V55.0660 MAP Societies and Social Sciences: Linguistic Perspectives
Prof. John Costello
Fall 2005
Course Description
Examines language from a dual perspective: as part of mankind's biological endowment and as a social phenomenon. Considers the structure, universality, and diversity of human language. Introduces the core areas of grammar: its sound system, the structures of words and sentences, and meanings. Examines the representation of language in the brain, first language acquisition, and processing. Introduces linguistic universals, dialect, sociolects, and the mechanism of linguistic change.
Syllabus
- Phonetics and phonology
- Manner and place of articulation; voicing
- Phonetics
- Phonemics
- Transcription (phonetic and phonemic)
- Morphology
- Morphemes, allomorphs
- Roots and affixes; inflectional and derivational morphology
- Words
- Genealogical classification of languages
- Families of languages: Indo-European, Afro-Asiatic, Sino-Tibetan, Finno-Ugric, etc.
- Problems in genealogical classification: lexicostatistics, etc.
- Typological classification of languages and its goals
- Language change
- Phonological change
- Morphological change
- Lexical change
- Syntactic change
- Comparison of selected foreign languages
- Generative grammar
- Performance and competence
- Deep structure and surface structure
- Syntactic, semantic, and phonological components
- Base or phrase structure rules
- Transformations or movement rules
- Universal and particular grammar
- Contemplating language
- Human and animal communication
- Mechanistic and mentalistic views
- Language acquisition
- Thought and speech
Text:
O'Grady, William, et al. Contemporary Linguistics. 5th edition. Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Last Modified: September 1, 2005