Angela Carpenter’s invented language class

In which students survey a range of invented languages—and then invent their own. “Linguistics examines how we know what we know about language. We learn so much of our language when we’re young, when we’re not thinking about it. We only analyze it later, when we’re older. So a lot of my research and teaching is about trying to discover our built-in knowledge. Isn’t that cool?” Angela Carpenter is a professor of cognitive and linguistic sciences; she’s also a former Davis Scholar (Class of 1999) and one of the coordinators of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, which supports students applying for graduate study. Because Wellesley is a circle like that.