To speak another language is to possess another soul.


Course Objectives

inguistics 110 is an introduction to the wonders of language. It is designed to raise our estimation of the mastery of language and of the only species that masters it. Like Linguistics 105, Linguistics 110 explores both the mysteries of language today and the question of how languages arise over the centuries. It is a course about the human mind and how the human mind uses language and passes it on to later generations. The course not only assists in understanding human language as a crucial divide between humans and other species, it provides an important concepts for learning a second language either here at Bucknell or later on in life. Most importantly, however, it allows you to peek at some of the magic being constantly performed inside our mouths and between our ears, without our even knowing it.

Linguistics 110 is also provides you the intellectual tools to improve the mastery of your own language, English. It provides students with an insight into English in comparison with other languages. Linguistics 110 focuses a bit more on English than Linguistics 105, but will look also at other languages taught at Bucknell: for example, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Latin, Russian, and Spanish—it examines the grammatical categories and processes of languages from around the world. In this way it also serves as an introduction to the rich array of languages and language types spoken across the globe.

The primary topics covered in Linguistic 110 include: syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics (this year we will examine closely the issue of discrimintory language), pragmatics (the speech setting: assumptions, body language, etc.), dialects (areal, social, professional, creole and pidgin languages) writing systems, and computational linguistics. LING 110 may be taken independently of LING 105. The linguistic revelations of how we produce and interpret linguistic sound, create and use words, why we make errors in speech, as well as the innate and universal aspects of language acquisition and processing, are covered in LN 105, and some of these topics may be reviewed in Linguistic 110 as needed.