Introduction to Study of Language

About this course:

What is known about human language, its unique nature, structure, universality, diversity, social and cultural setting, and its relation to other aspects of human inquiry and knowledge? Instruction covers the structure of human language, including articulation and interaction of speech sounds (phonetics and phonology), word formation and sources of new words (morphology), structure of sentences (syntax), meaning (semantics), and the origin of English and related languages (historical linguistics). The course may be taken as an introduction to the scientific study of language and also provides the necessary background for higher-level linguistics courses. Transferable for UC credit.