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Academic Year 2005/2006

Language, Mind, Body: Philosophies of Linguisitics
COL 112 FA
Clusters:

Linguistics

What is language? What is thought? What do they have to do with one another? And what does each have to do with the body? Western thinkers have pondered such questions, in one form or another, for more than two thousand years. In this course we will examine some of the most important answers that have been proposed: from classical Greece and Rome through Medieval, Renaissance, and Modern times down to the present. Along the way we will consider how the various views of language have each been appropriate to their time, how they have intersected and continue to intersect not only with changing language technologies (such as writing, printing or audio recording), but also with other intellectual disciplines (including philosophy, physics, theology, chemistry, biology, mathematics, history, anthropology, sociology, computer science and psychology).

MAJOR READINGS

Major readings for the course are drawn from Harris and Taylor's LANDMARKS IN LINGUISTIC THOUGHT I: THE WESTERN TRADITION FROM SOCRATES TO SAUSSURE (Routledge: 1997).
Supplementary readings will be drawn from:
Joseph, Love and Taylor's LANDMARKS IN LINGUISTIC THOUGHT II: THE WESTERN TRADITION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (Routledge: 2001),
Umberto Eco's SEARCH FOR THE PERFECT LANGUAGE (Blackwell: 1995)
Geoffrey Sampson's SCHOOL OF LINGUISTICS (Stanford: 1980)
and others

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

The requirements for the course include a mid-term examination and a final paper plus a number of shorter assignments.

COURSE FORMAT: Seminar

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: HA COL    Grading Mode: Student Option   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-30-2006

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