LIN4740

Linguistic Theory ( 12 points, SCA Band 1, 0.250 EFTSL)

Leader: Keith Allan

Offered:
Clayton First semester 2005 (Day)

Synopsis: Review and discussion of theoretical approaches to the analysis of language and communication, drawing on issues in phonology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, discourse analysis and sociolinguistics.

Objectives: Upon completion of this subject students should be familiar with ideas about what language is, in order to evaluate traditional, structuralist, transformational-generative, functionalist, and cognitive theories of grammar; know the history of language analysis: the ancient, medieval, and post-Renaissance conceptions of grammar that compose the western classical tradition to which modern linguistics owes a very clear debt; distinguish the philosophical school of grammar which gave rise to modern theoretical linguistics, from the pedagogical school which has given rise to applied linguistics; show how modern linguistics developed from investigations into the origins and interrelations of Indo-European languages to merge with a mushrooming interest in the non-Indo-European languages of Native Americans and the peoples of former European colonies in Africa and Asia; recognise the contribution played in the development of modern linguistics by technological advances in the twentieth century; evaluate competing philosophies of current linguistics: functionalist, conceptualist, cognitive, and realist.

Assessment: Research essay (4000 words): 40% + Class participation and exercises (4500 words): 60%

Contact Hours: 3 hours per week