Linguistics

This course examines the relationship between language and cognition, focusing on how linguistic structures shape and reflect cognitive processes. Topics include the role of language in human thought, linguistic productivity, and the debates surrounding linguistic relativism and determinism. The course explores how language interacts with conceptual systems such as semantic memory, schemas, and scripts, as well as its connection to intentional systems through its interface with pragmatics. Major linguistic paradigms are considered to highlight their perspectives on how language and cognition influence one another.

This course offers an overview of the main questions that drive current reflection in the area of ​​the relationships between the brain, cognitive processes, and language. Students learn to distinguish the areas of study within Psycholinguistics, particularly those related to language comprehension and production, as well as its acquisition.

This course introduces students to the basics of Articulatory and Acoustic Phonetics, with a focus on American English and Korean sounds. The course enhances understanding of the fundamental articulatory principles for consonants and vowels. Additionally, students learn to use the speech analysis software 'Praat' to explore the acoustic properties of sounds. 

Students first examine Articulatory Phonetics - The articulatory mechanisms of human speech; The articulatory principles of consonants and vowels; and Allophones and narrow transcription. The second half of the course covers Acoustic Phonetics - The theoretical background for acoustic measurements of human speech and their physical mechanisms - and includes laboratory (experimental) sessions analyzing the acoustic properties of English and Korean vowels and consonants. 

Topics in Linguistics 1 is a topical course in which the subject of inquiry may change from term to term. Each offering of this course focuses in-depth on a specific area of linguistics, and students should expect the course to be comprehensive and advanced.  

The course topic for Fall 2025 is Psycholinguistics. This offering of the course focuses on the cognitive processes involved in language acquisition, production, and comprehension. Students explore how language is processed at various levels, including speech perception, word and sentence processing, and discourse understanding. The course also examines the neurological and psychological foundations of language, as well as the development of language in early childhood and the processing of bilingualism and sign language. By engaging with theoretical models and experimental findings, students gain insight into how language behavior illuminates our understanding of the mind and brain. 

Students are encouraged to have a basic understanding of at least three core areas within theoretical linguistics, such as phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. This course is not recommended for students with little or no background in theoretical linguistics. 

This course explores major themes in theories of meaning, including the relationships between form and meaning, meaning and truth, and meaning and praxis. Core questions in the field—such as universality, figurativeness, immanence, and compositionality—are examined through presentation and discussion. Students practice using metalanguage for analyzing signification across different levels of language.

The course offers a unique opportunity to learn one of the official languages of Scotland. Students develop simple strategies to learn languages and gain confidence in holding a basic everyday conversation. This course is suitable for students with no previous knowledge of the language. Students achieve the equivalent of the A1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR)and develop their confidence in holding a basic everyday conversation. Students develop these basic linguistic skills through a variety of comprehension and production activities. The course focuses on language that is required for communicating in real everyday situations, such as introducing oneself and others and talking about the daily routine. The course includes autonomous learning activities, which enable students to practice and consolidate their skills.

This course reflects upon the characteristics of linguistic, paralinguistic and non-verbal content of communication that works to exercise violence against others.  Through the identification of patterns, linguistic messages, and other methods of communication, the class analyzes a type of nonphysical moral violence equally as important in its overall study.  The course also covers forms of violence prevention. 

This course examines the nature and scope of semantics and pragmatics and their place within linguistics. Topics in semantics include: the nature and analysis of lexical meanings, the relationship between meaning and cognition, the relationship between semantics and grammar, and semantic change. Topics in pragmatics include: speech act theory, politeness theory, implicature and presupposition. 

This course explores various theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of language as a resource for social actors and communities, and as a resource to produce anthropological knowledge. The course analyzes how language emerges in the interactions between people and how it reflects and creates society and culture.  

Understanding these dynamics, however, requires more than just an impressionistic, commonsensical understanding of how language works. For example, what is important about language is not so much the literal meaning of words, but the connotation of accents, the channels through which people choose to communicate, and the silences and elisions. This course develops skills that enable one to investigate these dynamics in a sophisticated manner, yet one that remains solidly grounded in social and cultural theory.  

This course introduce students from the major Modern Languages and Literature (English, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese) to fundamental concepts, strategies, and procedures of translation and translation studies, to initiate a process of reflection and practice.