Aims

The course seeks to familiarize the students with the tools of linguistic analysis by deepening their sensibilities to the problems linked to the evolution, variety, and dispersion of languages. It aims to give the students an essential know-how for the analysis of the language inherent to the discourses in the students' chosen field of study. Finally, the course gives the students an overview of the different strands of linguistic analysis and trains them to exercise their critical thought when faced with the methodological and epistemological aspects that characterize these different strands.

Main themes

Internal structure of the language.
Linguistic strands.
Key bibliographic information about general linguistics.

Internal structure of the language : linguistic branches and descriptive units: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, discourse. Illustrations and application to Classical, Romance, and Germanic languages. Linguistic strands : relying on a diachronic perspective, the course reviews the main strands of modern linguistics. It brings out the main contributions in the construction of a scientific reflection about Language and languages. It shows their methodological implications through illustrations and applications to the analysis of Classical, Romance, and Germanic languages. Key bibliographic information about general linguistics : bibliographies, general works, Web sites, etc.

Content and teaching methods

The goal of the course is, on the one hand, to provide the essentials about the nature of human language, its origin, its extension and diversity, and, on the other hand, to give an overview of modern linguistic theory in order tho shed light on how our current understanding of language is the result of different but complementary views. Special attention will be given to the methods which characterize each approach. The General Linguistics course will deal in particular with comparatism, Saussurean and american structuralism, generative grammar, cognitive grammar and functional grammar.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Nil.

Programmes in which this activity is taught

Other credits in programs