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LIN112Arts2 Unitsintermediate

Introduction To Linguistics Ii

This course introduces students to core areas of linguistic description, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. It equips students with knowledge and skills for the development of Nigerian languages and exposes them to various aspects of linguistic study such as sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics. The course also acquaints students with current areas of linguistic study, such as language documentation and corpus linguistics, preparing them for further research or careers in teaching, translation, and media.

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208h
Study Time
13
Weeks
16h
Per Week
none
Math Level
Course Keywords
LinguisticsPhoneticsSyntaxSemanticsMorphology

Course Overview

Everything you need to know about this course

Course Difficulty

Intermediate Level
Builds on foundational knowledge
65%
intermediate
📚
Math Level
No Math
📖
Learning Type
Theoretical Focus

Course Topics

Key areas covered in this course

1

Phonetics

2

Phonology

3

Morphology

4

Syntax

5

Semantics

6

Pragmatics

7

Discourse Analysis

8

Contrastive Linguistics

9

Psycholinguistics

10

Language Acquisition

11

Language Change

12

Documentary Linguistics

Total Topics12 topics

Ready to Start

No specific requirements needed

This course is designed to be accessible to all students. You can start immediately without any prior knowledge or specific preparation.

Assessment Methods

How your progress will be evaluated (3 methods)

assignments

Comprehensive evaluation of course material understanding

Written Assessment

tutor-marked assessments

Comprehensive evaluation of course material understanding

Written Assessment

final examination

Comprehensive evaluation of course material understanding

Computer Based Test

Career Opportunities

Explore the career paths this course opens up for you

Teacher

Apply your skills in this growing field

Translator

Apply your skills in this growing field

Media Specialist

Apply your skills in this growing field

Linguist

Apply your skills in this growing field

Speech Therapist

Apply your skills in this growing field

Industry Applications

Real-world sectors where you can apply your knowledge

EducationTranslation ServicesMedia and JournalismSpeech PathologyLanguage Documentation

Study Schedule Beta

A structured 13-week journey through the course content

Week
1

Module 1: Levels of Linguistic Study

2h

Unit 1: Phonetics I

2 study hours
  • •Read the unit introduction to understand the scope of phonetics.
  • •Identify organs of speech and their functions.
  • •Explain the role of airstream mechanisms in sound production.
  • •Describe the process of voicing and its impact on sound production.
  • •Practice transcribing sounds using phonetic symbols.
Week
2

Module 1: Levels of Linguistic Study

2h

Unit 2: Phonetics II

2 study hours
  • •Describe vowels according to the parameters of their production.
  • •Practice transcribing vowels using phonetic symbols.
  • •Distinguish between short and long vowels, monophthongs, diphthongs, and triphthongs.
  • •Define suprasegmental features and their role in phonetics.
  • •Explain the use of distinctive features in phonetics.
Week
3

Module 1: Levels of Linguistic Study

2h

Unit 3: Phonology

2 study hours
  • •Define phonology and its basic unit of study.
  • •Explain the scope of phonology and its relationship with phonetics.
  • •Distinguish between a phoneme and an allophone.
  • •Describe phonological principles for distinguishing sounds.
  • •Discuss phonetic features of sound segments.
Week
4

Module 1: Levels of Linguistic Study

2h

Unit 4: Morphology

2 study hours
  • •Define morphology and the morpheme.
  • •Describe morpheme types and their functions.
  • •Distinguish between morphemes and allomorphs.
  • •Identify and describe the components of the morpheme structure.
  • •Explain the process of affixation and its types.
Week
5

Module 1: Levels of Linguistic Study

2h

Unit 5: Syntax

2 study hours
  • •Define syntax and its role in sentence formation.
  • •Identify words according to word classes (open and closed classes).
  • •Define a phrase and identify different types of phrases.
  • •Explain the structure and components of sentences and clauses.
  • •Classify sentences based on structure and function.
Week
6

Module 1: Levels of Linguistic Study

2h

Unit 6: Semantics

2 study hours
  • •Define semantics and its role in human communication.
  • •Distinguish between sense and reference.
  • •Identify the different types of meaning (conceptual, associative, thematic).
  • •Describe various meaning relations at the word level (synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy).
  • •Explain meaning relations at the sentence level (paraphrase, ambiguity, entailment).
Week
7

Module 2: Language and Context

6h

Unit 1: Pragmatics

3 study hours
  • •Define pragmatics and its focus on language in context.
  • •Explain the scope of pragmatics and its key concepts.
  • •Describe speech acts and their types (representatives, directives, commissives).
  • •Explain felicity conditions and their importance for successful communication.
  • •Understand conversational implicatures and Grice's maxims.

