Margaret Moran Engineering Design and Development 12/2/13 Capstone Project Proposal What is linguistics?

? o The scientific study of language, including semantics, syntax, morphology, phonology, phonetics, and pragmatics o Phonetics = mechanics of how sounds are produced and heard/interpreted o Phonology = study of abstract word entities, and sound patterns of particular languages, i.e. a consonant always follows a vowel o Syntax = sentence structure and word order o Semantics = literal meanings of words o Pragmatics = abstract/cultural interpretations of words and phrases Hana, Jirka. Basic concepts of linguistics. Ohio State University, 26 Mar. 2006. PDF. Jobs in linguistics o Teaching foreign language or English as a second language o Research in artificial intelligence or machine translation o Market Research o Translation for business, manufacturing, engineering, etc. o Localization for businesses o Freelance translation working for companies Services. Teneo Linguistics Company. Teneo Linguistics Company, 2012. Web. Retrieved 07 Nov. 2013. Styler, Will. Notes from a linguistic mystic. What jobs can a linguist get? n.p., 30 Mar. 2012. Retrieved 07 Nov. 2013. Why linguistics? It was difficult for me to pinpoint a specific field for my capstone project. After all, this is a decision that will carry over into college and my career. When I really looked at what I enjoyed doing most, I realized that linguistics was the only topic that I was actively interested, so I just ran with it. I enjoy learning languages, especially the grammar and the impact of culture on language and language evolution. There are also jobs in linguistics

that involve technology, such as machine translation and artificial intelligence. It would be really fun to work with machine translation and natural language processing! Teneo Linguistics Company (TLC) o 6000 Western Place, Fort Worth, TX o Mentor: Hana Laurenzo o Email: info@tlctranslation.com o Translation company o Translations for business, medical, engineering, manufacturing, etc. o Voiceovers, subtitling o Market research for international products o ISO certified quality management (certified in top efficiency standards for management and company operations) o Accepts interns on a case-to-case basis Services. Teneo Linguistics Company. Teneo Linguistics Company, 2012. Web. Retrieved 07 Nov. 2013. ISO Certification. International Standars Organization, n.d. Web. Retrieved 07 Nov. 2013. Internship interview questions o What is the companys translation process like? o What types of clients are most common? o Which languages do you deal with the most? o How many native language speakers do you consult/hire as translators o What will my job as an intern include? o Will you be willing to help me out with my capstone project? For my capstone project, I need to research and either give back to TLC, present to an audience, or do both. Audience I will research common phrases and structures of different languages and give a community presentation, possibly to people who will be travelling to different countries, on this topic. I may also look into presenting at a conference or some sort of career information presentation. My research will include the effects of culture on language, what is considered polite and impolite, etc. Some phrases in English would be offensive

if they were translated directly into other languages, and English addresses are considered informal compared to most other widely-spoken languages. This research will also help TLC, and I will work with them to improve their database on language differences and cultural considerations. TLCs web of people who speak different languages will help me with this. I will try to get in contact with as many native speakers as I can. Teaching English as a second language Sins Mrs. Moon is adopting a girl from Haiti, I may have the opportunity to teach English as a second language! I will spend 1-2 hours per week learning Haitian Creole. ESL is a career that is highly in demand in parts of the United States that have high immigrant demographics. ESL teachers are also highly sought-after abroad, especially with the USAs major trade partners (China, Germany, Japan). This is also a viable career option for settling down and raising a family, and for travelling the world. I will also need to study the best way to teach English, since it is such a confusing language to learn. North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad (NACLO) o January 30th o Linguistics competition where participants have 3 hours to solve a series of linguistics puzzles o High school and middle school students can participate o Students who score over 70 points out of 100 move on to invitational round o Top scorers in invitational go on to international Monthly goals/deliverables My capstone project will have 4 components: my internship, NACLO, teaching ESL, and my research project. The following are my monthly goals regarding those projects. o December: By the end of December, I will have decided on the audience for my presentation and the basic structure of what I will research. I will also have learned basic Mandarin Chinese phrases, grammar, and characters. This will be the main month where I study for NACLO. I will spend Christmas break finding a Chinese tutor, because I really love studying Chines characters! This is a language that is very different from English, and is very challenging to grasp the basics of. o January: I will learn basic Haitian Creole phrases and grammar in this month. Also, I will have mastered the basics of definitive articles and infinitive verb tense

in creole. This is the month of the first round of NACLO, so I will also spend a fair amount of time on that (probably around 2 hours per week).Deliverables: Presentation on common phrases and mistakes in Mandarin and Creole. o February: By the end of February, I will have completed research on French, which is closely related to Haitian Creole. Also, I will have contacted at least one native of a different country and interviewed them on their native language, and what words/phrases to avoid. I will also research past and future tenses in Haitian Creole. o March: I will have completed research on Spanish. For Creole, I will spend this month building vocabulary. If I progress in NACLO, I will got to invitational competition. o April: By the end of April, my research on German will be complete. I will also study the perfect tensed of Haitian Creole. This is the month where I will finalize my presentation materials. o May: This is the last month of capstone! I will present for my audience, and will continue studying the languages that I am interested (mainly Haitian Creole and Mandarin Chinese). For better or for worse, capstone is finished this month. I will likely continue my internship for a few more weeks if it still interests me and/or if I still have contacts through them that are helping me with my research. If so, I will work full work days from 9AM to 5PM, since it takes so long to get to Fort Worth.