There are 9 videos in this series
Video 1: We begin by interrogating the term “language” and looking at how the science of language gradually grew out of older forms of expertise in the discipline of philology
Video 2: We skip forward now to the second half of the 20th Century and the development of generative linguistics, centered on the work of Noam Chomsky
Video 3: We begin a whirlwind tour of the main subdisciplines of generative linguistics. Here, we introduce pragmatics and semantics, noting that the former is sensitive to context, purpose, and everyday use, while the latter is concerned only with formal logical relations among words or sentences. Both have to do with meaning, but “meaning,” once we enter the rarefied arena of generative linguistics has a very restricted sense.
Video 4: Continuing our quick tour of subdisciplines of generative linguistics, we discuss syntax and morphology.
Video 5: We consider sound, first within the framework of generative linguistics, in the discipline of phonology, then outside that framework, in the field of phonetics.
Video 6: Beyond the concerns of generative linguistics, we move now to consider the role of language in thought, with special consideration to the work of Jerry Fodor, who proposed the Language of Thought hypothesis.
Video 7: Here we inquire into the origin of language, the difficulties pertaining thereto, the implausibility of a purely genetic account, and the important cooperative eye hypothesis suggested by Michael Tomasello
Video 8: We look now at animal communication and some of the difficulties we encounter when we try to interpret animal communication through the lens of human language.
Video 9: Here we look at joint speech, which occurs whenever multiple utter the same thing at the same time. This provides a very different view of language and its relation to human society and collective identity.