Introduction and syllabus

Human Language and Interaction; Dr. Marisa Casillas�

https://chatterlab.uchicago.edu/courses/hli2026/casillas-hli-spring2026-syllabus/

Marisa Casillas

Assistant professor Comparative Human Development

Research domains: Psycholinguistics, developmental psychology, cross-cultural comparison

Broad research interests: How everyday conversation and affects language learning and real-time language processing, how children learn language

Places I’ve lived: California (SoCal>NorCal>SoCal>NorCal), Nijmegen (The Netherlands), and Chicago!

Hobbies: Cooking, running, picnicking at the Point, hanging out with family and friends

Looking forward to: Class experiment! Sunshine! 😎

Peeling taro on Rossel Island, PNG

Mount Diablo, Northern CA

River’s edge, Nijmegen, NL

Promontory Point, Chicago

Samir Ismail-Levitt

2nd Year Masters student in Middle Eastern Studies

Research domains: Historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, comparative Semitics

Broad research interests: Quantifiable patterns in diachronic language change; reasons for language change; computational methods.

Courses I have TA’d: Intro to Linguistics; History of the Italian Renaissance; Mind, Brain & Meaning

Places I’ve lived: Hillsboro/Portland OR > Chicago suburbs > Morocco & Jordan (study abroad) > E Lansing MI > Chicago > Chicago suburbs

Hobbies: Archery, cooking (poorly), reading (Kindle), annoying my cats, annoying my wife

Looking forward to: The replication!

Yuchen Jin

4th year PhD student in Comparative Human Development

Research domains: Developmental psychology, Child language acquisition, Cross-cultural comparison.

Broad research interests: How do children learn language in everyday complex social world? How do they use different input resources? How do they understand relational words?

Courses I have TA/Assisted: Blooming Buzzing Confusion, Language Acquisition

Places I’ve lived: China (Hangzhou), Germany (Munich), Internet, US (Chicago)

Hobbies: Running, Kendo, Reading about social science and humanity work other than psychology, Baking

Looking forward to: Learning with you all!

mcasillas@uchicago.edu

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• NAME�- WHY ARE YOU HERE?
• QUESTIONS FOR ME? (why all caps?)�- ANYTHING ELSE?

History of this course

Based on Herb Clark’s “Psychology of Language” course at Stanford University, which ran for decades

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This theoretical framework has been foundational to interactional psycholinguistics, a thriving research area

Course goals—some questions

1. What is the difference between language and communication?
2. How do we make ourselves understood and show our own understanding?
3. Where do gestures fit into language use?
4. How do we organize who does what, when in our interactions?
5. Why don’t we say what we mean, and why is that not more of a problem?

Course goals—some skills

1. Identify real-life examples of phenomena we discuss in class
2. Run a real study and (together) analyze the results
3. Write a scientific report with both real and hypothetical data

Course website

1. Reading assignments and submission deadlines
2. Grading information, re-grading policy, AI policy
3. Links to the slides (and any recordings)
4. Links to journal articles (see Canvas Announcements for a link to the book chapters)

In-class quizzes (25%)

1. On paper, at least once a week
2. Coverage? Pre-class reading and/or lecture content
3. Your final grade in the course will be based on the best half of your in-class quiz scores

Mini papers (20%)

• Run a mini experiment: Schelling game
• Find and analyze your own example: Signal meaning vs. speaker meaning

Scientific report (45%)

1. Class replication of a classic study
2. Propose an original, but incremental follow-up study

Stivers et al. (2009)

Yélî Dnye, Rossel Island, PNG

Participation (10%)

1. Ask questions, make comments, participate in group activities
2. Each student is allowed two excused absences—the two absences will not affect your participation score. If you miss more than two classes because you are experiencing a more significant interruption to your life, please get in touch

Office hours

Dr. Casillas: Fridays 12:30–1:50. Pre-book a meeting here. Meetings take place in Rosenwald 318A unless otherwise specified.

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Yuchen Jin: Thursdays 2:30–3:30pm in Harper Library

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Samir Levitt: Mondays 11–12 in Harper Library (more details TBA)

Abbott and Costello

Who’s on First?

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We’ll be re-examining clips from this routine and other recordings during the course to illustrate some of the concepts we cover, but I would *love* to see and share the examples you come across this quarter!