German, just like every language, needs to be understood as a historical and social system but also as a biological and cognitive human ability. In this course, we will take a close look at this system and ability and how we can describe and explain them. The following core areas of German linguistics shall be the focus of the first part of our work:
1) Phonetics: What sounds and tones constitute (the German) language?
2) Phonology: How does the human brain categorize sounds and gestures to identify units (phonemes) that carry meaning?
3) Morphology/ lexicon: How do phonemes come together to become units (morphemes) that help us differentiate meaning? How do we form words?
4) Syntax: How do words come together to form (German) sentences?
5) Semantics/ Pragmatics: How do we recognize, respectively construct meaning in sentences, texts and contexts?
The second part of the course will then use findings from our systematic decoding of the German language to address specific questions of language acquisition, neuro-linguistics as well as the history of the German language.

Required texts:

Heinz Vater, Einführung in die Sprachwissenschaft. UTB Verlag. W. Fink. 4. Auflage, unv. Nachdruck (1. Nov. 2002) Stuttgart
ISBN- 10: 3-8252-1799-X
ISBN-13: 978-3825217990

Karl-Heinz Göttert, Deutsch. Biographie einer Sprache. List-Taschenbuch.1. Aufl. (11.März 2011). Berlin
ISBN-10: 3548610242
ISBN -13: 978-3548610245