E 320 Introduction to the Study of Language

Overview of Course

An oft-referenced witticism, “A language is a dialect with an army and navy,” is associated with linguist Max Weinreigh and speaks to the reality that language use is a political, contested space. In this course, we’ll start by defining the basic properties of language through the lenses of various linguistics subfields: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics. Then, for the bulk of the course, we’ll take an applied linguistics lens as we look at the global linguistic landscape, exploring questions such as “Why does language change?” “How did certain languages, like English, achieve global dominance?” “What are the politics of language use in the countries we visit?” “How do language users use technology to interact in intercultural spaces?”

Returning to the opening statement, we’ll explore the role of colonization in language spread throughout the world, exploring for instance the prevalence of Spanish and Portuguese in South America and the use of English in St. Helena and South Africa, and French in Mauritius, and their status in relation to local languages and dialects. Students will apply their knowledge in a variety of ports, exploring their experiences communicating with locals in their first or second language via language autoethnography and conducting a cross-cultural linguistic landscape analysis by exploring way politics and policies have shaped language use in different countries on our journey.