Introduction

An Introduction to Linguistics

LINGUISTICS STUDIES LANGUAGES

WHY DO WE STUDY LINGUISTICS?

Q:

There are over 5000 languages in the world.

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World Map Individual countries

Being a language learner, you have been learning “what”. Now you need to learn to explain “WHY”.

WHAT DO WE STUDY ABOUT LANGUAGE?

Q:

WHAT GOOD DOES STUDYING LINGUISTICS DO TO MY CAREERS?

Q:

The careers (… and more) that require linguistic knowledge

You are going to be more sensitive to what you see and what you hear.

You are going to be person of humor to what you see and what you hear.

German CoastGuard

HOW DO I PREPARE FOR THIS COURSE?

Q:

The old trick (but it always works)

"Linguistics is the science of language. It is the subject whose practitioners devote their energy to understanding why human language is the way it is. They study the history, acquisition, structure, and use of as many languages as possible - It would be nice to study them all, but life's too short." (Crystal: http://www.bangor.ac.uk/ling/whatis.htm)

ENJOY THE CLASS!

Studying languages is fun. (I know you don’t buy it now!)