Introduction to Linguistics
Define what linguistics is, its
goals, and core questions (e.g., descriptive vs. prescriptive, what constitutes
“language” vs. speech).
Discuss the nature of human
language—as systems, faculty, and social phenomenon.
Phonetics
Explore articulatory (how speech
sounds are produced), acoustic (sound wave properties), and auditory (how sound
is perceived) phonetics.
Teach IPA symbols, transcription,
and articulatory features.
Phonology
Study how sounds function within
a linguistic system: phonemes, allophones, distinctive features, and
phonological rules (e.g., assimilation).
Address syllable structure,
stress, tone, and prosodic patterns.
Morphology
Examine the formation and
structure of words: morphemes (free/bound), derivation, inflection, and
compounding.
Analyze morphological processes
across languages.
Syntax
Cover sentence structure: phrase
structure, syntactic categories, constituency, grammar types (e.g.,
generative), and movement/transformations.
Practice tree diagrams and
parsing.
Semantics
Handle meaning at the word and
sentence levels: lexical semantics, ambiguity, entailment, and semantic
relations like synonymy and polysemy.
Pragmatics
Address meaning in context:
speech acts, implicature, presupposition, deixis, and Grice’s maxims.
Discourse Analysis
Study how coherence, cohesion,
and context operate in longer stretches of text and conversation.
Sociolinguistics / Language
Variation
Investigate how language varies
across social factors (e.g., region, age, gender) and contexts; also look at
dialects, registers, code-switching, and multilingualism.
Historical Linguistics / Language
Change
Cover language evolution over
time, comparative method, reconstruction, sound change, and language families.
Language Acquisition /
Psycholinguistics
Examine first and second language
acquisition: cognitive mechanisms, developmental stages, and differences
between acquisition and learning.
Writing Systems / Graphemics
Study orthographies: how writing
systems represent sounds, symbols, and meaning (e.g., alphabetic, logographic),
and issues like literacy and orthographic depth.
Applied Linguistics
Explore real-world uses: language
teaching methodology, language policy, planning, language contact, and applied
research.
Theoretical Frameworks &
Major Thinkers
Introduce foundational figures
(e.g., Saussure, Chomsky), theories, and overview of structural, generative,
functional, and cognitive approaches.
