Linguistics

The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences offers a BA, as well as a MA and a PhD in Linguistics. Linguistics provides a basic understanding of human language and communication by examining features of language that underlie the human capacity to express concepts, communicate ideas, and address the connections between language, brain, mind, and history. It is a basic understanding of the human capacity to acquire, perceive, and produce language and of language's role in contemporary society.

Department of Linguistics website

Sample of Related Skills

• Grasp the complexity of language as a communication system shaped by cognitive, biological, cultural, and social factors  
   
• Demonstrate understanding of the concepts theories, and methodologies used by linguists in qualitative and quantitative analysis of linguistic structure, patterns of language use  
   
• Demonstrate understanding of processes of language change and variation, the role of language in reflecting and constructing social identities, and the distinctive properties of human language  
   
• Collect, organize, and analyze linguistic data from diverse languages, to form hypotheses about language structure/use and test those hypotheses against new data  
   
• Acquire the technical vocabulary and theoretical tools of the field, necessary to read published linguistic research  
   
• Effectively utilize a standard scientific research methodology appropriate to linguistic analysis  

Popular Career Paths

Computational Linguistics: Involves combining language and computer programming to create technology that responds to voice commands, produces speech, and converts speech into typed text.

Foreign Language Teachers: Embodies knowledge of linguistics to help students grasp the grammar and pronunciation of new languages.

Historical Linguistics: Entails the study of how the diverse languages of the world come into being and how they have progressed.

Phonology: Involves the study of the how the sound systems of a language behave and how sound patterns differ between languages.

Speech Pathology: Includes working with individuals who have speech, reading, and/or writing difficulties.

Explore More Career Paths 

• Center for Applied Linguistics - national organization for those interested in the field of applied linguistics 
    
• Modern Language Association - resource on career and job market information from a professional organization in linguistics  
   
• MyMajors - general information concerning the background of linguistics and the career path involved 
     
• United States Army - overview on available jobs and subsequent requirements in the field of linguistics  

Jobs to Consider

• Applied Linguist
• Audiologist
• Child Language Acquisitionist
• Cross-Cultural Communicator
• Editor
• ESOL Teacher
• Forensic Linguist
• Interpreter
• Morphologist
• Neurologist
• Sociolinguist
• Speech Therapist
• Theoretical Linguist
• Translator
• Voice and Dialect Coach 

Places to Seek Employment

• Central Intelligence Agency
• Corporate Businesses
• e-Commerce Firms 
• Federal Bureau of Investigation
• Foreign Affairs
• Government Agencies
• Hospitals
• Immigration & Nationalization
• Language Laboratories
• Magazines
• National Endowment for the Humanities
• Peace Corps
• Publishers
• Elementary & Secondary Schools
• The United States Armed Forces
• The United States Department of State
• Universities

Job and Internship Search Resources  

• Federal Bureau of Investigation - job information for those wishing to pursue a job in the FBI as a linguist 
    
• Linguistic Society of America - national organization detailing important information for anyone interested in pursuing linguistics as well as a national job board 
   
• The Linguist List - information for students on internships in the field of linguistics from a international online community