Introduction to English Linguistics

This is an introductory course in which students are acquainted with the basic concepts of modern English linguistics, the main branches of linguistics and methods of language analysis. The course offers a survey of the main aspects of the English phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics; it introduces different theoretical approaches to linguistic study and provides the students with the knowledge about modern achievements in sociolinguistics, language acquisition by children, bilingualism, the origins and development of language, the relationship between language and the brain, the classification of Indo-European languages, language varieties, and language change.

To acquaint students with the concepts of modern linguistics and to introduce the theory of linguistics and methods of analysis at various levels of language.

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General theoretical and analytical principles of modern linguistics. Phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, acquisition of language in children, bilingualism, sociolinguistics, the origins of language, language development, language and the brain, classification of languages (basic terminology). The principal aspects of phonetics and phonology; word structure and types of word-formation; structure of an English sentence; word and sentence semantics; meaning and context; concepts of sociolinguistics (dialects, sociolects, slang, jargon, register). Methods of analysis applied at different levels of language.

1. The general theoretical and analytical principles of modern linguistics applied properly. 2. The topics and aspects of different fields of linguistics and their role in linguistic communication explained correctly. 3. The basic linguistic terms used correctly. 4. Methods of analysis of different language levels (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics) applied properly in real linguistic situations.