LING 10300 - Introduction To The Study Of Language

Linguistics as a body of information; nature and function of language; relevance of linguistics to other disciplines, with reference to modern American English.

Cr. 3.
Notes
Indiana Core Transfer Library course.
Student Learning Outcomes
1. Describe language as a systematic, rule-governed form of human communication that uses arbitrary vocal, signed, written, or digitally mediated symbols creatively. Explain the multiple functions of language in the lives of individuals, cultures, and societies.
2. Demonstrate foundational knowledge of linguistics and its major subfields, including: - Phonetics: Place and manner of articulation, the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), phonetic inventories, and natural classes. - Phonology: Phones, phonemes, allophones, minimal pairs, assimilation, and phonological problem-solving. - Morphology: Morphemes, roots, stems, derivational and inflectional affixation, concatenative and non-concatenative morphology, and morphological analysis. - Syntax: Word order, phrase and sentence structure, lexical categories, and constituency. - Semantics: Lexical meaning, semantic relations (e.g., hyponymy, synonymy, antonymy), idioms, polysemy, homonymy, and sentence-level meaning. - Pragmatics: Gricean Maxims, speech acts, register, context, and conversational rules. - Language Variation and Change: Sound, morphological, syntactic, and semantic change; dialects (regional and social); and language and gender.
3. Distinguish between biological and cultural components of human language.
4. Develop awareness and appreciation of linguistic diversity across languages and cultures.
5. Explain how languages change over time, often in systematic ways.
6. Recognize that all languages are equally complex, systematic, and effective for communication.
7. Apply linguistic knowledge to real-world contexts, especially in understanding cultural and social differences, and identify challenges in second language acquisition.