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Slavic 871

Language, Culture and Cognition

Spring 2005

Instructor: Dr. Ludmila Isurin

Isurin.1@osu.edu

When: M 2:30-5:18 p.m.

Where: CC 348

Credits: 3-5

Office hour: Thursday 11:00-12:00 and by appointment, Hagerty#338

Material: a packet of selected readings (to be purchased at Cop-Ez)

The goal of the seminar is to take a closer look at the hypothesis of linguistic relativity and how it has recently been approached by scientists. Semantic metalanguage, cross-cultural studies of the emotion lexicon, lexical coding of color, kinship terminology, lexical categorization, grammatical categories, etc. will be among the topics of the seminar. Students will be able to explore the area of their interest in the language of their study and conduct a small-scale research.

The final grade will be based on the following criteria:

Those who are enrolled for 5 credits:

  • Presentation of the reading 20% (10%x2)
  • Presentation of the research proposal 10%
  • Course paper 40%
  • Peer review 20%
  • Class participation 10%

* Those who are enrolled for 3 credits will be exempted from writing a paper. The rest of the requirements remain the same with the following distribution of points:

  • Presentation of the reading 40% (20%x2)
  • Presentation of the research proposal 25%
  • Peer review 25%
  • Class participation 10%

Presentation of the selected reading (students should sign up on March, 28):

Students will be responsible for presenting two readings from the packet of required readings (each should come from a different topic)
  • The format of presentation (all required parts, i.e., introduction, methodology/research, conclusion, reaction) are presented
  • The ability to lead the discussion
  • The reaction part shows the student's ability to provide constructive criticism
  • Was the material presented in a clear way?
  • Did the student make the presentation interesting?
  • Handouts for the listeners
  • Length of the presentation (15 min.)

Total:

10%

30%

20%

10%

10%

15%

5%

100%

Presentation of the research proposal(due April 18-April 25)

1. general ideas (abstracts) of, at least, 3 new articles 45%

2. experimental/ research design pertaining to the selected topic,

i.e. subjects, method, stimuli, type of analysis - qualitative or quantitative 45%

3. handout 10%.

Total: 100%

Research paper

Due Dates: 1. students choose the area of their interest by April 4

2. students should finish a draft for a peer review by May 23

  • 3. students should get the papers back from a review by May 31

4. final draft should be submitted to the instructor by June 6.

By the second week of the quarter, students are supposed to choose one of the topics of the seminar for their research paper. If they want to research an area that is not reflected in the topics of the seminar, they should first discuss it with the instructor. The research paper should be of the following format:

  • Introduction 10%
  • Literature review/ research background with your critique

(based on, at least, 3 new articles not discussed in class) 30%

  • Proposed experimental/ research design to contribute to the field 40%
  • Reaction to the peer review * 20%

Total: 100%

The length of the paper is 8-10 pages (double spaced)

Reaction to the peer review (at least, 1.5 pages)*

In addition to the final draft of the paper, you should submit a written response to the review. You should acknowledge the changes that you found important to make due to the critique provided by your classmate or defend your point of view and justify the reason why you choose not to make changes.

Peer paper review (paper for submission to a peer's review is due: May 23)

papers should be returned from peer reviewers by May 31)

It is important for you to learn how to review your colleagues' articles in the future. Thus you will be required to provide a critique to the draft of your classmate's paper. Your critique should reflect:

  • General idea of the paper 20%
  • Benefits of the research 30%
  • Criticism of shortcomings 30%
  • Suggestions for the improvement 20%

Total: 100%

Class participation:

Attendance is mandatory. Students should demonstrate their preparedness for each class, active participation in and significant contribution to class discussions.

Failure to meet the deadline for any assignment will result in a penalty of 5% off that assignment.

SYLLABUS

Date

Topic

Required Readings

03.28.05

Introduction to the course.

History of the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis

due: students should sign up for presentations of the selected readings.

04.04.05

Anthropological Linguistics and Linguistic Relativity

due: students should choose the area of their interest/research
  • Benjamin Whorf(1939), The Relation of Habitual Thought and Behavior to Language
  • Wallace Chafe (2000), Loci of Diversity and Convergence in Thought and Language.

04.11.05

Cognitive Linguistics and Linguistic Relativity
  • Leigh A. Caskey-Sirmons & Nancy P. Hickerson (1977), Semantic Shift in Bilingualism: Variation in the color terms of five languages
  • David B. Kronenfeld (2000), Language and Thought. Collective Tools for Individual Use
  • Alfred H. Bloom (1981), The Distinctive Cognitive Legacies of English and Chinese

04.18.05

Cross-cultural Pragmatics and Linguistic Relativity

due: research presentations
  • Bert Peeters (2000), 'S'Enager' vs.'To Show Restraint'. Linguistic and Cultural Relativity in Discourse Management
  • Juliane House (2000), Linguistic Relativity and Translation
  • Anna Wierzbicka (1992), Linguistic Evidence for Ethnopsychology and Ethnophylosophy:
  1. Soul, Mind, and Heart
  2. Fate and Destiny

04.25.05

Studies on Semantics and Lexical Categories

due: research presentations
  • Anna Wierzbicka (1992), Moral Concepts Across Cultures
  1. Apatheia, Smirenie, Humility

b. Courage, Bravery, Recklessness

  • Melissa Bowerman & Soonja Choi (2001), Shaping Meanings for Language: Universal and language specific in the acquisition of spatial semantic categories.
  • Gary B. Palmer and Claudia Woodman (2000), Ontological Classifiers as Polycentric Categories, as Seen in Shona Class 3 Nouns.

05.02.05

Studies on Grammatical Categories
  • John Lucy & Suzanne Gaskins (2001), Grammatical Categories and the Development of Classification Preferences: A comparative approach
  • John Lucy (1992), Cognitive Assessment

05.09.05

Studies on Grammatical Categories
  • Balthasar Bickel (2000), Grammar and Social Practice. On the Role of 'Culture' in Linguistic Relativity
  • Alfred H. Bloom (1981), The Distinctive Cognitive Legacies of English and Chinese
  • Mutsumi Imai (2000), Universal Ontological Knowledge and a Bias toward Language-Specific Categories in the Construal of Individuation.
  • Dan Slobin (2000), Verbalized Events. A Dynamic Approach to Linguistic Relativity and Determinism

05.16.05

Cross-cultural Studies on Emotions
  • Michael Maratos, Demetra Katis, Annalisa Marcheri (2000), Can Grammar Make You Feel Different?,
  • Gary Palmer, Heather Bennett, and Les Stacey (1999), Bursting with Grief, Erupting with Shame. A Conceptual and Grammatical Analysis of Emotion-Tropes in Tagalog.

05.23.05

L2 acquisition and Linguistic Relativity

due: paper for a peer's review
  • Howard Grabois (1999), The Convergence of Socio-Cultural Theory and Cognitive Linguistics: Lexical Semantics and the L2 Acquisition of Love, Fear and Happiness
  • Aneta Pavlenko (2002), Conceptual Change in Bilingual Memory: a Neo-Whorfian Approach

05.31.05

due: papers should be returned from peer reviewers

06.06.05

due: final draft of the paper