Informácie o kurze

The course introduces the paradigm in the study of language having developed after Noam Chomsky's breakup with behaviorism, which resulted in what is today known as the "cognitive revolution". We discuss the importance of linguistics for studies in psychology and cognitive science, the possible innate and learned elements of the language faculty, psychological and neurobiological bases of language perception and production, and important issues of language acquisition in both normal and unusual circumstances (e.g. neurological or developmental disorders). The course therefore aims to familiarize the students with the basic ideas of post-structuralist approaches to language science. After the completed course, the student should be able to comprehend the basic problems of modern Anglo-American theoretical linguistics; realize its importance among other disciplines studying the mind and human nature (e.g. the philosophy of mind, cognitive psychology, neuroscience); gain some elementary epistemological background against which they may assess the importance of particular branches of linguistics they have or will study in their program (e.g. phonology, syntax, semantics); adopt some elementary concepts of modern cognitivistic approaches to linguistics, from both the generative/Chomskian and cognitive/Lakoffian paradigms (e.g. nativism, universal grammar, poverty of stimulus, deep and surface structure, transformations / constructivism, prototypes, cross-domain mapping). Topics to be covered include issues of the position of linguistics within psychology and cognitive science throughout the 20th century; Chomskian universal and mental grammar; conflicts between nativist and constructivist approaches to language acquisition, in both normal and unusual circumstances (e.g. neurological disorders, genetic mutations, late or no exposure to language, including psychological abuse, physical trauma or brain damage); possible ways to approach phonological, syntactic and semantic structure (though semantics will be covered extremely briefly); possible ways to test hypotheses in linguistics experimentally.