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Linguistics

Hi all,

I've recently been selected to do a Linguistics course at Villier's Park in April/May next year - I've always been really interested to find out more about linguistics as I'm fascinated by the way in which language works - however, I was always ***** at Science, and I'm a bit worried I'm going to just get none of it as I never realised quite how Science-y it was!

So if I'm not very scientific, am I completely screwed? I've always been very good at grammar and the mechanics of languages but Sciiiiiiiiiience.............. :s-smilie:

Reply 1

oxymoronic

19

If you head over to the linguistics thread on the social sciences university subject forum, there has been a fair bit of discussion about this which resulted in us concluding that how scientific the course is depends on where you do it!

Do you have an outline for the course with possible subjects covered? as then I can help you more and tell you exactly what you'll be doing in each section. At the moment, linguistics covers a broad area so it's impossible to say because it could be entirely phonetics and phonology based, which is extemely sciencey as its all about how you actually pronounce/articulate words, and applying this to various ways of 'mapping' language in charts etc. Similarly, predicate logic is basically maths at times. On the other end of the spectrum sociolinguistics stuff is very not sciency and is detemined by opinion and context. Then you've got everything else such as syntax, morphology, language evolution etc in the middle.

Just to put it into perspective though, I scraped BB at GCSE science with tonnes of hard work then never touched the world of science again during my A levels, and have managed okay on my course, some of which has been fairly scientific. I'm currently in 3rd year at university. Some of it has been really really hard (for me) and I've sat there thinking why am I doing this?! but it's the stuff which is also, sadly, imperative to linguistics and once you've done it you are glad you did as it helps you out so much more with other aspects of the field.

If you've got a rough outline of what you'll be covering I can help you more :smile:

Reply 2

hannah_dru

2

I absolutely hate science and I was so bad at it I was put in the class for "special" people, but I find I can do linguistics pretty well. I did a general module last year and got a 1st in it. I'm due to do modules on semantics and discourse analysis next semester. It definitely helps if you're interested in linguistics as I think its easier to understand then.

Reply 3

kjc_us

OP

14

oxymoronic

If you head over to the linguistics thread on the social sciences university subject forum, there has been a fair bit of discussion about this which resulted in us concluding that how scientific the course is depends on where you do it!

Do you have an outline for the course with possible subjects covered? as then I can help you more and tell you exactly what you'll be doing in each section. At the moment, linguistics covers a broad area so it's impossible to say because it could be entirely phonetics and phonology based, which is extemely sciencey as its all about how you actually pronounce/articulate words, and applying this to various ways of 'mapping' language in charts etc. Similarly, predicate logic is basically maths at times. On the other end of the spectrum sociolinguistics stuff is very not sciency and is detemined by opinion and context. Then you've got everything else such as syntax, morphology, language evolution etc in the middle.

Just to put it into perspective though, I scraped BB at GCSE science with tonnes of hard work then never touched the world of science again during my A levels, and have managed okay on my course, some of which has been fairly scientific. I'm currently in 3rd year at university. Some of it has been really really hard (for me) and I've sat there thinking why am I doing this?! but it's the stuff which is also, sadly, imperative to linguistics and once you've done it you are glad you did as it helps you out so much more with other aspects of the field.

If you've got a rough outline of what you'll be covering I can help you more :smile:

Gahhhhh science, lol. :frown:

Although you have given me a bit of hope, as I got AA in GCSE Science with lots of hard work in physics (you wouldn't dare not work for the teacher I had!), fair effort in chemistry and zero effort in biology! (I was just plain terrible at biology and no amount of hard work was going to change that! :p:

)

All I've been told about the course is:

"The course is entitled "Linguistics: The Language Detective" and involves considering what linguistics is and how to study topics in linguistics; finding out more about human language and the diversity of languages."

That's probably not much help?!

Reply 4

oxymoronic

19

kjc_us

All I've been told about the course is:

"The course is entitled "Linguistics: The Language Detective" and involves considering what linguistics is and how to study topics in linguistics; finding out more about human language and the diversity of languages."

That's probably not much help?!

Hmm okay, from that it seems like you'll be doing a fairly basic introduction to linguistics, meaning you won't really go into anything in too much detail. This is good on the science front as from my own experience it doesn't get really scientific until 2nd year of undergrad when they're preparing you for 3rd and 4th year (I'm in Scotland too) whereas in first year it is fairly okay as you brush over everything quite quickly. I'm assuming as it is pre undergrad, it will probably be even more general.

I'd say you'd probably be looking at what linguistic is, in terms of what areas it covers... so this might just be discussion and you can look at the broad aray of things we do in the field known as language science. Then, how we study topics - maybe as in, how to conduct research and how linguistic research is done.

Then as it says finding out more about human language and the diversity... is this course all for people going on to study languages at university? As this is probably related to language evolution (as in prototypes, and how French became seperate from Spanish, and how languages borrow things from each other - either words or sentence structre etc) then you'll probably look at sound patterns and phonology in terms of in some languages there are sounds which do not exist at all in others. Say, 'mb' and 'nb' are fine sound pairs in Bantu languages in Africa but in English you wouldn't get a word with these two sounds together. Perhaps you would also go into how people learn languages, in terms of in the brain and nuerology and then also aquisition and the process of learning a first and second language as they're different unless learnt simultaniously.

As I said, it seems like it'll be pretty general so therefore it won't get overly sciency. Or if it does you'll move on quickly. It seems to be a course for people considering languages or linguistics at university and giving them a general idea of what to expect.

Just had a look online and one of the guys who is the course tutor is from Edinburgh, and I've had him as a lecturer in first and second year. He is pretty cool and works more from the social side of linguistics, which is way into the arts side than the science.

Reply 5

thats_attractive

kjc_us

Hi all,

I've recently been selected to do a Linguistics course at Villier's Park in April/May next year - I've always been really interested to find out more about linguistics as I'm fascinated by the way in which language works - however, I was always ***** at Science, and I'm a bit worried I'm going to just get none of it as I never realised quite how Science-y it was!

So if I'm not very scientific, am I completely screwed? I've always been very good at grammar and the mechanics of languages but Sciiiiiiiiiience.............. :s-smilie:

I wouldn't worry too much, I did a Spanish course at Villiers in October and it was ace :biggrin:

The atmosphere wasn't too pressured which I liked, and the ability range was actually surprisingly wide. Although I would say that they work you pretty hard, and some of the house rules are a bit draconian (no drinking/bed at 11 etc.) :p:

Hope you have as much fun as I did :smile:

Reply 6

ellbell

i have also been chosen to do the linguistics course next april/may at villiers and to be honest its a relief that someone is as worried as me! i'm not sure what to expect, but we are all in the same boat i guess :smile:

Linguistics

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