Introduction to the course¶

UPDATED FOR IDA!

Brain and Language, Fall 2021

LING 4110/5110 & NSCI 4110/6110

MWF 02:00 - 02:50 pm, GI 126A

Syllabus¶

Prerequisites¶

There aren’t any.

I do not take anything for granted and so will explain all background information, or at least suggest places where you can find it on your own.

Objectives¶

The objectives of this course are to understand:

how the brain is organized to comprehend and produce language,
the time course of language processing, and
language disorders attendant on brain damage.

Outcomes¶

For you to demonstrate your understanding of these objectives, you will perform the following tasks:

Take a quiz almost every Monday, during the first 10 minutes of class, covering the material since the previous Monday. No make-up quizzes will be given, but I will drop your lowest grade. [(13-1) * 8.3% = 1000%]. If you notify me of an absence early enough before a quiz, I will not hold it against you.
CANCELLED: Turn in a project by the final exam time, on a topic of your choice. Graduate students are expected to put more effort into the final project. [20%]

Class participation¶

There is no credit for class participation, but I will change a X- into a Y+ if I notice you participating in class.

Why no credit?

I will post my PowerPoint presentation to Canvas.
I will record every class and post it to Canvas.

Final project¶

FINAL EXAMS ARE CANCELLED!

Learning outcomes for Linguistics and Neuroscience¶

Todo

add this

Grade equivalences¶

89.5-91.4 A-	91.5-100 A
79.5-81.4 B-	81.5-87.4 B	87.5-89.4 B+
69.5-71.4 C-	71.5-77.4 C	77.5-79.4 C+
59.5-61.4 D-	66.5-67.4 D	67.5-69.4 D+
0-59.4 F

Code of Academic Conduct¶

The Code of Academic Conduct begins as so:

The integrity of the Newcomb-Tulane College is based on the absolute honesty of the entire community in all academic endeavors. As part of the Tulane University community, undergraduate students have certain responsibilities regarding work that forms the basis for the evaluation of their academic achievement. Students are expected to be familiar with these responsibilities at all times. No member of the university community should tolerate any form of academic dishonesty because the scholarly community of the university depends on the willingness of both instructors and students to uphold the Code of Academic Conduct. When a violation of the Code of Academic Conduct is observed it is the duty of every member of the academic community who has evidence of the violation to take action. Students should take steps to uphold the code by reporting any suspected offense to the instructor or the Associate Dean of Newcomb-Tulane College. Students should under no circumstances tolerate any form of academic dishonesty.

For the rest of it and further information, point your browser at Code of Academic Conduct.

Students with disabilities¶

Students with disabilities who need academic accommodation should:

Contact the Goldman Center for Student Accessibility.
Bring official notice to me from them indicating the sort of accommodation that you need. This should be done before the first quiz.

Schedule of topics¶

There is no textbook, because the only ones available are out of date. I will try to get you to the bleeding edge in neurolinguistics by the reading of the most up-to-date review and research articles that are appropriate for an introductory course. There will usually be one or two pdfs posted to Blackboard for you to read in conjunction with my guidance in the chapters below. It should take you 2-3 hours of preparation per class day.

Day	_Date_	Wkdy	Topic	Quiz
1	23 Aug	M	Overview of the course
2	25 Aug	W	Fields of linguistics
3	27 Aug	F	Learning & philosophy of teaching
4	13 Sep	M	Frequency
5	15 Sep	W	Speech 1
6	17 Sep	F	Speech 2
7	20 Sep	M	Perception	Q1
8	22 Sep	W	Auditory transduction
	24 Sep	F	FALL BREAK
9	27 Sep	M	Subcortical audition (in person)	Q2
10	29 Sep	W	Neuron
11	01 Sep	F	Macrostructure and models
12	04 Sep	M	Auditory cortex 4	Q3
13	06 Sep	W	STG and STS
14	08 Sep	F	Phonological network 2
15	11 Sep	M	Wernicke’s aphasia	Q4
16	13 Sep	W	Dorsal stream
17	15 Oct	F	Sensorimotor interface 1
18	18 Oct	M	Sensorimotor interface 2	Q5
19	20 Oct	W	Articulatory network 1
20	22 Oct	F	Articulatory network 2
21	25 Oct	M	Articulatory network 3	Q6
22	27 Oct	W	Articulatory network 4
23	29 Oct	F	Ventral pathway
24	01 Oct	M	Lexical interface 1	Q7
25	03 Oct	W	Lexical interface 2
26	05 Oct	F	Lexical interface 3
27	08 Oct	M	Lexical interface 4	Q8
28	10 Oct	W	Lexical interface 5
29	12 Nov	F	Lexical interface 6
30	15 Nov	M	Morphology 1	Q9
31	17 Nov	W	Morphology 2
32	19 Nov	F	Syntax 1
	22 Nov	M	THANKSGIVING
	24 Nov	W	THANKSGIVING
	26 Nov	F	THANKSGIVING
33	29 Nov	M	Syntax 2	Q10
34	01 Dec	W	Syntax 3
35	03 Dec	F	Syntax 4
36	06 Dec	M	Syntax 5	Q11
37	08 Dec	W	Syntax 6
38	10 Dec	F	Discourse 1
39	13 Dec	M	Discourse 2	Q12
40	15 Dec	W	Discourse 3
41	17 Dec	F	Discourse 4
42	21 Dec	Tu	The last day	Q13

Final exam day¶

FINAL EXAMS ARE CANCELLED!

About us¶

About me¶

Prof. Harry Howard
Office hours: MTW 3-4 pm & by appointment in Newcomb Hall 322-D

About you¶

At this point in the class, I ask everyone to interview a person sitting near them to find out …

his or her name and major;
where he or she is from;
what he or she knows about linguistics and/or neuroscience;

… and to be prepared to report what they have learned to the class.

However, there are too many of us to do this in any kind of efficient way, so let’s do it online. I would like to use Canvas, but it has eaten the NSCI sections, so I will get back to you later.

Graduate students¶

Any graduate students should see me briefly after class.

Powerpoint and podcast¶

Aug 28 (M), day 1: there is no Powerpoint nor podcast for today; everything is in this document.

The next topic¶

Come to class having read Fields of linguistics and answered the questions.

Last edited Oct 31, 2021