Deaf sign languages are an expression in a different medium of the same underlying human capabilities and needs as spoken language. Some linguists think that the boundary between the patterns of spoken language and other modes of communication is not a sharp one, or even that it is entirely artificial. A larger proportion of poets, philosophers and religious thinkers agree with them, often going on to view language as magically connected to the world it describes. The core of the field of linguistics has always been the analysis of linguistic structure, and this course will introduce the basic concepts of this disciplinary core. However, there's a lot of intellectual, practical and human interest in other aspects of the study of language, and we'll survey these as well.
Psychologists study how language is learned and used.
Anthropologists and sociologists examine the role of language in culture and society. Philosophers are interested in the nature of sense and reference. Computer scientists try to develop artificial models of the structures and processes involved in language use. Physiologists want to understand how language is produced and perceived by the brain, mouth and ear. Criminologists and literary scholars face the problem of determining the authorship of a particular spoken or written document.