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Winter 2026

LING 299 Special Topics in Linguistics (Lec 850 - online)

Topic Title: Sounds of English

Description: This course examines how the sounds of English are formed, in which contexts they occur, and how they interact with each other. Students will also learn about the rhythm of English and how intonation is adjusted in different kinds of sentences. The course is focused on General Canadian English, but we will also examine some of the phonetic differences between English varieties. No previous knowledge of linguistics is required.

Instructor: TBA

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 LING 299 Special Topics in Linguistics (Lec B1)

Topic Title: Language and the Internet

MWF 1000-1050

Description: Everyone is used to thinking of language as speech and as writing, but language in the digital age seems to work differently, in ways that delight some and horrify others. This course introduces students to linguistics through the lens of the various venues for digital language use on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, in digital media like YouTube and blogs, and elsewhere. Students will learn about the many sides of digital language, as well as the descriptive and analytical tools that linguists use as we discover patterns, identify connections with pre-digital forms of language, and assess the communicative, social, and technological forces that drive these behaviours. We cover internet slang, compare different generations of people on the internet, look at emojis and automation, and more.

Instructor:  Tim Mills

 

LING 299 Special Topics in Linguistics (Lec B2)

Topic Title: Metaphor in Language and Mind

MWF 1200-1250

Description: Metaphor has long been thought of as only a kind of figure of speech--a way to talk about one thing (e.g., a very difficult examination in a class), with words about some other thing (e.g., a root canal), for instance by saying, “That test was a total root canal”.

Recent findings from Linguistics, Psychology and Cognitive Science, however, have shown that metaphor is much broader that just a figure of speech.  Our very thoughts about many things are organized metaphorically (we talk about accomplishments as movements through physical spaces because we actually think about accomplishments this way—as in saying/thinking, “It has been a long road, with many obstacles and pitfalls along the way, but we’ve finally reached our goal on this project”).

And indeed, more recent research has explored metaphor not only in language and thought, but also in virtually any human-created thing, from images through music, to architecture and other concretely designed and built things, to even our fundamental abstract concepts like morality, social relationships, love, and life.

The course will take students on a tour of the theoretical developments that have brought us to this understanding, including many of the fascinating studies that back it up.  It also deals with many areas that this understanding of metaphor impacts (e.g., logic, science, politics, advertising, sports, and a huge variety of others).

The course should appeal to a wide diversity of students from EFS, Linguistics, Psychology, and many others.  It is designed for students from broad backgrounds, who have an interest in how our very nature as thinking and communicating beings, works.

This course may also be used as credit in an English Major.

Instructor: Herb Colston