Child language acquisition

Language and Cognition

Child language acquisition
Image: Photo by Alireza Attari on Unsplash

Language and cognition (Prof. Diessel)

The section ‘Language and Cognition’ is concerned with all core areas of linguistics (phonetics/phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics), probing in particular the cognitive and functional motivations of linguistic organization in these domains. Key topics in research and teaching are processes of language acquisition, diachronic change and patterns of cross-linguistic unity and diversity. We believe that all three of these strands of research can provide valuable insights into cognitive constraints on, and the usage-based mechanisms involved in, the development of human language(s). From a methodological perspective, the study of language in its cognitive context provides an opportunity to engage in the analysis of a wide range of empirical data. Accordingly, our course programme also includes modules on the design of empirical studies, on corpus-linguistic analysis and on statistical methods.