Universidade Nova de Lisboa

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Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas

Introduction to Language Sciences

Code

711131043

Academic unit

Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas

Department

Linguística

Credits

6.0

Teacher in charge

Clara Nunes Correia, Maria Isabel Tomás, Maria Sousa Lobo Gonçalves

Weekly hours

4

Teaching language

Português

Objectives

1. To recognize language as a cognitive activity
2. To distinguish the concepts of ‘natural language’ and ‘language faculty´
3. To differentiate among language acquisition models
4. To acquire methodological tools adequate to the description of natural languages

Prerequisites

None

Subject matter

1. Language as a cognitive activity: to speak/to listen to/to understand:
a. The origins of language faculty: from the non-linguistic evidence to the linguistic evidence
b. How and why do we speak: the faculty of language
c. Language acquisition models
2. Language expression: verbal language and gesture language
3. Natural languages: linguistic analysis levels
4. Natural languages description
a. Natural languages grammar: normative grammars and descriptive grammars
b. Standard language and deviations: grammatical, ungrammatical and acceptable sentences
5. Interdisciplinary approaches to Language Sciences

Bibliography

ARONOFF. Mark & Janie REES-MILLER (eds). The handbook of linguistics, MA/Oxford, Blackwell Publishers, 2003. (pp. 1-80).
COSTA, João & Ana Lúcia SANTOS. A falar como os bebés. Lisboa, Caminho, 2002. (pp. 15-132)
DUARTE, Inês. Língua Portuguesa. Instrumentos de Análise. Lisboa. Universidade Aberta, 2000.
FARIA, Isabel Hub et al (orgs). Introdução à Linguística Geral e Portuguesa. Lisboa, Caminho, 1996.
HOMBERT, Jean-Marie (eds). Aux origines des langues et du langage. Paris, Fayard, 2005

Teaching method

Presentation of the topics of the subject matter of the course (in theoretical classes); analysis and discussion of theoretical texts and of students papers (in practical classes).

Evaluation method

1 final test (40%); 3 quizzes (according with programmatic modules) (15%, each); autonomous work (assessment based on individual and group students works to be presented and discussed; reading reports) (15%)

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