Linguistics Linguistics stands at the crossroads of the humanities and the sciences, and much of its special appeal derives from the interplay of intuition and rigor which the analysis of human language demands. The Department of Linguistics offers courses in both theoretical and historical linguistics.
Every normal child learns a language somewhere between the ages of one and five.
Modern linguistic theory seeks to characterize this knowledge very explicitly, as well as to account for the fact that human beings acquire it so quickly, and with seemingly little effort. The bulk of the knowledge that enables us to speak and use language is unconscious. For this reason most people are unaware of its almost unbelievable complexity and richness. It is also not obvious to the casual observer that the linguistic knowledge of speakers of languages that appear to be very different superficially are structured by universal principles. Since humans alone possess language, the study of language provides an important window to the understanding of the human mind.