Linguistic Diversity

Catalog description

In this course we use a variety of lenses to collectively explore the diversity of languages across the globe and the cultures and societies of which they are an integral part. How do the world's languages differ and what do they have in common? What does the answer to this reveal about the nature of the human experience and how we navigate the world in all its complexity? In addition to looking deeply at the languages themselves, we examine these questions at the levels of the individual, community, society, and culture. We look at the ways in which diverse linguistic communities coexist in society and how societal and cultural structures are both reflected in and instantiated through language. Course themes include language as meaningful communicative social action, language dynamism, language and identity, language and environment (cultural, social, physical), and at the center of it all, the linguistic structures that reflect, enable, and enact all of the above. The class draws in part from students' own linguistic histories and their experiences as participants in our multilingual global society.