Textbooks

 

Required

An Introduction to Language (10th edition), by Victoria Fromkin, Robert Rodman, Nina Hyams. Boston: Thomson/Heinle, 2014. A copy is available on physical reserve at the Davis Family Library.

Recommended
Language Myths
, edited by Laurie Bauer and Peter Trudgill. Penguin Books. An interesting collection of essays discussing some of the common (mis)beliefs about language. A copy is available on physical reserve at the Davis Family Library.

Other course materials
In addition to the required textbooks, further readings will be assigned from some supplementary materials. These will be mainly articles or chapters from books or online sources.

One useful source is The Five-Minute Linguist: Bite-sized Essays on Language and Languages, by E. M. Rickerson and Barry Hilton. London : Equinox Publishing Ltd, 2006. Available online through our library database via this link: http://biblio.middlebury.edu/record=b3113227.Content of most of the chapters of the book is also available in audio format at this link:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/the-five-minute-linguist/id452255394

Other articles will be made available as the term unfolds via links on the syllabus table on the course website.

Some references will be available on physical reserve. Currently, the following source is on physical reserve at the Davis Family Library:  David Crystal’s The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. It’s a good general reference for some of the topics that we’ll be covering in this class.

Language-related movies
We will also watch, either individually or as a group, three language-related movies, all of which are on reserve at the Davis Family Library for this class:

1. Part 1 of the Human Language Series Movie: Discovering the Human Language

2. The Writing Code

3. The Linguists

4. Perhaps others.

I will announce dates for group screenings in class and by e-mail.