180096 VO+UE Introduction to linguistics from a cognitive perspective (2017W)

Language may be regarded as one of the most prominent cognitive capacities of the human race. It is ubiquitous, and every human being speaks at least one language and knows about a few others. Disputes about properties of one or another language or dialect are quite popular. But what do we really know about this cognitive capacity. In order to discuss this, a few concepts and topics of modern linguistics have to be presented and understood. The first 10 units of this course are dedicated to gain clarity about quite important questions: what is the code language uses, and how is it transmitted (phonology and phonetics)? What are the units of language and how are they utilized to form a rather complex system (morphology, syntax)? What role plays structure for language (syntax, semantics)? How does meaning come about (semantics, acquisition)? Do we structure meanings (semantics, information structure)? The last 4 units will present topics that directly relate to themes that are most relevant to the study of cognition in a broader sense.