A&H 126 Introduction to English Linguistics

Content

What’s the difference between a sentence and a clause? What do the modal verbs have to do with politeness? What is voice and how is it related to representations of power? These and other questions will be explored in this course, which introduces students to fundamental concepts in linguistics and focuses on these concepts as they apply to the study of the English language. Students will be equipped with the skills necessary for identifying and describing linguistic features at all levels of language from the phonemic to the discoursal. In addition, the course will lay the foundations for further study in linguistics by introducing students to key issues in the study of language, society and culture.

The course is divided into 3 main parts.  In the first sessions we learn about the discipline of linguistics: its origins and development, and the variety of approaches which linguistic study can take.  The descriptive tradition to which this course belongs is explained and compared to the prescriptive tradition.
The second part of the course focuses on the history of English.  During these sessions, students learn about the political, social and linguistic contexts which shaped the development of the English language from the Pre-English Period (-c. 450 AD) to the mid-twentieth century. Students will also learn how to use a historical dictionary like the Oxford English Dictionary to research the history and development of English.
The final part of the course focuses on the structure of modern English.  During this part of the course students learn the concepts and terminology linguists use in describing the features of language, and the features of English specifically.  This part of the course prepares students to move on to higher-level analytical work in linguistics (namely A&H 225: Sociolinguistics and A&H 325: Topics in Linguistics), by providing them with the foundational “toolkit” they will need to talk about language. 
Class sessions are interactive and focus on group work and class discussion in combination with occasional lectures.  A detailed description of the course contents is given in the weekly overview below.

Instructor

Dr. Ernestine Lahey

Track

Linguistics

Period

Spring / 2012

Required for

This course is required in order to take the following course:

• A&H 325 Topics in Linguistics

This course is an alternative requirement for the following course:

• A&H 225 Sociolinguistics
• SCI 235 Psycholinguistics