Dear colleagues,

I am pleased to invite you to the 2024 course: Introduction to Columbia School Linguistics.

The course will be held in six online sessions, on Thursdays 10am-12:30pm (New York time), from October 10 to November 14. This year’s instructors are Andrew McCormick, Daan van Soeren and Ludmila Novotny.

To register, please email [email protected] with your full name, affiliation, geographical location, and contact email address.

The course is particularly designed for
- New Columbia School fellows / seed grantees
- Senior undergraduate and graduate students of linguistics or related areas
- Scholars and professionals specializing in linguistics, but unfamiliar with the Columbia School framework

The Columbia School is a functionalist framework in which language is seen as a symbolic tool whose structure is shaped both by its communicative function and by the characteristics of its human users. Grammatical analyses account for the distribution of linguistic forms as an interaction between hypothesized linguistic meanings and pragmatic and functional factors such as inference, ease of processing, and iconicity. Phonological analyses explain the syntagmatic and paradigmatic distribution of phonological units within signals, also drawing on both communicative function and human physiological and psychological characteristics.

The language of the course is English. Certificates of completion will be issued.

We look forward to your participation in this year’s course! Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Best regards,

Ludmila Novotny
Class Organizer

Linguistic Field(s): Discipline of Linguistics
General Linguistics
Linguistic Theories