The project for this course involves the development of an experiment that addresses one of the major issues raised in the readings or during the lectures and discussion, related to topics such as the inventory of lexical features, their theoretical basis, their acoustic and articulatory correlates, and their function in language and speech. Students are encouraged to carry out at least some part of the proposed experiment, even if only in pilot form, in consultation with one or more of the presenters. Oral presentations of the projects will be scheduled for the final two class meetings of the semester.
The following paper-from the Spring 2004 version of the course-is illustrative of the expectations for the final project. It appears here courtesy of the author and is used with permission:
Cable. Seth. "Iterative Rounding Spread in Tlingit (Lingít): A Puzzle for Theories of Contrast." 2004. (PDF)
The following topics, also from Spring 2004, were titles of students' final projects: