Borders Humans talk to each other using language. But we are not the only species on Earth that can communicate. Birds chirp, frogs croak, dogs bark, and honeybees dance. Our animal friends also have their ways to "talk"! In this class, we will look into various animal communication systems and animal cognition as well as human language and brain from interdisciplinary perspectives including linguistics, cognitive science, neuroscience, zoology, and genetics. We will compare folk conceptions of animals with findings from scientific studies. You will be the scientists in this class to investigate animals you are fond of freely using basic scientific research methodologies. After this course, you will be able to distinguish folklore notions of animal cognitive capacities from what has been known in scientific research. You will glean a better understanding of the differences and similarities between animal communication systems and human language. You will figure out why humans are enthusiastic about studying animal minds all the time and why humans persist in their efforts to "talk to the animal
This course will introduce students to various topics concerning the interaction between language use and social and cultural phenomena, including topics of language and cultural meaning, social segmentation and linguistic variation, bi- and multi-lingual communities, and the ethnography of communication. Course may be repeated under different subtitles to a maximum of six credits.
This course will introduce students to various topics concerning the interaction between language use and social and cultural phenomena, including topics of language and cultural meaning, social segmentation and linguistic variation, bi- and multi-lingual communities, and the ethnography of communication. Course may be repeated under different subtitles to a maximum of six credits.
