David Fertig
Professor
Director of Graduate Studies
Director of the German Language Program
Department of Linguistics
Dept. Office: 609 Baldy Hall, Buffalo NY 14260-1030
Dept. Phone: 716-645-2177 Fax: 716-645-3825
Teaching
- Current courses (Fall 2022):
- Historical Linguistics (LIN 439/539)
past syllabus - Next semester (Spring 2023 [tentatively]):
- Language in Pluralistic America (LIN 200)
past syllabus - Other courses I teach more or less regularly:
- Intermediate German - 1st semester (GER 151)
past syllabus - Intermediate German - 2nd Semester (GER 152)
past syllabus - Survey of German Cultural History I (GER 301)
past syllabus - German Stylistics and Translation (GER 338)
past syllabus - Structure of Modern German (GER 408)
past syllabus - Language in German Society (GER 410: Topics)
past syllabus - History of the English Language (GER 414/558/LIN 414)
past syllabus - History of the German Language (GER 415)
past syllabus - German Media Yesterday and Today (GER 450: Topics)
past syllabus - UBSeminar: Babel Forever! The source of language diversity, and why it never runs dry (LIN 199)
past syllabus - Variation in English (LIN 311)
past syllabus - Analogy in Morphological Theory and Language Change (LIN 623; graduate seminar)
past syllabus - Inflectional Paradigms (LIN 621; graduate seminar, co-taught with Karin Michelson)
syllabus - Mini-course on Morphological Change at the 1st Summer School in Historical Linguistics at University of Potsdam (SUM-UP) (September 2014):
- Day 1: Paradigm Leveling
- Day 2: Markedness
- Day 3: Reanalysis
In addition to my classroom teaching, I am the director of the Linguistics Department Teaching Internship (LIN 496). The internship, offered every Fall and Spring semester, gives UB undergraduates an opportunity to earn UB credit, gain valuable teaching experience, and make a contribution to their community. Most LIN 496 interns work in a Buffalo Public School as a teacher's aide or tutor, helping children develop their language and literacy skills. This internship is open to students from any major and grade level who are native or near-native speakers of English and have at least a 2.0 GPA. For three credits, interns work 112 hours over the course of the semester (about 8-10 hours per week) in their host school. Interns can be placed in an early childhood school, an elementary school, a middle school, or a high school; the children in the schools include Spanish-English bilinguals, inner-city children, and international students. There are also occasionally slots for interns to work with school psychologists, guidance counselors, social workers, etc. To find out more about the internship, or to apply, please e-mail me at:fertig@buffalo.edu.