ENGL 1200-Introduction to Linguistics: The Study of Language
This class was by far one of the classes I feared the most. Linguistics just seemed like such a hard concept to learn, especially as it related to the acquisition and perfection of speech by children. Luckily, I had a wonderful professor who painstakingly explained each concept to a room full of glassy-eyed students. I think more time was spent explaining homework and previous chapters than exploring new content and information. For the final in the class, each student had the opportunity to choose one of two options. The first option was to record a session of natural speech, not scripted, and transcribe it. Then the student must evaluate that speech for specific qualities, unique aspects, and varying nuances. The second option was to compare and contrast English with another language of our choosing. I am fluent in American Sign Language, so I thought it would be an interesting challenge to compare a non-verbal language to a verbal one, all while using linguistic qualities to evaluate each language. The following document is the result of my efforts.