This course is an introduction to the formal and empirical study of language, with an emphasis on English. We’ll study the sound system through phonetics and phonology, how words are formed through morphology, how we build words and phrases into clauses and more in syntax, how meaning is realized through semantics, and then turn to the social side with the history of the English language, sociolinguistics and U.S. dialects, and social interaction in discourse. With each linguistic level, we’ll begin with the formal analysis and then we’ll also read an article or two on language in the United States knowing something about linguistics helps you understand something important about language variation in this country. That there are right and wrong answers in this course is often a surprise to English students, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll better understand how the English language works. Evaluation will be through weekly homework problems, short reading responses, a midterm, a final, and a paper. The textbooks are Edward Finegan’s Language: Its Use and Structure, 5th edition, and Edward Finegan and John Rickford’s collection of articles, Language in the USA: Themes for the Twenty-first Century.

Texts:

• Edward Finegan. Language: Its Use and Structure (5th ed.).
• Edward Finegan and John Rickford, Eds. Language in the USA: Themes for the Twenty-first Century.