Introduction to Language Sciences
Ever Wonder…
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LING 300/ ANTH 373/ PSYC 470
Summer I 2012
Monday-Thursday 10:30-12:45
What you know when you know a language?
What all features human languages have in common?
How we write spoken sounds using symbols?
How our brains process language?
Why people from different regions speak differently?
How we acquire languages as children?
How and why languages change over time?
Course Description
Linguistics is roughly divided into two subfields - language and the brain, and language
and society. The first half of this course, after establishing the definition and the nature
of human language, will focus on how languages are stored and processed in the brains
of their speakers. We will be introduced to phonetics (speech sounds), phonology
(sound patterns), morphology (word formation), syntax (sentence structure) and
semantics (meaning) of human languages using data from a variety of languages,
including English. In the second half of the class, we will be focusing on aspects of
language use in society: child and adult language acquisition, sociolinguistics,
dialectology, language contact and change, and practical applications of
linguistics. Upon completing this class, students will have been exposed to the most
important aspects of all of these subfields of linguistics, and be able to conduct their
own analyses of language as they encounter it in the world.
Fulfills requirements for:
Anthropology, Psychology, Linguistics; Social Sciences General Education requirement