On this module, students will acquire a thorough understanding of the major influences that have shaped the current field of language and linguistics. They will appreciate how the discipline has evolved and will develop sufficient knowledge of this evolution to be able to position against it their own work. Delivering a comprehensive overview of the major traditions of linguistic analysis, the module pays particular attention to the origins of modern pragmatics and discourse analysis, focussing on key thinkers like Grice, Searle and Austin. It also incorporates developments that intersect with the work of critical theorists and social philosophers like Gadamer, Foucault and Habermas. The module covers developments in cognitive linguistics and considers the way these developments have intersected with differing methods in discourse analysis. Running throughout the module is a focus on the theme of ‘truth’ in linguistic analysis and on the origins of the study of both m eaning and thought in language. This theme leads naturally to contemporary socio-cultural perceptions of the language of ‘post truth’ and its manifestation in the public sphere.

(LO1) Students will be able to demonstrate their knowledge of the history and practice of contemporary linguistics.

(LO2) Students will be able to show their awareness of how a linguistic analysis can be positioned in terms of the techniques it uses.

(LO3) Students will be able to demonstrate their awareness of how a linguistic analysis can be understood in terms of the traditional from which it is derived.

(LO4) Students will be able to display their understanding of the critical and philosophical influences that have shaped contemporary research in language and linguistics.

(LO5) Students will be able to apply their knowledge of how different traditions and techniques intersect and inform one another.

(S1) Students will acquire the skill to explain in an appropriately scholarly way the history and practice of contemporary linguistics.

(S2) Students will be able to identify the theoretical and historical underpinnings of a study or analysis of language.

(S3) Students will be proficient in articulating the broader theoretical context and provenance of published work in language and linguistics.

(S4) Students will be able to position their own writing and research on language in its appropriate theoretical and historical context.

(S5) Students will acquire the ability to present clearly and confidently their understanding of the discipline.

This module will include the following sessions on these specific topics. Some sessions last 1 hour (i.e. for half of the scheduled class) others last two hours (i.e. making up the full scheduled class).

Overview of the history and philosophy of linguistics.
Understanding ‘discourse’: models of discourse, and models of discourse analysis.
An introduction to hermeneutics and language (with a particular focus on Gadamer).
The ‘continental’ paradigm: Derrida. 
Structuralist approaches: Saussure, Bloomfield and Jakobson.
Texts in the mind: the cognitive ‘turn’ in linguistics.
The philosophies of ideal and ordinary language.
Meaning and use: the path to modern pragmatics.
Logic, truth and ‘post truth’.

Teaching method: face-to-face teaching in small groups
Description: interactive workshops and practical seminars.