Linguistics

Linguistics, the scientific study of the nature and structure of human language, is an interdisciplinary subject that straddles the social sciences, the sciences, and the humanities and is particularly relevant in fields of research such as Cognitive Science, Artificial Intelligence, Speech-Language Pathology, Audiology, Psychology, and Philosophy. Its subdisciplines include, but are not limited to:

• Phonetics (with applications for speech pathology, speech synthesis and recognition),
• Sociolinguistics (which includes language variation and change and has implications for processes of social stratification, such as racism, sexism, and inequality),
• Corpus linguistics (which focuses on the use of computational linguistics and natural language processing for research in the social sciences and the digital humanities),
• Applied linguistics (indispensable in second language teaching, second language acquisition, translation, voice & dialect coaching, and forensic linguistics)
• Ecolinguistics (explores the role of language in the life-sustaining relationship of humans, other species, and the physical environment).
   

LINGUISTICS MINOR STUDENTS
ARE INTERESTED IN EXPLORING:

• What the nature of language is, how languages are similar and how they differ across communities, regions, age, gender, socioeconomic strata.
• The practical applications of linguistics in the real world, and how it can enhance their career.
• The interrelatedness of language and other disciplines.