From
SENATE COMMITTEE ON UNDERGRADUATE
STUDIES
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SENATE
All
SiMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
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MEMORANDUM
Subject
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PROPOSAL FOR A MAJOR IN LINGUISTICS
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Date JULY 26, 1974
MOTION:
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"That Senate approve, as set forth in S.74-99
the proposal for a Major in Linguistics."
(Note: The intent is that this Major will commence in the
Fall semester 1975.)
At its meeting of 23rd July, the Senate Committee on
Undergraduate Studies considered the attached proposal for a
Major in Linguistics. it is now transmitted to Senate for its
consideration; and the Committee recommends that it be approved.
The Committee wished to draw the attention of Senate
to a number of features of this proposal. First, it is the
intention of the Department of Modern Languages that, should
this proposal be approved by Senate, it will be put into effect
in the Fall semester, 1975. Second, the Calendar entry for
this proposal is included in the letter from Professor Newton
to the Chairman of the Faculty of Arts Curriculum Committee,
dated 24th May, 1974. Third, the proposal represents no additions
to the course offerings of the Department of Modern Languages, but
rather a rearrangement of courses presently being offered.
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I Mugridge
ams
att.
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SiMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
MEMORANDUM
Boland,
oland, Chairman,
From
...........................................................................
Arts Curriculum Committee
Date. ?
July
.
10, 1-9.7.41.71
Dr. I. Mugridge, Chairman,
Senate
.... Comm
.
ittëe
....
On
... Under grad...
Studies
Subect
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Proposal for a Major in
I.............LiigiIi
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tic....................................................................
.
At its meeting of June 13, 1974, the Arts Curriculum Committee
passed the following motion.
"That the Committee approve the proposal documented
in C. 84-1 for a major in Linguistics."
Would you please place this proposal and the attached documentation
on the agenda for the next meeting of SCUS.
Thank you.
L.A. Boland
VP
Attach.
cc: Dr. C. Bouton, Chairman,
Modern Languages
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SiMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
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X-31
MEMORANDUM
From..'.
Mugri dge
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..
A istantVice-President, .,c.admic
Date .......
J111Y,..... 197...................
I am attaching a copy of material on the proposal
for a major in linguistics, submitted by the Faculty of Arts
Curriculum Committee. This should be placed on the agenda of
the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies as soon as
possible.
I Mugrthge
ams
S
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att.
Scus
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SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY, BURNABY 2, B.C., CANADA
DEPARTMENT OF MODERN LANGUAGES: 291-3111
The Chairman,
Arts Faculty Curriculum Committee,
Simon Fraser University.
May 24, 1974.
Dear Dr. Boland,
Towards the end of the fall 1973 semester I submitted on behalf
of the Department a proposal for the introduction of a major program
in
Linguistics, It was agreed at the Arts Faculty Curriculum Committee
of December 6 (reference in minutes "c. 77-6") that a motion for
approval in principle be delayed until consultation had taken place
between members of the Linguistics division and the Philosophy Dept.
regarding the incorporation of Philosophy 344 and 444, and with the
Psychology Dept. regarding the incorporation of Psychology 365 and
465. This consultation took place in Spring (Dr. Roberts acting for
me during my research semester) and at the meeting of the Linguistics
Division of May 23 a motion was carried that the Calendar be amended
to include immediately under "Course Requirements" (p. 126, 1974-75
edition) the following:
"A major program
in
Linguistics is offered consisting of the
following courses:
-Lower levels : LING. 130-3, 220-3, 221-3
-To be taken
in
the upper levels : At least 30 hours of which 21
comprise LING. 401-3, 402-3, 403-3, 404-3, 405-3, 406-3, 407-3 and the
remaining 9 hours to he selected from other upper division courses in
General Linguistics, French, German, Spanish or Russian Linguistics,
Philosophy 344-3, 444-5, or psychology 365-3. Students intending to
take a Major in Linguistics are strongly advised to combine it with a
Major or Minor in a language."
I therefore wish to resubmit our proposal as formulated above. The
general justification remains as in our original submission (copy
attached). I may add, however, that the Linguistics Division agrees
wholeheartedly with the interdisciplinary trend implied in this reformulation.
C
is
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S.
There is no doubt that many topics in Linguistics as commonly understood
nowadays constitute a highly specialized area within cognitive psychology
and that the recent phenomenal interest in Linguistic semantics has done
much to tie in traditional philosophical issues in theory of meaning with
the work going on in transformational grammar. Secondly my comments in the
earlier submission regarding student interest may be supplemented by the
observation that enrolment in Linguistics courses is up over 40% compared
to last summer.
sincerely,
Cv
W
Brian Newton
Chairman, Linguistics Division
Acting Chairman, DML Graduate
Studies Committee.
C
?
c.c. Dr. Ch. P. Bouton, D.M.L.
Dr. L. Resnick, Philosophy.
Dr. M. Coles, Psychology.
Charles Bouton
Chairman, D.M.L.
BN/FIH
0
P
roposal to Introduce Linguistics Major
•
The Department of Modern Languages, at its plenary meeting
of November 20, voted unanimoily to instruct me, as Chairman of the
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Linguistics Division, to initiate procedures for the introduction of a
major degree program in Linguistics.
The only calendar change which would be entailed by this
development would be as follows:
"Course Requirements
(Present wording) A minor in Linguistics is offered consisting
•
.
Iof
the following courses:
Lower Leve]s
130-3, 220-3,
221-3
To be taken in the Up p
er Levels At least 15 hours at 400-division
(Proposed Change)
W ?
