Professor Herb Colston, the Chair of the Department of Linguistics is offering 2 special topics courses in Winter, 2015. Professor Colston received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz. His field is the Psychology of Language and he investigates among other things, how people comprehend and use figurative and indirect language. Please see below a description of the courses being offered.
LING 399 - Meta-Linguistics
Winter Semester, M-W-F, 12:00-1:00 p.m.
Prerequisites: LING 101 or PSYC 104
If you have ever said or heard someone say that, "how something is said" is crucial to understanding the meaning of what was said, then this course is for you. Meta-Linguistics refers to all of the communicative, psychological, cultural and other information and behavior that wraps around language itself when people talk. Things like images, emotion, gesture and facial expressions, as well as the nature of the conversational topic, the relationship between the speakers, and the physical context in which the interaction is happening, and even the appearances and goals of the speakers, are all part of Meta-Linguistics. These things interact in interesting ways with the actual language used, to affect what people comprehend, and how they continue to communicate.
LING 499/599 - Seminar in Figurative and Indirect Language
Winter Semester, TH, 1:00-4:00 p.m.
Prerequisites: For 499: LING 101 or PSYC 104 or consent of instructor
For 599: Consent of instructor
The seminar will first review the history of research on figurative and indirect language, including the theories proposed and tested to explain the use and comprehension of these language forms, as well as the empirical methods used to evaluate figurative cognition, the development of the forms in children, and the state of the art of current research. The focus will then turn to several particular figurative or indirect forms (e.g., metaphor, irony, hyperbole, idioms, indirect requests, metonymy) and question whether their use and comprehension can be explained by a holistic account, or if it would instead require piecemeal explanations for different forms.
If you have any questions about enrollment, please contact Diane McKen, undergraduate administrator Dept. of Linguistics.