Linguistics and Society

This course will introduce students to some of the important principles of linguistics, as well as to the complex nature of language acquisition and use within any given society. The course will discuss some of the unique characteristics of human languages, the various theories of first and second language acquisition, the interrelation between language and gender and language and ethnicity and the social and political ramifications of different language attitudes; in addition, the course will examine the communicative and social significance of different Speech Acts.