ENGL-402

Linguistics is the study of language itself: how it works and how we use it. Students will study its structure, starting with the basic building blocks of sound and meaning, and their combination into morphemes, words, phrases, and sentences. The class will investigate conversation and other types of discourse and will examine language change and development in such areas as the history of English, the acquisition of first and second languages, and the differences between spoken and written language. Special topics may include dialects (social, regional, gender, and age differences in speech patterns) and registers (notably slang and any others the students use or come across). Students will discover the theories and principles at work-and at play-in their own language as they display and experience it daily.