Linguistics as Cognitive Science

Catalog description

This course examines the place of Linguistics within Cognitive Science from multiple perspectives. Foundational questions for a science of linguistics will be addressed both from within linguistics and from philosophy and psychology. Issues include the nature of the evidence for constructing grammars, the interpretation of grammatical rules as cognitive or neural operations, the significance of neo-behaviorist approaches to language and computational modeling for a cognitive theory of language, the connection between linguistic theory and genetics, and the importance of socio-cultural and historical variation for understanding the nature of language. Students will be expected to engage in debate over these issues bringing to the table their own background in one of the relevant disciplines as well what they learn from the assigned readings. The primary instructor will be joined for several of the lectures by guest speakers with complementary expertise.