Introduction to Linguistics (FutureLearn)

On this course, you’ll get an introduction to the main approaches used in linguistic research, including linguistic experiments and discourse analysis.

You’ll find out about the key methods used in linguistic descriptions, and some of the everyday ‘myths’ about language.

You’ll discover how linguistic researchers turn our ideas about language into linguistic knowledge.

What topics will you cover?

Week 1

This week is about how human beings (and some other animals) make meaning with our voices and with our hands. We cover:

- Some fundamental concepts in the study of language and communication;

- Language and gesture;

- Sign languages;

- Relations between human languages and other animal communication.

Week 2

This week is about methods used in the contemporary study of language. We cover:

- The use of grammar experiments to investigate language learning;

- The use of eye-tracking technology to investigate language processing;

- Big data dialectology.

Week 3

This week is about how linguistic concepts and methods can be applied to a range of problems. We cover:

- How metaphor and metonymy can shed light on communication in everyday and educational contexts;

- The stories we tell about social and political events;

- The language of literature.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

- Understand and apply fundamental concepts in language and communication such as ‘arbitrariness’ and ‘iconicity’.

- Appreciate the linguistic complexity of sign languages.

- Recognise some of the similarities and differences between human languages. and other animal communication.

- Discuss some of the key methods that linguists use to explore language.

- Reflect on the use of metaphor in everyday communication, and in educational contexts.

- Apply linguistic frameworks to social and literary questions and problems.

- Experience working with a language corpus.

- Debate your own linguistic experiences with a wide community of language-users.