what do you do in an intro linguistics course

In this Introduction to Linguistics course, you’ll get an introduction to the main approaches used in linguistic research, including linguistic experiments and discourse analysis. You’ll find out about the key methods used in linguistic descriptions, and some of the everyday ‘myths’ about language.

Full Answer

What are the best books to read for a linguistics course?

The main textbook for the course is: O'Grady, William, John Archibald, et al. Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction. 6th ed. Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009. ISBN: 9780312618513. We will also read the following book: Baker, Mark. The Atoms of Language: The Mind's Hidden Rules of Grammar. Basic Books, 2002. ISBN: 9780465005222.

What do Linguists study in Sign Language?

Linguists mostly study only signs that consist of just one sentence. And this is what we shall do here, too. However, texts are certainly more than a sequence of sentences, and the study of discourse (which includes texts and dialogs) is certainly a very vital one.

What part of linguistics deals with how words are put together?

The part of linguistics that deals with how words are put together into sentences is called syntax. On the other hand, words are not the smallest meaningful units of Lecture 1: Introduction 5 language.

What is an example of linguistic terminology?

The linguistic terminology (/phoneme/, /lexeme/) is a telling example. These words have been artificially created from Greek source words. Learned words have to be discarded. Another problem is that words change their meaninginadditiontotheirform.

What do you learn in linguistics class?

What is linguistics and why study it?phonetics (the study of the production, acoustics and hearing of speech sounds)phonology (the patterning of sounds)morphology (the structure of words)syntax (the structure of sentences)semantics (meaning)pragmatics (language in context)

What is linguistic course all about?

Linguistics is the scientific study of language, and its focus is the systematic investigation of the properties of particular languages as well as the characteristics of language in general.

Why do we need to study introduction to linguistics?

Linguistics helps us understand our world Apart from simply understanding the intricacies of world languages, this knowledge can be applied to improving communication between people, contributing to translation activities, assisting in literacy efforts, and treating speech disorders.

Is linguistics a hard course?

Linguistics is as hard as you make it out to be or as easy as the person teaching you makes it for you. Linguistics is not a micky mouse subject. There are numerous textbooks on it and kt's not as simple as learning grammar.

What are the 3 purposes of linguistics?

I. Three Basic Functions are generally noted: there is perhaps nothing more subtle than language is, and nothing has as many different uses.

How many languages do linguists speak?

While some linguists can speak five languages fluently, many others can't, and some highly-respected linguists speak only a single language with any fluency.

Do linguists make good money?

Some linguists work for the federal government to train interpreters. Because few Americans work as linguists, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) classifies them as miscellaneous social scientists and related workers. As of 2019, this group reported an average annual salary of $83,230 per year.

What is done in linguistics?

Linguistics is the scientific study of language. It involves analysing the many different aspects that make up human language by looking at its form, structure and context. Linguistics also looks at the interplay between sound and meaning, and how language varies between people and situations.

What subjects are needed for linguistics?

Requirements To Study Linguistics In Nigeria For a start, you need to have at least 5 credit passes in your O'level result (WAEC or NECO) including English and Mathematics not more than two (2) sittings before you can study Linguistics in Nigeria. However, some schools required one sitting.

What is the cut off mark for linguistics?

The cut off mark for Linguistic in UNILAG is “200” Once your JAMB score is qualified for Linguistic in UNILAG, the next thing is for you to start preparing for the POST UTME or Screening. The screening date, application process and requirements will be announced by the management of the school.

Where can a linguist work?

However, Linguistics jobs are mostly in fields such as:Language Teaching.Information Technology.Publishing.Language Service Industries.Language Professions such as Accent coaches or Lawyers.

Do you learn languages in linguistics?

In addition to general linguistics, the studies include courses on culture, literature, language history and language varieties, says Jaana. Language studies usually also involve courses on grammar and vocabulary as well as conversation classes with a native teacher.

Course Description

This course studies what is language and what does knowledge of a language consist of. It asks how do children learn languages and is language unique to humans; why are there many languages; how do languages change; is any language or dialect superior to another; and how are speech and writing related.

Course Collections

David Pesetsky. 24.900 Introduction to Linguistics. Fall 2012. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare, https://ocw.mit.edu. License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA.

Attendance

Attendance in class and recitations is required, and will affect your grade. Though you can learn a lot from the readings, many classes will present material not in the readings—or will present the material in a slightly different way.

