This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of individual and national bilingualism in order to explore the relationship of language to mind and culture. In our exploration of the relationship of language to mind, we will focus on the bilingual individual. We will explore the structure of the mental lexicon by examining psycholinguistic studies of naming and lexical decision in bilinguals. Recent work in experimental phonetics will help us to understand the mechanisms that govern the perception and production of "native" versus "foreign" accent in bilingual speakers. In addition, neurolinguists have provided us with data about hemispheric specialization for language in the brains of bilinguals. We will also look at the effects of early bilingualism on cognitive functioning. All of the available evidence will be used to understand better how words and concepts are related and how notions of language and brain organization affect our understanding of mind.

The bilingual nation will be the focus when we raise questions about language and culture. We will first reexamine the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and the attendant questions it raises about the possibility of translation in light of bilingual populations. We will then explore the political impact of linguistic issues in bilingual nations. For example, should a government choose one language as the standard rather than establish official bilingualism? Once a choice is made, how should the education system be structured to meet the language needs of the population and to achieve the government's goals? Taking a sociolinguistic perspective, we will determine the social situations in a number of bilingual nations that govern the choice of one language over another. From a strictly linguistic point of view, we will examine how words are borrowed, how pidgins, creoles and lingua francas arise, and how language change occurs in bilingual nations. Our goal in the latter part of the course will be to understand more fully the relationship of language and culture through an exploration of the political, social, and cultural issues that affect bilingual nations.

Created By: Kristen Roth, '05
Maintained By: Andrea Levitt
Created: January 16, 2005
Last Modified: September 3, 2005
Expires: August 1, 2006