Language in Communication: Invitation to Linguistics

This discussion seminar is dedicated to those who would like to get some basic knowledge of the most important instrument they use in everyday interpersonal interactions, i.e. language. Language in Communication: Invitation to Linguistics is planned as an introduction to linguistics, i.e. it discusses general language mechanisms applied by users while producing utterances.

1. Austin J. L.: How to Do Things with Words. Oxford: OUP 1986. Chpt. VII & XII [Locution, illocution, perlocution. Illocutional forces.] }

2. Berne E.: Games People Play. The Psychology of Human Relationships. NY: Grove Press 1964. {http://opac.bu.umk.pl/webpac-bin/B_horizonPL/wgbroker.exe?2017082500013005024300+1+scan+select+3+0}

3. Goffman E.: Interaction Ritual: Essays in Face-to-Face Behavior. London: Penguin Books.

4. Grice P.: Logic and conversation, [in:] P. Cole, J. L. Morgan (eds.), Syntax and Semantics vol. 3. NY: Academic Press 1975, 41-58. {http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ls/studypacks/Grice-Logic.pdf}

5. Lyons J.: Language and Linguistics: an Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1997.

6. McCabe A.: An Introduction to Linguistics and Language Studies. London, Oakville: Equinox 2011. {http://opac.bu.umk.pl/webpac-bin/B_horizonPL/wgbroker.exe?2017082421135301183856+1+scan+select+1+1}

7. Saussure F. de: Course in General Linguistics. London: Bloomsbury Academic 2013.

8. Searle J.: Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge: CUP 2009. {http://opac.bu.umk.pl/webpac-bin/B_horizonPL/wgbroker.exe?2017082500460103993772+1+search+select++2+10}

9. Wierzbicka A.: Cross-cultural Pragmatics: the Semantics of Human Interaction . Berlin, NY: Moutonde Gruyter 2003. {http://opac.bu.umk.pl/webpac-bin/B_horizonPL/wgbroker.exe?2017082421135301183856+1+search+select++18+10}

10. Wierzbicka A.: Semantics: Primes and Universals. Oxford: OUP 1996. {http://opac.bu.umk.pl/webpac-bin/B_horizonPL/wgbroker.exe?2017082421135301183856+1+search+select++18+16}

11. Wierzbicka A.: Semantics, culture, and cognition : universal human concepts in culture-specific configurations. Oxford: OUP 1992. {http://opac.bu.umk.pl/webpac-bin/B_horizonPL/wgbroker.exe?2017082421135301183856+1+search+select++18+18}

Not apllicable

1. What makes our language competence. Language signs among other types of signs; natural and conventional signs; single-class vs. double-class signs. Identity and opposition as key notions of language.

2. Language system and language unit. “Productivity” of language; double articulation of language.

3. Subsystems of language: phonological, word-formative, inflectional, syntactical and lexical. Phonetic <> content level of utterance (text  sense).

4. Definability of concepts. “Lingua mentalis” by Anna Wierzbicka – primary and universal units of language. Language as a classifier of reality.

5. Speech act structure. The Speaker presenting him/herself in a speech act. Symptomaticity and conventionality of body language.

6. Stylistic differentiation of language – criteria: territorial identity of the speaker and the hearer / social identity – social distance between the interlocutors – oral / written form of utterance – communicative situation – communicative goal. Communicative roles. Functional styles of language and speech genres. The principle of communicative adequacy (decorum).

7. Language functions according to K. Bühler and R. Jakobson. The relation between higher language functions as defined by K. Popper and evolution of consciousness. Human language vs animal languages.

8. Locutional, illocutional, and perlocutional aspects of speech act. Explicit and implicit communication: direct/indirect speech acts <> overt/latent (manipulative). Why do people communicate in an implicit way? Understanding the speaker’s intentions: data taken into account by the addressee; linguistic competence vs communicative competence.

9. Introduction to pragmatics. The principle of communicative cooperation: conversational logic by Paul Grice.

10. Final test.