| CODE | LLT1011 | ||||||||||||
| TITLE | Introduction to Linguistics 1 | ||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 01 - Year 1 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 5 | ||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 6 | ||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Institute of Linguistics and Language Technology | ||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | Introduction to Linguistics 1 starts by providing an introduction to the scientific study of language. It motivates the exploration of language as a cognitive capacity while introducing some preliminary concepts and terminology for doing linguistics. Alongside LLT1012 - Introduction to Linguistics 2, this study-unit considers the structure of language at the levels of Sound, Grammar and Meaning with the aim of showing that languages and language varieties alike dip into the same “pool” of structural features, despite using these features in different ways. This is what gives rise to the great multitude of world languages. LLT1011 and LLT1012 cover the following core-areas of linguistics: - Sound: Introducing phonetics and phonology Phonetics views speech as one possible medium of transmission for language. This part of the study-unit is intended to provide the basis for the study of Sound as used in the sound systems of the languages of the world. The focus will be on describing the different components involved in speech production from the perspective of articulatory phonetics and introducing the principles necessary to distinguish between different sounds used in human languages, distinctions which are captured in transcription using the International Phonetic Alphabet. In turn, phonology looks at speech from the point of view of the way sounds are organised in repeated patterns so as to contribute both to the creation of meaning and to giving an identity to different languages and language varieties. In this respect, in this part of the study unit, the description of sound structure moves beyond looking at individual sounds and the way these combine into syllables and words, introducing the examination of longer stretches of speech such as utterances, and of the role of prosodic features such as stress and intonation in creating meaningul distinctions. - Grammar: Introducing morphology Morphology deals with the formation of words. This part of the study-unitintroduces the fundamental concepts of morphology (word, morpheme and affix), before moving on to consolidating this basic knowledge by discussing and analysing morphological data from various languages. In turn, syntax deals with the structure of phrases and clauses. Whilst linking syntax with morphology, this part of the study-unit delineates the domain of syntax by (i) discussing the fundamental concepts involved (phrase structure, syntactic rules, and (ii) describing and analysing syntactic phenomena (e.g. case, agreement etc.). - Meaning: Introducing semantics and pragmatics When we informally think about linguistic meaning, we tend to confuse the meaning that is encoded in natural language expressions and sentences, with that which is communicated in context. The aim of semantic theory is to isolate those aspects of meaning that are language-internal and hence immune to contextual intrusions. Over and above semantic analysis, however, language is typically used to communicate meaning in context. A dedicated part of the study-unit thus aims at exposing students to mainstream theorising about linguistic pragmatics and familiarise them with the analysis of meaning during verbal communication. Whilst introducing the aforementioned core areas of linguistics, special attention is given to the interfacing between all levels of language introduced in the course of the two Introduction to Linguistics study-units. (NB: Students registered to continue on to LLT1013 – Introduction to Linguistics 2B – from LLT1011, will cover essentially the same ground with the exception of the study of Meaning, although following a different trajectory.) Study-Unit Aims: - to introduce students to the scientific study of language in a coherent and systematic way; - to introduce important concepts and terminology necessary for the study of linguistics generally, as well as the linguistic structure of different languages more specifically; - to encourage students to begin to appreciate underlying principles which make language the complex and interesting phenomenon that it is, starting by introspecting about their knowledge of language/s; - to provide students with a solid foundation in the different core areas of linguistics (Sound, Grammar and Meaning), follow up on which will take place in LLT1012 (or LLT1013, which covers the areas of Sound and Grammar but not Meaning), and which they will eventually be able to build on in more advanced study-units. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - distinguish between descriptive and prescriptive approaches to language and grammar; - identify some of the special features of human language; - describe the basic features of speech sounds, sound systems, word structure and sentence structure, and observe how meaning is encoded in the different systems. For the area of Sound: - identify and describe the components involved in the articulation of speech sounds - (airstream mechanisms; phonation types; articulation; coordination); - use the appropriate terminology to describe vowels and consonants; - distinguish between phonemes and allophones; - outline the general principles underlying syllable structure possibilities and phonotactics; - characterize languages on the basis of differences in stress, rhythm and intonation; - start to distinguish between phonetics and phonology, whilst also seeing links between them and other core areas. For the area of Grammar: - identify basic units and concepts in morphology, e.g., morpheme, allomorph, affixation, inflection; - explore interface phenomena, in particular the relationship between morphology and syntax; - recognize basic unts and concepts in syntax; e.g. constituent, phrase, clause, complement, modifier; - distinguish between different grammatical categories and explain their projection in syntactic structure; - judge sentences for grammaticality and identify reasons for unacceptability; - start to see the links between grammar and the other core areas. For the area of Meaning: - identify the basic concerns, concepts, and terminology of linguistic semantics; - explain how lexical and sentential linguistic meaning has been traditionally analysed; - identify the basic concerns, concepts and terminology of linguistic pragmatics; - discuss the significance of context in the study of communicated meaning; - distinguish between the study of semantics and pragmatics and start to see links with the other core areas. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - recognise many of the sounds in the IPA and the parameters along which sounds can vary and describe them using the appropriate terminology and symbols;- produce simple phonetic transcriptions of short stretches of speech, including by analysing syllable structure and identifying and marking stress and rhythm distinctions and providing (interlinear) transcriptions of the intonation of simple utterances; - apply their knowledge of basic notions in morphology and syntax to analyse and understand real language data from a wide variety of languages; - describe the structure of words, phrases and clauses of different types and belonging to different language families; - engage in semantic analysis of words and sentences; - engage in pragmatic analysis of utterances and speech acts; - apply the knowledge acquired to other fields of inquiry within linguistics, such as language acquisition, language variation and change or natural language processing. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main text-books will be identified and announced in the course of the study-unit. Specific readings will be assigned for each area on a topic-by-topic basis. General readings: - Aitchison, J. (2008). The articulate mammal: An introduction to Psycholinguistics (5th edition). London/New York: Routledge. - Burridge, K., & Stebbins, T. N. (2019). For the love of language: An introduction to linguistics (2nd edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. - Crystal, D. (2008). Dictionary of linguistics and phonetics (6th edition). West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell. - O'Grady, W., J. Archibald, M. Aronoff & J. Rees-Miller. (2017). Contemporary linguistics: An introduction (7th edition). London: Macmillan. - Pinker, S. (1995). The language instinct. London: Penguin. For the area of Sound: - Ashby, P. (2011). Understanding phonetics. London & New York. Routledge. - Ashby, M. & Maidment, J. (2005). Introducing phonetic science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. - Ball, M. J. & Muller, N. (2005). Phonetics for communication disorders. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. - Kennedy, R. (2017). Phonology: A coursebook. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. - Ladefoged, P., & Johnson, K. (2014). A course in phonetics (7th edition). Belmont CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co Inc. - International Phonetic Association. (1999). Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. - Zsiga, E. C. (2013). The sounds of language. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell. Grammar. For the area of Grammar: - Aronoff, M., & Fudeman, K. (2010). What is morphology? (2nd edition). Oxford: Blackwell. - Bauer, L. (1988). Introducing linguistic morphology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. - Booij, G. E. (2007). The grammar of words: An introduction to linguistic morphology (2nd edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press. - Haspelmath, M. & Simms, A. D. (2013). Understanding morphology (2nd edition). London: Hodder Education. - Larson, R. K. (2010). Grammar as science. Massachusetts, London: MIT Press. - Lieber, R. (2010) Introducing morphology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. - Moravcsik, E. A. (2006). An introduction to syntax. Fundamentals of syntactic analysis. London: Bloomsbury. - Sportiche, D., Koopman, H., & Stable, E. (2014). An introduction to syntactic analysis and theory. Chicester: Wiley-Blackwell. - Tallerman, M. (2019). Understanding syntax (3rd edition). London: Taylor and Francis, Hodder Education. For the area of Meaning:. - Cruse, A. (2000). Meaning in language: An introduction to semantics and pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. - Grundy, P. (2000). Doing pragmatics. London: Edward Arnold. - Huang, Y. (2007). Pragmatics: Oxford: Oxford University Press. - Hurford, J.R., Heasley, B. & Smith, M.B. (2007). Semantics: A coursebook (2nd edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. - Kaerns, K. (2000). Semantics. Basingstoke: Macmillan. - Kroeger, P. (2019). Analyzing meaning: An introduction to semantics and pragmatics (2nd edition). Berlin: Language Science Press. - Leech, G. (1983). Principles of pragmatics. London: Longman. - Levinson, S.C. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambrdige : Cambridge University Press. - Loebner, S. (2002). Understanding semantics. London: Edward Arnold. - Lyons, J. (1995). Linguistic semantics: An introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. - Saeed, J. (2003). Semantics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Ray Fabri Sarah Grech Alexandra Vella |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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