Orange Alert

Linguistics Major

Director

Amanda Brown
323C HB Crouse
abrown08@syr.edu

Undergraduate Advisor

Christopher R. Green
330 HB Crouse
cgreen10@syr.edu

Student Learning Outcomes

  1. Analyze claims about human communication and about the innate language competence in humans.
  2. Explain claims about specific languages and the universal principles that underlie the knowledge of all languages.
  3. Analyze the structure of one or more particular languages and the cultural context associated with its use.
  4. Apply the social, cognitive, physiological, historical methods of linguistics to related areas including language and thought, language acquisition, language comprehension, language production, language use, and language teaching.

Sample Major Requirements - Consult the Course Catalog for specific major requirements.

Language Requirement

  • Fulfill the Liberal Arts Core Language Skills requirement in one language, AND
  • Successfully complete at least 6 credits in an additional language (other than English) that is structurally significantly different from the language used to fulfill the Liberal Arts Core requirement.

Required Courses

  • LIN 301 - Introductory Linguistic Analysis
  • LIN 431 - Phonological Analysis
  • LIN 441 - Syntactic Analysis.

Additional Coursework

Major requirements also include the successful completion of at least 18 credits of additional work, of which at least 9 credits are in courses numbered 300 or above. The 18 credits must be in approved linguistic studies courses, chosen from at least three of the groups below.

  • Psychology and Biology of Language
  • Language in Culture and Society
  • Logic and Language
  • History and Structure of Language
  • Language Pedagogy

Consult the Course Catalog for specific major requirements.

Core LIN faculty in BA Linguistic Studies: Tej K. Bhatia, Amanda Brown, Christopher R. Green, Gerald R. Greenberg, Rania Habib, Jaklin Kornfilt, Kenji Oda, Adam Roth Singerman, M. Emma Ticio Quesada,

Select affiliated faculty in BA Linguistic Studies: Janice Dowell, Kevan Edwards, Stephanie McMillan, Jonathan Preston, Michael Rieppel, Ellyn Riley, Sylvia Sierra, Victoria Tumanova, Robert Van Gulick