Program Description: What do you know when you know a language, and how do you get that knowledge? Are there properties that all languages share? How do languages change over time? Why are half of the world’s languages now under threat of extinction? How are communities held together or torn apart by the languages they speak?
This two-quarter program explores the fascinating world of languages through the lens of linguistics. Topics for winter quarter include: the structure of languages (syntax, semantics, pragmatics); first and second language acquisition; politeness; the relationships between language and social class, language and gender, language and sexuality, language and ethnicity, and language and age; and methods for documenting languages. This program will be an intensive examination of topics requiring a significant amount of reading as well as regular problem sets and essays.