Introduction to Linguistics - Period 1

In this course we will study the basics of linguistics (and some applied linguistics). We start out with studying how sounds are pronounced and perceived and how meaning is mapped onto sounds in different languages(topics: phonetics and phonology). We then move on to how words and sentences are formed in a number of languages and how this helps us categorize languages into families (topics: morphology and syntax). In the third week we focus on how languages change from generation to generation and how language contact causes regional language change. In these first three weeks we will study language examples from English and
Dutch but also from typologically completely different languages such as Austronesian languages and Amazonian languages. In the second part of the course, in weeks four, five and six, we will focus on a number of functions of language. First, we will study semantics (the mapping of meaning onto words or clauses) and pragmatics (the use of unwritten rules of language use). After that, we will move on to computational linguistics and we will try to answer the question whether it is possible for a computer to learn a language in exactly the same way as humans do. In the last week we will focus on the miracle of language learning. At that point in the course, we will most probably have come to the conclusion that languages are based on quite complex systems of rules and exceptions and we will study the learnability of language. We will focus on the stages that children go through as they learn their native language. Some attention will also be paid to a number of language disorders.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam) awards credits based on the ECTS system. Contact hours listed under a course description may vary due to the combination of lecture-based and independent work required for each course therefore, CEA's recommended credits are based on the ECTS credits assigned by VU Amsterdam. 1 ECTS equals 28 contact hours assigned by VU Amsterdam.