"Both a major and minor in Linguistics are offered consist
n of
the following courses
Lower Levels (as above)
To
be taken in the Upper Levels At least 30 hours (for major) or
at least 15 hours (for minor) at 400-division
.It
There are many reasons why the Department feels that it is appropriate
to apply for the introduction of a major in Linguistics at the present moment.
I mention four
(a) We already have a minor program in Linguistics to graduate in
which students select five of a total of thirteen 3-credit-courses each of which
is offered at least once a year; students proposing to major would select te
of these same courses, so that no additional demands of any nature would be
r.
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imposed on our personel and space resources. The schedule which has
been approved departmentally for the period up to fall
1975
would stand
exactly as it is and there would be no reason to depart from the pattern
on which it is modelled in the immediate future.
(b)
Since its inception the Department has offered a Ph.D. program
•
in
Linguistics alone of the three areas taught at the undergraduate level
(French, German, Spanish, Russian languages, the literatures in these
languages, linguistics). Yet while majors in one of our four languages have
been available it has not been possible to major in just that subject which
• •. •
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•. is taught at the graduate level. One of the results of this situation has been
: that
practically all our graduate students have entered the graduate program
from outside SF11. This has been a continuing source of difficulties; in
particular it has been very hard to develop a properly integrated sequence of
• ?
'••
Linguistics courses at both leiels and often quite frustrating to have to
teach graduate students who may know less on a given topic than our own
undergraduate students majoring in a language.
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The introduction of a major
would considerably
enhance the efficiency of our Linguistics program as a
whole.
(c) ?
Although no attempt has been made to secure precise numerical
data, it
is
the experience of everyone involved in our Linguistics program
that
there has been a steadily developing show of student interest in a
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linguistics major.
?
If figures are to be cited we may point to the fact that
while the overall enrollment in some language courses has fallen dramatically
over the years, yet demand for linguistics has remained steady,
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indeed this
• • ?
semester, in spite of the fact that our largest Division (French), dropped
its requirement for a Linguistics component
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in its major, our total
'Linguistics enrollment went up from 127 (fall
1972) to 156-(fall
1973,
figure
for
September
30)
3
(d) Our reasons for believing that students should take
Linguistics at all remain as outlined in, e.g., our previous submission
regarding course reorganization. To repeat, most of our students will
probably continue to study linguistics because of its intimate relevance
to the theory and practice of language teaching and learning. To teach
a foreign language, in addition to knowing it, one must 'know about' it.
This entails an understanding of its phonetics, its grhinatica1 structure
and its semantic organization. While individual features under these heads
may be language-specific the essential characteristics of linguistic
• ?
• organization vary but little from one language to the other and modern
linguistic theory
isP..
largely concerned with the universal aspects of human
language of which individual languages provide instances; in particular the
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student of linguistics acquaints himself with those concepts in terms of
which his knowledge of a language can be both organized and conveyed. Effective
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material selection, drill preparation, teaching techniques, teaching aid
evaluation, and ultimately pedagogic efficiency all depend to a large extent
on
the application of the tools provided by Linguistics. We feel that a
student with a good knowledge of a language who has followed a course of
• ?
study in our Linguistics program has as effective a tool for the job of
language teaching as is available in the modern university. It is anticipated
• ?
that many students contemplating a career in language teaching will prefer
to combine a major in Linguistics with a minor in their chosen language rather
• • •
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• than take the option open to them at present of minoring in Linguistics and
• ?
•
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majoring
in
the language. Furthermore, assuming the acceptance of the present
submission, the prospect of a language and linguistics double major will
doubtless open up. A perusal of any selection of relevant advertisements
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will show that some knowledge of Linguistics is now recognized generally
as an essential qualification for language teaching. The demand for highly
qualified 'applied linguists' will undoubtedly increase in Canada as both
bilingualism and the teaching of the two official languages to immigrants
continue to receive systematic attention.
• ?
More generally a course in Linguistics might benefit the student's
appreciation and undertanding of his own language. In an age when the
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flood of published and spoken verbal input is increasing at a rate unparalleled
In the history of mankind systematic knowledge of linguistic communication become.
- particularly relevant. The range of grammatical and semantic devices
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• available in a
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and embodied in its numerous styles (colloquial,
legal, scientific, literary, commercial, political etc.) can be more
effectively studied given the appropriate analytical tools. Linguistics is
certainly not meant to replace traditional literary studies, but it can
• complement them by inculcating careful observation and investigation of the
facets of language which come under its purview - phonological, grammatical
and syntactic structures.
?
••
There are doubtless other practical reasons for studying Linguistics
(its application to speech therapy, machine translation, automatization of
• speech recognition and synthesis etc.) but the main attraction of Linguistics
to some students will continue to lie in the significance of language in
human thinking and all forms of social interaction. The study of the
acquisition and use of language can illuminate many important aspects of
• ?
• human cognitive processes. Linguistics in its modern connotation is
• •
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largely concerned with defining the function which relates the child's
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linguistic imput (the words, phrases, sentences it hears) to its
linguistic output (its practical command of linguistic structures) and
in general it is probably true that as much detailed information has been
accumulated and analysed as in any of the social sciences. The study of
language largely coextends with the study of the specifically human
•
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attributes of homo sapiens. It is thus that at a time when the significance
of interdisciplinany studies is gaining increasing recognition in universities,
• Linguistics can play a crucial role. Our own experience has shown that
students specializing in areas such as Psychology, Anthropology and English
• ?
are likely to obtain useful insights into the areas of concern to them; again
• ?
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the option of a possible double major should appeal to some students. It
• •
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should be emphasized that Linguistics has much to offer to students with
no
particular desire to qualify in foreign languages.
.05;55
•.
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Bian Newton
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Chairman, Linguistics Division,
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Department of Modern Languages
November 20,
1973.
