Statement of Objective 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. 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. 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.