read? Are we stilling evolving through the cultural and mental tools we devise? Will computers change the way we think, feel, and work. Should language be more of a focus of schooling, or can we become good ‘users’ without explicit, objective enquiry into language? Given controls over press and other sources of information, do we need to emphasise the tools of reasoning in language in order to increase our critical powers?

11

Language and culture: language construing reality

How different are cultures – what are the extremes in viewing the world? How might languages give us clear evidence of different patterns of living? Linguists have been at the forefront of these questions about cultural relativism. We need to look at concrete cases of variation in dealing with the world through meaning – what is unacceptable, even heinous, in one culture can seem reasonable in another, or in the same culture in a different historical era (consider slavery, or capital punishment; but also attitudes to animals, forests, and the passing of time). How do such contrasts of custom come about? And how are we to discuss such clashes of interpretation when they ensnare communities or whole countries into conflicts?

12

The language brain

How language came about and its role in the evolution of the human brain IS the hottest topic in human sciences! Linguists are only a minor group in the choir of academic voices who lay claim to this topic: the language brain. Neuroscientists, biologists, philosophers have competed to interpret the most complex unit of matter in the cosmos. For a start the brain is not the beginning and end of our nervous system: language reminds us of our whole body and the links to those around us – we are part of a collective, and come to our personalities through dealing with other people – all the specific connections that we tried to represent in the lectures on social networks.

We review the implications of the most recent neuroscience in relation to the role of language: that is, language as an extension of evolution(do other species have languages, or sign systems?); and language in the construction of our inner lives. Ultimately, we look at the way language constructs that most subtle of all organs – the unique self.    

13

Course review and exam preparation

Exam review

 

 

Learning and Teaching Activities

Lecture

There is a one hour weekly lecture

Reading

e-Reserve hosts the weekly readings for this course. For some readings, there are accompanying videos to help you make sense of the reading material. These videos are hosted in unit website.

Tutorials

Tutorial attendance for the 2 days set aside for meetings of external students and teachers; preparation; and task completion constitutes 30% of the overall mark for this unit.

Assessment tasks

Assessment tasks are designed to help students engage in a focussed way with course concepts and to apply them to linguistic data.

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central. Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Academic Honesty Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.html

Assessment Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy_2016.html

Grade Appeal Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/gradeappeal/policy.html

Complaint Management Procedure for Students and Members of the Public http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/complaint_management/procedure.html​

Disruption to Studies Policy (in effect until Dec 4th, 2017): http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/disruption_studies/policy.html

Special Consideration Policy (in effect from Dec 4th, 2017): https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policies/special-consideration

In addition, a number of other policies can be found in the Learning and Teaching Category of Policy Central.

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/student_conduct/

Results

Results shown in iLearn, or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au.

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

Learning Skills

Learning Skills (mq.edu.au/learningskills) provides academic writing resources and study strategies to improve your marks and take control of your study.

Student Services and Support

Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Service who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.

Student Enquiries

For all student enquiries, visit Student Connect at ask.mq.edu.au

IT Help

For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/

When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.

Graduate Capabilities

Commitment to Continuous Learning

Our graduates will have enquiring minds and a literate curiosity which will lead them to pursue knowledge for its own sake. They will continue to pursue learning in their careers and as they participate in the world. They will be capable of reflecting on their experiences and relationships with others and the environment, learning from them, and growing - personally, professionally and socially.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Assessment task

  • Module study

Discipline Specific Knowledge and Skills

Our graduates will take with them the intellectual development, depth and breadth of knowledge, scholarly understanding, and specific subject content in their chosen fields to make them competent and confident in their subject or profession. They will be able to demonstrate, where relevant, professional technical competence and meet professional standards. They will be able to articulate the structure of knowledge of their discipline, be able to adapt discipline-specific knowledge to novel situations, and be able to contribute from their discipline to inter-disciplinary solutions to problems.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Begin the study of Linguistics as a formal discipline
  • Understand some of the complexities of studying language as a meaning making system
  • Recognize and analyse patterns in language
  • Relate these patterns to what language is doing for its speakers in a given social and cultural context
  • Understand how language grows and develops in human culture and individuals
  • Understand some of the ways that language varies in different cultures and contexts
  • Be familiar with basic tools and techniques for the study of language data
  • Make judgments about the social and cultural implications of linguistic patterns in natural language data

Assessment tasks

  • Tutorial tasks/preparation
  • Module study
  • A university, timetabled exam

Critical, Analytical and Integrative Thinking

We want our graduates to be capable of reasoning, questioning and analysing, and to integrate and synthesise learning and knowledge from a range of sources and environments; to be able to critique constraints, assumptions and limitations; to be able to think independently and systemically in relation to scholarly activity, in the workplace, and in the world. We want them to have a level of scientific and information technology literacy.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Begin the study of Linguistics as a formal discipline
  • Understand some of the complexities of studying language as a meaning making system
  • Recognize and analyse patterns in language
  • Relate these patterns to what language is doing for its speakers in a given social and cultural context
  • Understand how language grows and develops in human culture and individuals
  • Understand some of the ways that language varies in different cultures and contexts
  • Be familiar with basic tools and techniques for the study of language data
  • Make judgments about the social and cultural implications of linguistic patterns in natural language data

Assessment tasks

  • Tutorial tasks/preparation
  • Module study
  • A university, timetabled exam

Problem Solving and Research Capability

Our graduates should be capable of researching; of analysing, and interpreting and assessing data and information in various forms; of drawing connections across fields of knowledge; and they should be able to relate their knowledge to complex situations at work or in the world, in order to diagnose and solve problems. We want them to have the confidence to take the initiative in doing so, within an awareness of their own limitations.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Understand some of the complexities of studying language as a meaning making system
  • Recognize and analyse patterns in language
  • Relate these patterns to what language is doing for its speakers in a given social and cultural context
  • Understand how language grows and develops in human culture and individuals
  • Understand some of the ways that language varies in different cultures and contexts
  • Be familiar with basic tools and techniques for the study of language data
  • Make judgments about the social and cultural implications of linguistic patterns in natural language data

Assessment tasks

  • Tutorial tasks/preparation
  • Module study
  • A university, timetabled exam

Effective Communication

We want to develop in our students the ability to communicate and convey their views in forms effective with different audiences. We want our graduates to take with them the capability to read, listen, question, gather and evaluate information resources in a variety of formats, assess, write clearly, speak effectively, and to use visual communication and communication technologies as appropriate.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Begin the study of Linguistics as a formal discipline
  • Understand some of the complexities of studying language as a meaning making system
  • Recognize and analyse patterns in language
  • Relate these patterns to what language is doing for its speakers in a given social and cultural context
  • Understand how language grows and develops in human culture and individuals
  • Understand some of the ways that language varies in different cultures and contexts
  • Be familiar with basic tools and techniques for the study of language data
  • Make judgments about the social and cultural implications of linguistic patterns in natural language data

Assessment tasks

  • Tutorial tasks/preparation
  • Module study
  • A university, timetabled exam

Changes to assessment

We have changed the assessment tasks to comply with the new assessment policy. In addition, we are requiring separate submission of tutorial tasks.