Statement of Objective
Back to the Linguistics Department
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguists study languages
to produce accurate and complete descriptions of them and to obtain information
about the nature and internal organization of language in general. They
examine word structure (morphology), speech sounds (phonetics), sound systems
(phonology), sentence structure (syntax), and meaning (semantics).
Linguists also investigate how children and adults acquire language; how
languages change; how damage to the brain affects language abilities; and
how language varies according to region, social class, race, and gender.
Linguistics is not limited to scientific research for its own sake. People
with linguistic training teach English as a second language and help clinicians
retrain people with linguistic disabilities. Some help design school programs
for minority Americans or intelligence tests that avoid discrimination against
subjects who are not middle- class white Americans. Linguists also work
in law, in the computer industry, and in foreign language translation.
The undergraduate major in linguistics provides a solid foundation in linguistics.
This foundation can be used as the basis for further study in a variety
of fields in addition to linguistics, including, but not limited to, computer
science, history, languages, law, psychology, and speech pathology.
Graduate programs in linguistics emphasize theory and research but also
provide the opportunity to combine a strong foundation in theoretical linguistics
with applied linguistics or related disciplines. The department offers a
concentration in applied linguistics (second language acquisition and the
teaching of English as a foreign language) which can constitute a focus
area at the M.A. level or a specialty area at the B.A. or Ph.D. level. In
addition, the University provides resources for exploring the close relationships
between linguistics and related disciplines such as anthropology, computer
science, psychology, speech pathology, specific languages, and others.
Revised 9 February 1996
Send comments to:
Christopher Culy chris-culy@uiowa.edu