Fundamentals of Language
The course aims to do the following:
1. Situate language in the intersection of various disciplines to show how an understanding of the nature of human language is arrived at through a cross- disciplinary mode of inquiry and to also show how a study of language drives understanding and inquiry within other disciplines as well.
2. Provide a trajectory of methods and ideas in the development of Linguistics (across traditions) with particular reference to
a. The general phenomenon of language
b. Structure and variation in human languages and the features of the abstract cognitive capacity for language
c. Philosophical underpinnings of the discipline of Linguistics
d. Language within cultural, social, historical, cognitive, political, and biological contexts
1. Allan, K. (Ed.). 2016. The Routledge Handbook of Linguistics. Routledge.2. Bybee, J. 2. Language Change (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics). Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.3.Chomsky, N. 1986. Knowledge of Language, its Nature, Origin and Use, NY:Praeger.4. Deacon, T. 1997. The Symbolic Species. W.W. Norton &Co., NY.5. Duranti, A. 1997. Linguistic Anthropology (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics).Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.6. Griffiths, P., Merrison, J.A. and Bloomer, A. (Eds.). 2010. Language in Use: A Reader.Routledge.7. Isac, D. and Reiss, C. 2013. I302255Language: An Introduction to Linguistics as Cognitive Science.OUP.8. Pinker, S. 2007. The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature. NewYork: Viking.