MODL 1010 - The Language Phenomenon

Goals: To understand language, the uniquely human enterprise, and particularly the English language. To describe language—its sound patterns, its forms, its meanings, its structural patterns. To determine how languages are born, evolve, and die. To discern how both first and second languages are acquired.

Content: English phonetics, phonology, morphology, writing, syntax, semantics. Language both in its social context—dialects, slang, taboos, language acquisition—and in its historical context—philology and etymology. Class activities may include reading from Lewis Carroll, collecting of speech samples from sound tracks, media, and the street, creating a new language and analyzing word games.

Taught: Annually.

Credits: 4 credits