Syllabus
1. The study of linguistics.
2. Sign, semiosis, and a sign system.
3. Types of signs, arbitrariness of the language sign; dimensions of semiosis.
4. Phoneme as a figure. Distinctive feature; phoneme as a bundle of distinctive features; theory of oppositions; segmental vs. suprasegmental units.
5. Morpheme vs. (allo)morph, types of allomorphs. Morpheme types in words, grammatical vs. lexical.
6. Sentence vs. utterance; dependency sentence analysis. Analysis into immediate components; expressing relationships within a sentence. Dependency syntax and syntax of immediate components within a word.
7. Langue vs. parole / competence vs. performance. Syntagmatic vs. paradigmatic relationships. Synchrony vs. diachrony. Language families.
8. Beyond structural linguistics: speech act theory, issues of language politeness.
Annotation
The course provides the basic notional framework of contemporary linguistic accounts, including descriptions of a specific language (grammar, dictionaries), and an essential insight into the structure of natural languages. The starting point is general semiotic frameworks.
An integral part is reference to the history of modern linguistics.