The most complex ability and set of facts that any human being ever acquires is the implicit knowledge of a native language. This course examines what the nature of language is, how the science of linguistics analyzes language data, and how language is integrated within human psychology and biology.

Everyone speaks a language and is interested in language at some level – we notice different accents; we make and understand jokes and play games that use languages in clever ways. Moreover, language is a continual object of interest in social media, and this course will use such materials as a source of data for analysis and in some cases, as a way to draw attention to myths about language which many (if not most) people believe.