USC Linguistics Dept.  GFS 335

Office hours:  Mon 1:00-2:00 and by appt

phone 821-1227
email: dbyrd at usc.edu

To Phonetics & Phonology Group Home Page

Class Meetings

Lecture: T, Th 11:00-12:20, THH 109.

Required Section:
1 hour/week, most weeks; Time to be decided at first lecture meeting

The section meetings are practical sessions including pronunciation & 

transcription practice, and help with laboratory exercises.   Later in 

the semester, section meeting may or may not take place at the 

discretion of the instructor, as students will be expected to be 

working on their projects during this time.

Class Website: www-rcf.usc.edu/~dbyrd/ling580.htm

Course Goals

•     To be able to recognize, produce, and transcribe the sounds that 
  occur in the world's languages;

•     To understand how these sounds are articulated and what their 
  acoustic characteristics are;

•     To begin to think about spoken language in an dynamic & ecological context.

Work

• reading
• listening and transcription exercises
• production practice, self-directed and in section
• homeworks, some laboratory exercises
  note: Late homeworks are not accepted without prior approval, and written assignments are not to be done collaboratively. Assignments must be legible; students may, at the instructor's discretion, be asked to type assignments. Phonetics fonts are available from SIL ; that or IPAKiel are available on many student computer room machines. Please turn in hardcopy to me.
• two written exams--midterm and final
• two practical exams
• transcription practical exam (given at final)
• production practical exam
• final project: a phonetic description of a language with which you are unfamiliar, accompanied by a recording of a speaker that documents your description.

Grades

• exam 1 20%
• exam 2 20%
• final project preview (abstract) 5%
• final project 20%
• transcription exam 10%
• production exam 10%
• homeworks 15%

Topic Outline

(for detailed Course Schedule and Assignments, click here to go to the Class Website)

Books

Ladefoged, P. (1981). A Course in Phonetics. 5th Ed. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Jovanovich (required).

Some readings will be made available for xeroxing, including from the following:

Johnson, K. (2003). Acoustic and Auditory Phonetics. 2nd Ed. Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers. (also available at bookstore)

Ladefoged, P. and Maddieson, I. (1996) The Sounds of the World's Languages. Blackwell.

Borden, G, Harris, K., and L. Raphael (1994). Speech Science Primer. 3rd ed. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins.

Other Info

Computer Use

Some of the work for this course will use resources available on-line, and some will require the 
Macintosh computer/software and audio equipment that is available in the Phonetics Computing 
Laboratory (GFS 334). The Laboratory will be made available with open hours in the weeks in 
which its resources are need for assignments.

E-mail

It would be useful if we can communicate with each other during the semester using electronic mail. 
In this way, you can be advised of changes in the exercise materials, and I can be advised of any 
problems that you encounter. Please indicate your email address on the information sheet.

Students with Disabilities (a notice from the Provost)

Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to 
register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester.  A letter of verification for 
approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP.  Please be sure the letter is delivered to 
me as early in the semester as possible, and at least 3 weeks before the first exam.  
DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30am-5:00pm, 
Monday through Friday.  The phone number for DSP is (213) 740-0776.

Final Exam Notice—Note that USC requires that:

"ALL INSTRUCTORS MUST ADHERE TO THE FINAL EXAMINATION  SCHEDULE. No deviations from 
this schedule are permitted for those  classes having a final examination unless 
authorized in advance by the Committee on Academic Policies and Procedures (CAPP)...
CAPP will not consider any request for rescheduling final examinations without unanimous 
written consent of all students in the class. No student in a course with a final examination 
is permitted to omit or anticipate a final examination, and no instructor is authorized to 
permit a student to do so." http://www.usc.edu/students/enrollment/classes/term_20043/index.html

To Course Outline