2017, Semester 2 (15.0 points)

Description:

Language is one of the most important things that humans do. Our capacities for communication, abstract thought, creativity, and problem solving are often realized through language. This makes language one of the features that defines us as a species and what makes us unique. However, these claims evoke many questions. What exactly is 'language'? How do we study it, how do we explain it, and what does it mean to 'do' language? These are the questions that the field of linguistics seeks to answer. More specifically, linguistics is the scientific study of language.

If you've ever taken a course in physics, chemistry or biology you know that these fields are made up of many specialized subareas. For example, physics is the scientific study of matter and its motion through space and time. But there are many ways to investigate these: we can zoom into the tiny world of atomic particles and study how they interact to form matter (particle physics), or we can open up the universe to test theories of how gravity affects the formation of stars (astrophysics). We can also apply this knowledge to create new materials to improve our lives (applied physics). Linguistics is a field on the same scale: there are many specialized subareas that are devoted to the scientific study of sounds, structure, meaning, and use of language - each of these are their own exciting microcosm of study. However, this knowledge is applied in many ways that directly affect our lives: ever wonder why it gets more difficult to learn a language as you get older? Ever wonder if computers will ever be able to 'talk'? Ever wonder what’s happening in the brain when someone loses the ability to speak, such as after a brain injury? Ever wonder about why Māori 'looks' and 'sounds' so different from English? And why did you (probably) not even notice the 'trick' Boromir played on you in the meme above?

This course is an introduction to the field of linguistics. You will become familiar with the 'design features' of language and how linguists use the principles of the scientific method to explain these features, just as we do in physics, chemistry or biology. We will look at the building blocks of language that define the major subfields of linguistics. In doing this, we will also look at some common myths about language, the future of linguistic research (which you may be doing one day!) and some of the unsolved problems we face in explaining language.

Pre-requisites: None

Course Convenor: Tyler Peterson <t.peterson@auckland.ac.nz>

Teaching Staff: Keith Montgomery <k.montgomery@auckland.ac.nz>

Course aims & objectives: This course is an introduction to linguistics, the scientific study of language, one of the most important features that defines our species. Just as physics (the scientific study of matter and its motion through space and time) and biology (the scientific study of life and living organisms) are vast areas of research with many sub-disciplines, so too is linguistics. The aim of this course is to familiarize you with what linguistics is, what it’s used for, and why it’s important to us. The objectives of this course are to

1. Learn about the sub-disciplines of linguistics (language sounds, how sounds interact, how words and sentences are built, meaning and how we use meaning in conversation)
2. Learn about how and why we learn language and where language is in the brain
3. Learn about language birth, death, and diversity
4. Learn about how technology (like artificial intelligence social media) shapes language – and vice versa
5. Learn about language endangerment, revitalization, and the ‘ethnosphere’ – including the languages around us

Weekly topics:

Week 1: Mythbusting language

Week 2: Knowing a language vs knowing what language is; the design features of language

Week 3: Building sounds and putting sounds together (phonetics and phonology)

Week 4: Building words and sentences (morphology and syntax)

Week 5: Meaning and the use of meaning in conversation (semantics and pragmatics)

Week 6: Language in society and across time (sociolinguistics and historical linguistics)

Week 7: How we make sense of linguistic diversity (Typology)

Week 8: Learning, perceiving, and producing language

Week 9: Language, biology and the brain (bio- and neurolinguistics)

Week 10: Artificial Intelligence, technology and language: from ancient scripts to social media and search engines

Week 11: Endangered languages and the world’s ‘ethnosphere’ – including the languages around us

Week 12: Review

Teaching format: Lectures and tutorials

Workload: As with other 15-point courses, the University of Auckland’s expectation is that students spend 10 hours per week on this course. You should manage your academic workload and other commitments accordingly. Students attend a two-hour lecture each week. They take part in a one-hour tutorial each week from Week 2 onwards. This leaves 7 hours per week outside the classroom to study for tutorials, assignments and the exam.

Learning resources: Burton, Strang, Rose-Marie Déchaine, and Eric Vatikiotis-Bateson. 2012. Linguistics for Dummies, 9th International Edition (Wiley); other readings to be available through Talis

Statement on assessment breakdown: see Pages > Course Assessment and Schedule of Activities for more details.