24.900
Introduction to Linguistics
Studies what is language and what does knowledge of a language consist of. It asks how do children learn languages and is language unique to humans; why are there many languages; how do languages change; is any language or dialect superior to another; and how are speech and writing related. Context for these and similar questions provided by basic examination of internal organization of sentences, words, and sound systems. Assumes no prior training in linguistics.
Spring 2022
Topics
- Introduction
- Morphology
- Phonetics
- Phonetics (shading into Phonology)
- Phonology
- Syntax
- Finishing Syntax, Starting Semantics
- Semantics
- Dialects
- Historical Linguistics
- Endangered Languages
- Language Acquisition
- Signed Languages
Readings
- O’Grady, William, John Archibald, Mark Aronoff, and Janie Rees-Miller (2017). Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction . New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
- This would probably be our textbook, if we were going to have a textbook…but it isn’t quite good enough to justify making you buy it. It could be a useful resource, but you should bear in mind that we will be contradicting what it says, every so often. The general rule, if you seem to see a contradiction between us and the book, is that we are right and the book is wrong (though if you notice contradictions like this, it’s worth asking about them; maybe there’s some mistake, either yours or ours).
Fall 2012
Topics
- Finish phonetics, start phonology
Readings
- The main textbook for the course is:
- O’Grady, William, John Archibald, et al. Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction . 6th ed. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. ISBN: 9780312618513.
- Baker, Mark. The Atoms of Language: The Mind’s Hidden Rules of Grammar . Basic Books, 2002. ISBN: 9780465005222.
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: None U (Fall, Spring) 4-0-8 units. HASS-S; CI-H Credit cannot also be received for 24.9000
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Spring 2022
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2012
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.