Homework: Problem Sets and Papers

Most weeks, you will be assigned a problem set. Most of the questions in these assignments will ask you to draw and justify conclusions about data that we supply from real languages (sometimes slightly simplified)—using and extending concepts and analytic techniques discussed in class and in the readings.

Quizzes and final exam

There will be two in-class (45-minute) quizzes and a sit-down closed-book final exam. The final exam will cover material from the entire course, and will be a mixture of factual questions and problems.

Is "you guys" a pronoun

It is written as two words, but it kind of functions like a single pronoun I would say.

I speak several but have studied a large number of mostly Indo European languages and have noticed that the English 'r' sound is not present in any of them. Is this observation correct or not? Is this phoneme uncommon? How do I learn more about the various r sounds?

The ones I have some to good knowledge of include South Slavic Languages (Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian, Macedonian Bulgarian, Slovene), Russian, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Portuguese, French, German, Romanian, English, Greek and Turkish.

How is Modern Greek so much more conservative (with respect to) Ancient Greek than Hindi or Marathi are (with respect to) Sanskrit?

I am a native speaker of Hindi (know Marathi too) and also have fluency in both Classical & Vedic Sanskrit. In University, I studied some Greek (Ancient) and later on picked up some Modern Greek while visiting Greece. I realized that Modern Greek is much more conservative than either Hindi or Marathi. Why is this so?

Are there any good studies on Phonology of the Georgian language?

As a native speaker of Georgian language myself, I'm interested in learning more about the phonetics of my own language but unfortunately the wiki article doesn't provide that much information and because of that i decided to post this question on this subreddit.

How did names of Anglo-Saxon origin end up becoming popular in Romance languages?

Not sure if r/AskHistorians would be a better place to ask but I'll give it a shot!

Is Lancashire really still this rhotic?

Lancashire is a county in North Western England. Like the rest of England it was once all rhotic but the decline in rhoticity happened later, with the county only losing it's rhoticity according to these maps in the 20th century.

Is there anything known about the original language (s) of the Korean peninsula?

To my understanding, Proto-Japonic speakers probably migrated to southern Korea by boat from China, while Proto-Koreanic speakers lived in Manchuria before entering the peninsula and displacing and assimilating the Proto-Japonic speaking peoples.

Grammatical means to express rudeness, hostility, insulting in world languages?

There has been research about means to express politeness in world languages, like different pronoun, verbal inflection, or other syntagmatic strategies.

Evolution of Japanese and Korean Written Scripts from late-19th to early 20th century? (and role of intellectual movements on that?)

Weird question, but just curious how the written scripts of Japan and Korea became more “Japanese” and more “Korean” respectively, as opposed to a mostly trying to use Literary Chinese (漢文 Kanbun in Japanese and Hanmun in Korean) to represent the local vernacular – especially from late 19th century to early 20th century –.

Hypercorrection of th-stopping in Irish English

I honestly don't have the energy to make this post sound super academic so I'm just gonna ask my question. Th-stopping in Irish English. Is there any evidence that hypercorrection ever happens where people turn alveolar stops into interdental fricatives? I think I may have just heard it, but not sure if it's an observed thing.

How close are the pronunciation of Sino words in Japanese, Vietnamese & Korean vs Middle Chinese, or Cantonese?

I heard people said those 3 languages keep the original pronunciation of Sino words from Middle Chinese, and very similiar to Middle Chinese or Cantonese (more than Mandarin)

Strong verbs in German

Is it possible (even if it's easier to learn each) to make a better guess on whether a German verb is strong or not based on the sounds of the particular word and the sound changes the language went through? If so, can anyone suggest a good source where the development and sound changes of the different classes of strong verbs all the way from Proto-Germanic to modern German are described in a way that could be understood by a non-linguist?.

Dummy auxiliary in SOV languages

Many SOV languages of the larger "Altaic" linguistic area and somewhat beyond seem to have a very productive way of creating new verbs by combining a noun/adjective and a dummy auxiliary meaning "to do / make", e.g.

Readings

Attendance

Homework: Problem Sets and Papers

• Most weeks, you will be assigned a problem set. Most of the questions in these assignments will ask you to draw and justify conclusions about data that we supply from real languages (sometimes slightly simplified)—using and extending concepts and analytic techniques discussed in class and in the readings. Some of these problem sets will also requir...

See more on ocw.mit.edu

Quizzes and Final Exam