Introduction to Language and Linguistics

Catalog description

This course will provide an introduction to language and linguistics as scientific fields of inquiry. The course will focus on the nature of language and linguistic knowledge through a descriptive analysis of its individual components (phonetics, phonology, morphology, and syntax). During the final weeks of the course, an introduction to selected topics will be covered bases, in part, on student interest. Such topics may include language use (e.g., dialectal and social variation),language change (e.g., the evolution of French and Spanish from Latin), and language acquisition. Linguistic data from a variety of languages will be examined. Course will be taught in English.