Nov 23, 2024
OHIO University Undergraduate Catalog 2023-2024
OHIO University Undergraduate Catalog 2023-2024
[Archived Catalog]
Add to Portfolio (opens a new window)
Add to Portfolio (opens a new window)
LING 2700 - The Nature of Language
This course answers many of the questions that people usually ask about language. Are some languages more complex than others? Are some languages more beautiful than others? Is it easier for a child to learn a second language than an adult? Do women talk more than men? Are people that use bad grammar slovenly? These and many more questions will be answered by looking at what the empirical study of language tells us. Many of the answers will surprise you. By the end of this course, you will have a much better idea about what is a language myth and what is the real nature of language.
Credit Hours: 3
OHIO BRICKS Pillar: Social or Behavioral Sciences
General Education Code (students who entered prior to Fall 2021-22): 2SS
Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts.
Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture
Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I
Course Transferability: OTM course: TMSBS Social & Behavioral Sciences
College Credit Plus: Level 1
Learning Outcomes:
- Students will be able to discuss how meaning is expressed and changes due to social, regional, and historical factors.
- Students will be able to explain the systematic, creative, yet rule-governed nature of human language using appropriate disciplinary terminology.
- Students will be able to describe how all languages change or, in the absence of change, die out.
- Students will be able to explain the difference between a scientific understanding of linguistic data and societies’ values and judgments regarding languages/dialects, and to describe social consequences of that difference.
- Students will be able to assess the differences between acquisition and learning and how these process differences apply to language and other human knowledge bases.
- Students will be able to describe ways that the field of linguistics has historically shaped judgments about the value of human languages.
Add to Portfolio (opens a new window)