Linguistics Matters

Linguistics Matters

Maria Polinsky, UMD-College Park

In this talk, I will present the main questions addressed in modern linguistics and will show how language can be used to assess the mind, brain, and culture, with a special emphasis on minority/minoritized, endangered, and heritage languages. Despite the complexity of linguistics as a discipline, there are certain unifying concepts that consolidate it into a single, coherent field. These include the notion of Universal Grammar, one that has been proposed as a theoretical construct but can now be tested using behavioral and neurolinguistic methods. Subdisciplines of linguistics are defined by their research methods and often complement each other. I will discuss main approaches adopted in theoretical linguistics, corpus linguistics, field linguistics/language documentation, and studies of multilingualism. A combination of modern approaches to language allows scholars to capture the diversity of natural languages in the global world.

Funding provided by the University Lectures Kemper K. Knapp Fund.

For more information and event link visit langsci.wisc.edu/event/polinsky-minoritized-languages/