Linguistic structure and language diversity

There are 7,000+ living languages in the world, each of which have their own structures, communities of users and cultures. In this unit we explore this diversity. Drawing on data from English and a range of other languages, we investigate the grammatical life of words — how they are built (morphology), how they are used to form larger units (syntax), and how this knowledge can be applied to experiences both inside and outside the education setting. As part of this, we explore issues around intercultural communication, multilingualism and multilingual societies, as well as areas such as language and globalisation and language endangerment. We also consider the role of cognitive and cultural constraints in shaping language forms and the processes by which languages develop and change.