Introduction to Linguistics
Ling 50: Introduction to Linguistics, Sounds and Words
This course is an introduction to the major areas, problems, and techniques of modern linguistics. Linguistics is often called the "scientific study of language". It studies the structure of human languages, and its goal is a general theory that tells us how languages work. This course investigates the way a scientific study of language differs from other ways of looking at language. What are the most important methods used? What are the main results? The ability to learn, use, and understand a language is a very essential part of what makes us human. It is therefore reasonable to ask a further question: What, if anything, do the results of modern linguistics tell us about the cognitive side of human nature? The course focuses in depth on two central areas of the linguistics field: speech sounds (phonetics) and the structure of words (morphology).
Prerequisites: none.
General Education Code: IH (Introduction to Humanities).