Course Description
The course introduces students to some of the recent developments in the study of language within the field of Linguistics.
Course Content
- Introductory: Language and Cognition and what the relationship means to the study of language
- Different perspectives on the study of language: language structure (Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, Syntax, Semantics, Logic), Context of use (Pragmatics, Sociolinguistics), Cognitive underpinnings of language (Cognitive linguistics, Psycholinguistics)
- Prescriptive, descriptive and generative traditions in the study of language
- Internalism and externalism
- Cognitive linguistics
- Explaining language change
- Contextualising language: Language as a carrier of culture
- Language and social control
- Feminist critique of language
- Language documentation and archiving
Course Audience
Senior undergraduate students at IIT Kanpur
Outcomes of this Course
The objective of the course is to sensitize students to the place of language in human cognitive and cultural spaces.