WELCOME TO THE LINGUISTICS UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM!

As a field of study, linguistics explores and attempts to explain our ability to use language. Language is our most fundamentally human capacity, yet represents the most intricate set of behavior patterns that humans exhibit. The exploration of language cuts across every domain. The disciplines that linguistics interacts the most fruitfully with include cognitive psychology, sociology, anthropology, computational sciences and logic, communication and law, but there are also connections with the natural sciences studying neurology, acoustics, and perception.

As a result of its diversity, linguistics offers exciting fields of study for a wide range of students, with varied inclinations and backgrounds. It offers opportunities to conduct original research: the data of the language are around us all the time, in the dorm, on TV., at the next party. The Linguistics Department has a phonetics laboratory which students use for more carefully controlled studies. And given the relative youth of the discipline, there still exist many unexplored areas and problems that invite adventurous minds.

Language has both cognitive and social facets, and so the Linguistics major cuts across the humanities and social sciences. Any background the student brings to the major is likely to enrich the study of language, and knowledge acquired about linguistics is likely to rub off on most any other discipline.

More information about Linguistics can be found by visiting "The Field of Linguistics" at the web-site of the Linguistic Society of America.