Course Syllabus

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS

Instructor: Patrick Farrell
contact info and office hours
530-848-2874
pmfarrell@ucdavis.edu

TAs

	Milly Ciochina	lmidrigan@ucdavis.edu	Sections A01 (M 8:00 - 8:50 AM) and A10 (F 8:00 - 8:50 AM)
	Rachael Duke	rebrim@ucdavis.edu	Section A02 (W 8:00 - 8:50 AM)
	Claire Henderson	cehenderson@ucdavis.edu	Sections A05 (T 3:10 - 4:00 PM) and A07 (T 8:00 - 8:50 AM)
	Amy Lombardi	ajlombardi@ucdavis.edu	Section A06 (W 5:10 - 6:00 PM)
	Jeff Moran	jcmoran@ucdavis.edu	Sections A04 (R 9:00 - 9:50 AM) and A09 (F 1:10 - 2:00 PM)
	Miranda Morris	mirmor@ucdavis.edu	Section A08 (F 12:10 - 1:00 PM)
	Yuxiang Wang	yxwang@ucdavis.edu	Section A03 (M 4:10 - 5:00 PM)

The COURSE GRADE is to be computed from average scores (on a 100 point scale) for assignments and activities that are weighted, summed, and converted to a letter grade. The TEST scores combined have a weight of 40%. The TERM PROJECT score, the PARTICIPATION score, and the score for DISCUSSIONS and COLLABORATIONS are each worth 20%. The total score for the course is rounded up to a whole number in order to convert to a letter grade:

If the rounded sum is ≥ 98 then A+
otherwise, if ≥ 93 then A
otherwise, if ≥ 90 then A-
otherwise, if ≥ 88 then B+
otherwise, if ≥ 83 then B, and so on

You can earn up to 100 points for participation. Points can be accumulated in the following ways:

• up to 40 points for online course activity (amount + quiz scores)
• up to 40 points for section attendance
• up to 20 points for particularly effective contributions to online discussions and collaborations
• 10 points for registering on ARKAIVE for attendance and correctly setting up your Canvas profile, with photo of yourself and your Google Drive account registered.
• up to 20 points for the final exam (= oral presentation of term project)
• up to 20 points for an outstanding term project, such as one that yields a document or video that can be part of this course in the future

For the PARTICIPATION score, points just accumulate in various score categories and are summed and added to the grading schema at the end of the course. It's possible to get more than the maximum of 100. If this happens, it could, in principle, provide motivation for bumping you to a higher grade category in case of a really close call (such as a total course score on the borderline of an A-, like 89.4). You should also bear in mind that only exceptional results will yield points in the ways described in #3 and #6 above. More details about the scoring procedure for participation can be found in the description of the assignment PARTICIPATION SUMMED, which is the name of the column in the grade book where the summed participation score will be entered at the end of the quarter.

ATTENDANCE will be taken at the weekly face-to-face class meetings (sections) using Arkaive.com.

How this works is that you download the Akaive app and sign up or sign in using the enrollment code shown below for your section. Then, you make sure that location services are turned on on your device and register your presence in the classroom during the first 30 minutes of each section meeting. If you have to miss any section meeting, you can either attend a different one, by simply using the enrollment code for that section to register your attendance, or request an excusal through the Arkaive app. For more information, click here.

The various assignments and assessments will be made available in a staggered fashion, such that everyone is working on the same topics in the same time frame. There is a summary of the various ASSIGNMENTS at the bottom of this page. But, you can also click on ASSIGNMENTS in the menu on the left for a slightly different view. They should also show up on your CALENDAR (dark grey menu, far left) and in your Canvas notifications, which you can adjust to your liking, using ACCOUNT (top of far left menu) > NOTIFICATIONS.

If you want to read a standard textbook that covers the same topics that this course does, some potentially viable choices are: Fromkin and Rodman, Language Files, and Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction. Look for older editions to save money, as the newer editions generally aren't much different.