The Study of Language 1

Human society as it is today would not be possible without language. Institutions, relationships and human achievements all rely on the trait that is unique to humans – language.

This course provides an introduction to the study of human language (known as linguistics). Most of us are not aware of the enormous number of language choices we make every day. This course will give students insight into some of those choices as it investigates features that all languages have in common, how we construct what we speak and write every day, how children acquire language, how we communicate in society and how language differs from animal communication.

Although the main language of study is English, examples from many other languages are also given with the aim of providing an understanding of the features that all languages share. The aim is to engage the students in a learning experience of language through various approaches to cater for different learning styles. Students are encouraged to engage in objective analysis of various aspects of language and they will be also given the opportunity to develop skills necessary for undergraduate study.