Language & Culture

Catalog description

This is an introductory course in anthropological linguistics and charts how human languages are formed, evolve, and disappear. The main topics will include the nature of human language as distinct from other communication systems; how we organize sound to make a language, i.e. how we identify sound patterns (phonology), create words (morphology), group words into sentences (syntax), and attribute meaning to these sounds (semantics and semiotics); the relationships between language, culture, and human thought; changes in language used in different socio-cultural contexts; and the historical development of languages and writing systems.