Unit 2: Discourse Analysis

3 study hours
  • •Define discourse analysis and its scope.
  • •Explain how to interpret discourse using cohesion and coherence.
  • •Understand speech events and conversational interaction.
  • •Explain the role of background knowledge in discourse analysis.
  • •Discuss the history and uses of discourse analysis.
Week
8

Module 2: Language and Context

4h

Unit 3: Contrastive Linguistics

4 study hours
  • •Define contrastive linguistics and its aims.
  • •Identify the uses of contrastive analysis in language teaching and translation.
  • •Explain the concepts of language interference and transfer.
  • •Differentiate between positive and negative transfer.
  • •Analyze the vowel systems of English and Nigerian languages.
Week
9

Module 3: Language and Psychology

6h

Unit 1: Psycholinguistics

3 study hours
  • •Define psycholinguistics and its main concerns.
  • •Describe the role of the brain in language acquisition and processing.
  • •Identify language centers of the brain (Broca's area, Wernicke's area) and their functions.
  • •Explain aphasia and its types (Broca's aphasia, Wernicke's aphasia).
  • •Discuss theories of language learning (behaviorist, mentalist).

Unit 2: Language Acquisition and Learning

3 study hours
  • •Explain first language acquisition and the acquisition process.
  • •Describe second language acquisition and its differences from first language acquisition.
  • •Understand error analysis and language transfer in second language acquisition.
  • •Explain the concept of interlanguage and its role in L2 learning.
  • •Discuss the Critical Period Hypothesis.
Week
10

Module 3: Language and Psychology

4h

Unit 3: Language and Machine

4 study hours
  • •Explain the concept of a language machine and its applications.
  • •Understand speech synthesis and recognition technologies.
  • •Define artificial intelligence and its role in natural language processing.
  • •Explain the workings of parsers in analyzing sentence structure.
  • •Discuss machine translation and its challenges.
Week
11

Module 4: Diachronic and Synchronic Linguistics

6h

Unit 1: Historical Linguistics

3 study hours
  • •Define historical linguistics and its focus on language change over time.
  • •Explain the relations between languages (proto-language, daughter language).
  • •Understand synchronic and diachronic studies.
  • •Describe comparative reconstruction and sound correspondence.
  • •Distinguish borrowed forms from cognate forms.

Unit 2: Language Change

3 study hours
  • •Explain language change and its various types (phonological, lexical, morphological).
  • •Describe syntactic change and semantic change.
  • •Understand the processes of semantic change (amelioration, deterioration, widening, narrowing).
  • •Discuss the problems and reasons for language change.
  • •Review the Great Vowel Shift as an example of phonological change.
Week
12

Module 4: Diachronic and Synchronic Linguistics

4h

Unit 3: Documentary Linguistics

4 study hours
  • •Define documentary linguistics and its goals.
  • •Distinguish between documentary and descriptive linguistics.
  • •Understand the concept of language endangerment and its implications.
  • •Explain the importance of linguistic research economy and accountability.
  • •Discuss the role of documentary linguistics in maintaining linguistic diversity.
Week
13

Final Revision

6h

Final Revision

6 study hours
  • •Review all modules and units.
  • •Work on assignments.
  • •Prepare for final examinations.

This study schedule is in beta and may not be accurate. Please use it as a guide and consult the course outline for the most accurate information.

Course PDF Material

Read the complete course material as provided by NOUN.

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Study Tips & Exam Preparation

Expert tips to help you succeed in this course

1

Create phonetic charts for English and Nigerian languages, practicing transcription of words.

2

Develop concept maps linking core linguistic areas (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics).

3

Practice syntactic parsing of complex sentences, identifying phrase structures and grammatical relationships.

4

Review examples of semantic change, classifying them as amelioration, deterioration, widening, or narrowing.

5

Study the historical development of English, focusing on the Great Vowel Shift and its impact on pronunciation.

6

Prepare detailed notes on key concepts from each unit, focusing on definitions, examples, and applications.

7

Form study groups to discuss challenging topics and practice applying linguistic principles to real-world examples.

8

Review all Tutor Marked Assignments (TMAs) and self-assessment exercises, identifying areas needing further study.

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