Due to COVID-19 restrictions, a selection of on-campus papers will be made available via distance and online learning for eligible students.
Find out which papers are available and how to apply on our COVID-19 website
Humans uniquely are the big-brained animals with language. Explore what language is, how your mind makes it happen, and thereby what it means to be human.
Soon we will talk to artificial minds: minds that were created not by natural evolution, but by human design. In this paper, we will use human language to discover how the mind works and where the mind ends: at the brain, the body or beyond? We look at language as symbol, as a network and as ecology. After studying what language is, we examine competing theories of how our species evolved language in the first place.
| Paper title | Language, Brain, and Being Human |
|---|---|
| Paper code | LING140 |
| Subject | Linguistics |
| EFTS | 0.1500 |
| Points | 18 points |
| Teaching period(s) | Semester 2
(Distance learning)
Semester 2 (On campus) |
| Domestic Tuition Fees (NZD) | $913.95 |
| International Tuition Fees (NZD) | $4,073.40 |
- Restriction
- LING 240
- Schedule C
- Arts and Music
- Contact
- Teaching staff
- Textbooks
All course materials available online.
- Graduate Attributes Emphasised
- Interdisciplinary perspective, Scholarship, Communication, Critical thinking, Teamwork.
View more information about Otago's graduate attributes. - Learning Outcomes
Summarise arguments from complex resources
Differentiate theories of the human mind and language
Propose a model of the human language faculty
Assess and evaluate competing theories of language evolution
Timetable
Humans uniquely are the big-brained animals with language. Explore what language is, how your mind makes it happen, and thereby what it means to be human.
Soon we will talk to artificial minds: minds that were created not by natural evolution, but by human design. In this paper, we will use human language to discover how the mind works and where the mind ends: at the brain, the body or beyond? We look at language as symbol, as a network and as ecology. After studying what language is, we examine competing theories of how our species evolved language in the first place.
| Paper title | Language, Brain, and Being Human |
|---|---|
| Paper code | LING140 |
| Subject | Linguistics |
| EFTS | 0.1500 |
| Points | 18 points |
| Teaching period | Not offered in 2022 (Distance learning) |
| Domestic Tuition Fees | Tuition Fees for 2022 have not yet been set |
| International Tuition Fees | Tuition Fees for international students are elsewhere on this website. |
- Restriction
- LING 240
- Schedule C
- Arts and Music
- Contact
- Teaching staff
- Textbooks
All course materials available online.
- Graduate Attributes Emphasised
- Interdisciplinary perspective, Scholarship, Communication, Critical thinking, Teamwork.
View more information about Otago's graduate attributes. - Learning Outcomes
- Summarise arguments from complex resources
- Differentiate theories of the human mind and language
- Propose a model of the human language faculty
- Assess and evaluate competing theories of language evolution
