Welcome to the Introduction to Language and Linguistics module page! In this module, we’ll be taking a very hands-on and seminar-based approach to your learning, allowing you to take charge of your own learning in exploring some of the learning materials we’ll offer you and developing your academic skills as we go. We will be investigating the History of English to uncover the roots of some of the challenges we continue face as linguists and language learners/ users. We’ll also be learning about some of the key subdisciplines of linguistics, including structural linguistics in the form of phonetics, and sociolinguistics, as well as getting involved in lots of data analysis of different types, and exploring some of the newer areas of linguistics, such as ecolinguistics.  

Reading and activity: 

There’s lots to pack into this module and so it would be good if you came to our first session having read about and thought about some aspects that we won’t be picking up on again explicitly. They include reading about the Origins of Language itself and acknowledging the fact that languaging is a uniquely human activity. Both of these short chapters are pretty straightforward to read. There are some study questions and tasks that you can have a go at at the end of the first chapter. 

George Yule’s chapter The Origins of Language can be read here. 

Donna Napoli’s chapter Do Animals use Language? can be read here. 

 

In the video below, Dr Clare Cunningham, Module Director of our semester one module, Introduction to Language and Linguistics, provides an introduction to the module.