Time Schedule:
Laura Wilbur Mcgarrity
LING 400
Seattle Campus
Examines major linguistic theories in phonology, syntax and semantics; linguistic analysis and argumentation. Not available for credit to students who have completed LING 200.
Class description
This course will introduce you to the field of linguistics: the scientific study and analysis of human language. We will survey some of the core subfields of linguistics: phonetics (the study of the perception/ production of speech sounds), phonology (the study of sound systems and patterns), morphology (the study of word formation and structure), syntax (the study of sentence structure), and semantics (the study of word and sentence meaning). In this survey, you will be introduced to some of the variation found in human languages as well as the tools that linguists use to analyze the structure of language. In addition, we will also investigate how the study of language and linguistic structure can be used in other disciplines, such as psychology, neurology, and sociology. By the end of this course, students will be able to: • understand the different levels of linguistic structure and their related core disciplines; • use scientific methods to conduct linguistic analyses at each level of linguistic structure; • effectively and appropriately apply methods of analysis cross-linguistically, to language phenomena within English as well as within other languages; • understand how language is acquired and how it is represented in the brain; • identify the properties that are common to all natural languages as well as the ways in which languages can vary; • apply knowledge of linguistics and language structure to the study of other disciplines.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
