LING(ENGL) 6080/4080

This course discusses the common confusion between different approaches to linguistics and language study, and provides a general theoretical framework under which empirically-based investigation of speech can be carried out: complex systems. Complex systems is a new science currently useful in physics, ecology and evolutionary biology, and economics, but also a perfect fit for the humanities. The science of complexity describes how massive numbers of random interactions can give rise to order, regularities that “emerge” from the interactions without specific causes. This course is a foundational course in complex systems at UGA. As for linguistics, we will first step back from the modern practices of linguistics in order to examine the choices available for language study, as usefully categorized a century ago by Saussure.  Then, we will consider empirical evidence from real speech, primarily from survey research and corpus linguistics but also from other empirical studies of language in use, to answer the question "what model of human language does this evidence lead us to build." In particular, such study will introduce students to language variation, and will consider how the fact of variation should condition how one thinks about language. Language as people use it creates expectations among professional linguists and the public that have strong implications for social and educational policy.