Linguistics
About the Major
Linguistics majors study language from multiple perspectives. They analyze words and the structure of languages; how speech is used in ordinary conversation; dialects; how children acquire languages; how adults acquire a second language; and the relationships of language to gender, the brain and the use of computers.
Linguists analyze and contribute to mass communication, they testify about language meaning and use in the courtroom, and they analyze natural language processing. Linguists also teach non-native speakers to speak, read, write and comprehend English and other languages.
Our graduates have gone on to become...
- The chief linguist at a computer programming company, working on Arabic and Russian/Slavic algorithms for the State Department
- An Editor for Oxford University Press
- A Counterintelligence Officer in the Marine Corps
Possible Careers for this Major
Prehealth & Prelaw
Any CLAS major may prepare you for admission to professional schools such as medical school, vet school, law school, etc.
For more possibilities visit the Career Resource Center Web Site
- Journalist
- Lexicographer
- Linguist
- Speech Recognition Technologist
- Technical Writer
- Test Developer
- Translator
- Analyst
- Consultant
- Dialect Coach
- Educator
- English as a Second Language (ESL) Teacher
- Field Researcher
- Foreign Service Officer
Cool Courses You Might Take
- Brain and Language: Introduction to brain and language research; covers brain imaging techniques, auditory perception, semantic representation, language acquisition, among other topics (LIN 4790).
- Second Language
Acquisition: How adults and children acquire a second language, and
the sociolinguistic, pragmatic, psycholinguistic, and other factors
affecting this (LIN 4721).
- Sounds of Human Language: The study of all sounds of
the world’s languages; you will learn how to produce these sounds,
and how to transcribe them using the International Phonetic Alphabet
(LIN 3201).
- Structure of Human Language: How words and sentences are
formed in the world’s languages, and the similarities and differences
among languages in this respect (LIN 3460).
- For more course descriptions, please visit the course descriptions page in the Undergraduate catalog
Some Unique Opportunities in this Major
- The TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) minor and certificate program, designed for students who wish to teach in varied settings either overseas or in the United States
- For more opportunities, please refer to the department website
