Splash Biography

LEAH CHAPMAN, ESP Teacher

Major: Linguistics

College/Employer: UChicago

Year of Graduation: 2015

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Not Available.

Past Classes

(Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

A1382: Building Language in Cascade Fall 2014 (Oct. 21, 2014)

People have been creating their own languages for a long time, from Lord of the Rings and Star Trek to Esperanto and Game of Thrones. In this class, we will look at what it takes to create a language from scratch, all the while making our own conlang, or constructed language. This will include an introduction to linguistics looking at a variety of natural languages, from English to Turkish and Arabic, as well as created languages, from Elvish to Dothraki, incorporating what we learn into our own language.

L1333: Intro to Linguistics in Splash Fall 2014 (Oct. 04, 2014)

This class will explore what linguistics is and introduce students to basic language analysis from phonology (the sounds of language), to syntax (how words are put together), to semantics (how meaning is associated with language).

L1334: The History of the English Langauge in Splash Fall 2014 (Oct. 04, 2014)

A fun an informative look at English and how it got to be the way it is today.

L1335: Dialects and Prejudice in Splash Fall 2014 (Oct. 04, 2014)

We generally only think about what we say, not how we say it. However, there are a lot of differences between how people speak, even within the same city. This class looks at how we speak and the implications and ramifications of that.

L1336: Language Myths in Splash Fall 2014 (Oct. 04, 2014)

Ever wonder if your English teacher was wrong when they corrected your speech, and you were really right all along? This class will explore just that, whether the rules about English that we were taught in school are real, or just a bunch of lies.

A1260: Myth and Reality in Language in Cascade! Winter 2014 (Jan. 28, 2014)

Kids don’t know how to talk these days, right? For example, ever had someone tell you that you can’t say “they” to mean a single person? Probably. But did you know that even Shakespeare used “they” this way? He wrote: “one knocks! Hark, how they knock!” in Romeo and Juliet over 400 years ago, so why do we have rules like this, if great writers (including Jane Austen, Lewis Carroll, and more) don’t follow them? Who decides what’s “right” in a language? Should there even be rules? In this class, we will talk about how languages really work, using historical examples of language change, formal linguistics, and modern-day examples of dialects and language use to get to the root of why differing opinions about language exist.