Abnormal Language
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this linguistics course on language pathology, examining conditions including Specific Language Impairment, autism, Down syndrome, Williams syndrome, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, hemispherectomy, aphasia, and normal aging. The course compares linguistic abilities across these syndromes and sets them against patterns of first and second language acquisition, covering the lexicon, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics along the way. A recurring theme is connecting lost or altered linguistic abilities to underlying brain structure, so students leave with a working sense of how specific neural and developmental conditions map onto specific language deficits. Materials include the full syllabus, readings, and assignments as published on MIT OpenCourseWare, free to access with no certificate offered. Suited to students with some prior grounding in linguistics who want to see core theory tested against real clinical and developmental data.