Linguistics

An introduction to the study of language from a scientific perspective. The course is divided into three units: language as a system (sounds, morphology, syntax, and semantics), language in context (in space, time, and community), and language of the individual (psycholinguistics, errors, aphasia, neurology of language, and acquisition). Workload: lecture, weekly homework, and final examination.

Of the world’s estimated 7,000 languages – representing migrations and historical
developments thousands of years old – the majority are primarily oral, little documented,
and increasingly endangered under the onslaught of global languages like English. This
course will take the unprecedented, paradoxical linguistic capital of New York City as a
lens for examining how immigrants form communities in a new land, how those
communities are integrated into the wider society, and how they grapple with linguistic and
cultural change. Drawing on sociolinguistics, anthropology, and history, the course will
focus on texts from and encounters with members of three of the city’s fastest-growing but
least-studied communities (Indigenous Americans, Himalayans, Central Asians) before
closing with a series of classes exploring broader questions around mapping, education,
policy, the role of linguists, revitalization and the future of language and mobility.

The ability to speak distinguishes humans from all other animals, including our closest relatives, the chimpanzees. Why is this so? What makes this possible? This course seeks to answer these questions. We will look at the neurological and psychological foundations of the human faculty of language. How did our brains change to allow language to evolve? Where in our brains are the components of language found? Are our minds specialized for learning language or is it part of our general cognitive abilities to learn? How are words and sentences produced and their meanings recognized? The structure of languages around the world varies greatly; does this have psychological effects for their speakers?

Prerequisites: LING UN3101 An investigation of the sounds of human language, from the perspective of phonetics (articulation and acoustics, including computer-aided acoustic analysis) and phonology (the distribution and function of sounds in individual languages).

Prerequisites: LING UN3101 Syntax - the combination of words - has been at the center of the Chomskyan revolution in Linguistics. This is a technical course which examines modern formal theories of syntax, focusing on later versions of generative syntax (Government and Binding) with secondary attention to alternative models (HPSG, Categorial Grammar).