Introduction

Hi! This is Irina from the Seminar in Linguistics. For introduction, I simply have this quote I've kept around for about 7 years (after I took my first linguistics class as a freshman). It reminds me of the crucial importance of the relationship between linguistics and literature: "Official language smitheried to sanction ignorance and preserve privilege is a suit of armor, polished to shocking glitter, a husk from which the knight departed long ago. Yet there it is; dumb, predatory, sentimental. Exciting reverence in schoolchildren, providing shelter for despots, summoning false memories of stability, harmony among the public" (Toni Morrison).