Laboratory Phonology

Course description

Audience: B.A. students, approximately in the third semester.

Requirements: - Required: Basismodul in English linguistics is required. - Recommended: Enrollment in the Intermediate Module seminar “Phonetics/Phonology” is recommended, either in a previous semester or in the current semester. This is not required, but students will benefit from taking both courses together.

Description: Laboratory Phonology is the approach to studying phonology–the sound patterns in language–by using experiments. In this course, we will be particularly interested in answering questions about phonology using data from phonetics. Students will work together to conduct an original experimental study. Throughout the course, students will work collaboratively to design the project, collect data, analyze the data, and interpret results. Coronavirus guidelines permitting, this course will take place entirely in-person.

By the end of the course, students will: - gain experience working together on a complex project - formulate a hypothesis and empirical predictions - design and implement an experimental protocol - analyze data using appropriate software, e.g. Praat, R - visualize data - interpret the hypothesis in light of the results

Following the collaborative BN course, each student will write their own paper for the AP component of the Methodenmodul. All stages of the research and writing will be supported. The goal is for students to learn these skills in the course. For this reason, no background in phonetics, phonology, or statistics is assumed (other than the Basismodul).