INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS

Course Content:

This course is an introduction to the study of language and linguistics and provides students with an overview of the field of modern linguistics and basic skills in linguistic analysis from a generative perspective. It focuses on the properties of natural human languages and aims to familiarize students with the basic concepts and issues underlying linguistic phenomena. The course will explore the fundamental question of what human language is and the properties of human language capacity, which define us as a species and make us unique. Students will be familiarized with the design features of language and how linguists use the principles of the scientific method to explain these features. There will also be an emphasis on the building blocks of language that define the major subfields of linguistics. Throughout the course, we will also look at some common myths about language, and some of the unsolved problems we face in explaining language.

Content and Objectives:

• What is human language: Linguistic knowledge, mental grammar, language & thought
• Students will examine the structural aspects of language: Morphology, phonology, syntax, pragmatics and semantics
• Students will be introduced to major linguistic theories and gain a fundamental understanding of the subfields of linguistics and the history of linguistic inquiry.
• Language in society and linguistic change: Regional vs. social dialects, languages in contact, language in use, morphological, phonological and lexical change, the history of writing Language and cognition: Language processing and the human brain