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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2024/2025

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Centre for Open Learning : Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences

Undergraduate Course: Linguistics (LLLI07028)

Course Outline
SchoolCentre for Open Learning CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 7 (Year 1 Undergraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryLinguistics is the scientific study of human language. This course will give students an overview of the main subsystems of language: the sound system, word and sentence structure, and meaning. It will also explore how language is used in communication, how it is learned, and how it changes over time. Examples will be drawn from different languages, but the course will be focused on English
Course description This course is intended to provide an entry point to the credit study of language sciences at COL. The 20-credit model will allow proper time for students to develop understanding and key academic skills and to benefit from formative assessment and feedback.

Linguistics is the systematic, scientific study of language. The first half of this course will offer an overview of the main subfields of linguistic analysis: phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. This overview will form the foundation for the second part of the course, when students will explore how language has evolved, how language is acquired by children, and how language varies across space, social groups and time.

The course is organised in six blocks, three per semester. The three blocks in the first semester will be:
1) Phonetics and phonology (sounds and sound systems)
2) Morphology and syntax (word and sentence structure)
3) Semantics (meaning at the level of the word and sentence)

The three blocks in the second semester will be:
1) Pragmatics (meaning in discourse and conversation)
2) Language evolution and acquisition
3) Language variation and change

Each week will combine lecture and tutorial discussion. The first semester, which is more content heavy, will include weekly exercises and questionnaires aimed at allowing students to put their knowledge into practice and also to continuously assess their understanding of the topics. Exercises will be set as homework and will be corrected and discussed in class. The second semester will have stronger methodological and discussion components. Students will be introduced to seminal papers and experiments in each subfield and will be asked to discuss and compare them.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Demonstrate an awareness of the difference between prescriptive and descriptive approaches to language
  2. Describe the basic features of the language subsystems and show how they apply to English
  3. Apply the basic principles of language acquisition, variation and change to describe how English varies across time and space
  4. Analyse simple linguistic and sociolinguistic data
  5. Articulate the ideas behind both sides of some of the major debates within the field, for example nativism vs. usage-based theories
Reading List
Indicative reading list
Required:
O'Grady, W., Dobrovolsky, M., and Katamba, F. 2011. Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction. London: Longman.
Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., and Hyams, N. 2003. An Introduction to Language. 7th ed. Australia: Thomson/Wadsworth.
Huddleston, R. D., and Pullum, G. K. 2005. A Student Introduction to English Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Van Herk, G. 2012. What Is Sociolinguistics? Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Recommended:
Pinker, S. 1994. The Language Instinct: The New Science of Language and Mind. New York: William Morrow.
Yule, G. 2006. The Study of Language. 3rd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills By the end of the course, students should have strengthened their skills in critical analysis and group discussion.
KeywordsEnglish,language,linguistics,grammar,phonology,morphology,syntax,pragmatics,sociolinguistics
Contacts
Course organiserMr Maximillian Jaede
Tel:
Email: v1mjaede@exseed.ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMr John Ethcuit
Tel: (0131 6)50 3409
Email: jethcuit@exseed.ed.ac.uk
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