Academic Notes

  • A grade of C or better is necessary for all courses offered toward a major in linguistics.
  • No courses offered toward the fulfillment of the requirements for the major may be taken on a pass/fail basis.

Questions?

For questions, please see the Undergraduate Linguistics advising page.

Requirements for the Major

Ten courses are required to complete a major in language and linguistics.

Four Core Courses

  • LING 100 Introduction to Linguistics (usually offered every fall)
  • LING 110 Phonological Theory (usually offered every spring)
  • LING 120 Syntactic Theory (usually offered every fall)
  • LING 130 Formal Semantics (usually offered every spring) OR LING 140 Discourse and Pragmatics (usually offered every two years)

One of the following two-course options:

Note: Language courses taken at the 30-level or below used to satisfy this requirement (options A or B) must be in a language other than the language used to satisfy the general university foreign language requirement.

A. Two foreign language courses at any level, in either the same language or two different languages.

B. LING 125b (Linguistic Typology) plus one foreign language course at any level.

C.  LING 125b (Linguistic Typology) plus one of the following courses on a core area of Linguistics, so long as the course is not used to satisfy either the core course requirement above, or the elective course requirement below:

  • LING 105a
  • 115a
  • 121b
  • 130a
  • 140a, or
  • 150a

Four Electives

These include linguistics courses not used as core courses, or others chosen from among those listed in the Linguistics University Bulletin section (under "Courses of Instruction").

If all four electives are non-LING courses, they cannot all four be from the same individual discipline. (For instance, all four could be LING courses, or three could be from philosophy and one from anthropology, but all four could not be from philosophy.)

Thesis (optional)

Students who meet the approval criteria may choose to write a senior thesis.  Further information can be found on the Thesis page.