LgBA07 Approaches to the scientific understanding of language

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2024
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 5 credit(s). Recommended Type of Completion: k (colloquium). Other types of completion: zk (examination).
In-person direct teaching
Teacher(s)
PhDr. Aleš Bičan, Ph.D. (lecturer)
doc. PhDr. Mojmír Dočekal, Ph.D. (lecturer)
doc. Mgr. Jan Havliš, Dr. (lecturer)
doc. PhDr. Bc. Ondřej Šefčík, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
PhDr. Aleš Bičan, Ph.D.
Department of Linguistics and Baltic Languages – Faculty of Arts
Supplier department: Department of Linguistics and Baltic Languages – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Thu 12:00–13:40 J.126, except Mon 18. 11. to Sun 24. 11.
Prerequisites
no prerequisities
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 17 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
The course introduces students of all subjects to the scientific inquiry of language. It shows that the linguist is not a person who speaks a lot of languages or teaches them, but a person who wants to describe and explain the origin, development, structure, and functions of languages. The course focuses on what language is and is not, and whether even constructed languages could offer us something more than the way how Elves or Dothraki speak. Great attention is paid to sound patterns of the world's languages, the relationship between thinking and language, the origin and development of language, and mutual influences between languages. The course discusses methods used in linguistics for getting answers to these questions and shows the way how linguistic findings can be related to other scientific disciplines or used therein.
Learning outcomes
The student will gain:
- understanding of principles of linguistic analysis
- arguments for showing that linguistics is a science
- knowledge about linguistic methods and the ways how linguistics can be related to other scientific disciplines
- answers to the questions "what is language, what is its origin, how does it change, and how do languages influence each other and influence our thinking"
- understanding of various approaches to the scientific study of language (synchronic, diachronic, corpus-based, experimental etc.)
Syllabus
  • 1) Why a linguist is not a person who speaks a lot of languages or teaches them? What does it mean that linguistics is a science about language?
  • 2) What is actually language? Do apes, parrots, and bees use language?
  • 3) Does your phone speak: How to investigate the sound structure of language, and how to use these findings outside linguistics?
  • 4) Strč prst skrz řeřichu: Is Czech phonetically strange and what do we in fact know about sounds of all languages? Is it actually necessary to use sound in communication?
  • 5) What can Dothraki, Elvish, and other constructed languages tell us about natural languages? How can these languages be used in linguistics?
  • 6) What is the relationship between thinking and language? Does language defines the way we think? Is it possible to find out why language is how it is?
  • 7) Do we have in our head a computer that can speak? How did language originate? What happens when speakers of mutually unintelligible languages meet?
  • 8) How cognitive science and linguistics can provide answers to what philosophy could not solve -- are our words and sentences a reflection of thoughts, facts of the world or none of it?
  • 9) Methods of natural sciences in linguistics: how to get hard data and how to use them? From gathering data through their statistical processing to testing hypotheses
  • 10) Language development: How and why do languages change? Can we find out how our ancestors spoke? Could Eve talk with Adam, and how?
  • 11) Isn't linguistics a type of archeology? Do language, nations or both migrate? Can we reconstruct the mental world of an ancient culture?
  • 12) Development of linguistic research: Did we split apart in Babylon? What about writing a grammar? Latina regina linguarum? Aren't we linguistic cousins? Chance, analogy, or laws? Let's think structurally! No, universally and generatively!
Literature
    recommended literature
  • LADEFOGED, Peter. Vowels and consonants. Edited by Sandra Ferrari Disner. 3rd ed. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012, xvii, 211. ISBN 9781444334296. info
  • PINKER, Steven. Jazykový instinkt : jak mysl vytváří jazyk. Translated by Markéta Hofmeisterová. Vydání první. Praha: Dybbuk, 2009, 550 stran. ISBN 9788074380068. info
  • BAAYEN, Rolf Harald. Analyzing linguistic data : a practical introduction to statistics using R. 1st print. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008, xiii, 353. ISBN 9780521882590. info
  • HJELMSLEV, Louis. Jazyk. Translated by Miloš Dokulil. 1. vyd. Praha: Academia, 1971, 145 s. URL info
Teaching methods
lectures, compulsory reading of a few texts (in Czech or English)
Pinker, S.: Jazykový instinkt: Jak mysl vytváří jazyk (2010). Kapitoly 1 a 2
Hjelmslev, L. Jazyk (1971). Kapitoly Jazykové funkce, Genetická příbuznost jazyků, Tvoření znaků)
Tolkien, J. R. R.: Tajná neřest (In: Netvoři a kritikové a jiné eseje, 2006)
Chiang. T.: Příběh tvého života (In: Příběhy tvého života, 2011)
Assessment methods
Written examination.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
Listed among pre-requisites of other courses
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2019, Autumn 2020, Autumn 2021, Autumn 2022, Autumn 2023.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
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