Language is perhaps the clearest example of something that is uniquely human. While many animals use calls to communicate, the human ability to create and understand entirely new ideas makes human language fundamentally different. To study how humans learn, produce, and perceive language is to study what it means to be human. How do we perceive speech? How does the brain decide what it’s heard? How are words arranged into meaningful strings? How is meaning encoded into speech? Are signed languages any different from spoken languages? How does an infant acquire language? How does an adult acquire language? How does the language we speak influence our thoughts and beliefs? These questions will be the focus of this course. To answer them, we will learn the basics of linguistic analysis, understand experimental methods, and discuss theoretical approaches to explaining empirical data.
Prereq: 1100, Ling 2000, or 5000. Not open to students with credit for Ling 3701.

GEL Social Science: Individuals and Groups
GEN Foundation: Social and Behavioral Sciences
Cross-listed in Ling 3701.