• Linguistics seeks to discover the common features of the languages of the world's peoples, to understand how languages change over time, and how language relates to other aspects of human society.
  • The major in Linguistics is designed to provide graduates with a set of skills and a body of knowledge. A graduate will have the skills to analyze the most important features of language: sounds, words, sentences, and conversation, using both formal and experimental methods.
  • Students will also learn what linguists know about the languages of the world, their history and structure, and how language interacts with many facets of all cultures.
  • The Department also prepares its majors for provisional certification as Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages in New York State (TESOL) from kinder­garten through grade 12. Candidates for TESOL certification must follow a specific track within the major, which includes a semester of student teaching. Approximately one-quarter of Linguistics majors elect this track in the major. It is also common for Linguistics majors to have a second major, either in a language or in an adjacent field such as psychology or computer science.