Iowa State University
Speech Communication 305

Language, Thought & Action ["Semantics"]

Contacting Me	Prof. Jean Goodwin goodwin@iastate.edu 223 Ross, Mon 10-12, Wed 3-5, & freely by appointment (complete contact info)
About this course	This course promises to make you curious about language, asking: What? What kinds of meanings does language create? So What? Why does it matter what language does? How? How can we know what language does?
Core course documents	Syllabus* Exam FAQ* Final project assignment*
Course Materials/Readings (most recent first)	About Speech Acts (Tuesday): Read the material online at Speech Acts and practice by taking the quiz Read What is a Speech Act? and from the same site, about Requests and Complaints, linked from this page More about Speech Acts (Thursday): Read about apologies Optional: If you're considering a final project on politeness, consider these additional readings to help: Some workplace examples A brief discussion Wikipedia Final project assignment* Ethnography Homework & Politeness Poster assignments* About Greetings: Conversation Analysis: a tutorial (be sure to work through all the steps) One sample CA: Mobile Phone greetings* Implicature reading: "Meaning between the lines", especially the practice exercises Unit II case* Background on Chappaquiddick: Wikipedia on Ted Kennedy Background "information" from the accident, from an anti-Kennedy website (use with caution) About Deaf Culture: American Deaf Culture (Note: this site also has a good section on ASL) Deaf Culture (Note: Another good site for other information) Sound And Fury: the website for the documentary we'll watch Tuesday Sample essay question answer About oral and literate cultures--a summary of a book by Walter Ong. Here is also a slightly longer version of Ong's list of the differences between oral and literate ways of thinking. "God Terms" Group presentation assignment.* An anthropologist collects evidence about the meaning of the godterm "fun"* About umami Experts & Novices: Read first two sections ("Meaningful Patterns" and "Organization") Unit I case and Translation homework/group poster First Group Assignment: Evolve a Language & Group Contract One translation of Genesis, chapters 1 & 2 Herodotus on the first language One hypothesis about the origins of language*
*Note	Materials marked with a "*" are in "pdf" or "Acrobat" format. For information and to download a free copy of the Acrobat Reader, try the Extension's PDF page.

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Last updated 4 Jan 2006.
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