122210 VO Communication, Code and Culture (2020W)

In this lecture course we will discuss how language is a CODE which is influenced by general COGNITION and which helps us to COMMUNICATE our intentions, thoughts and feelings in our respective CULTURE. We will revisit the basic question what it means to know a language. We will also discuss how language is a complex adaptive system which is shaped and changed by its functions and by the society that uses it. We will also zoom in on certain characteristics of linguistic structures and how these are influenced by general cognitive abilities. In order to talk about these topics on an advanced MA level, we will read some seminal classic texts written by some famous linguists who "changed the game" (e.g. Saussure, Bloomfield, Greenberg, Chomsky, Sapir, Halliday, Grice, Lakoff, Labov, Pinker, Tomasello, Fillmore...) and examine how these texts have influenced linguists for decades.