Linguists study the role of language in society, and the effect of social structure on a language. We research the history of English and other languages, observing how and why languages change over time. Here at the U of C, every branch of investigation becomes more engaging in class as we inspect examples from the world's languages, making the theories we learn meaningful in a hands-on way. The professors in our close-knit community strive to instil a sense of curiosity in students. There are many options open to graduates.
Many students go on to become speech pathologists, helping children who have speech disorders.
Others take their skills into the field of second language teaching, often travelling around the globe. The possibilities even reach as far as participating in computer research, designing machines that can understand, translate, and produce language. Quite simply, any field connected with communication and the use of language could be an option for a linguist. Click here to get to the Electronic Linguistics Syllabus.