Introduction
About
How do children learn a language? How does language shape think—and how does thought shape language?
Linguistics—which studies the structure of language—scientifically examines how we create messages in our minds, and how we put together sounds and symbols to convey those messages in ways that create meaning and understanding for ourselves and others.
You might enjoy this if you're interested in
How language works, including syntax, phonetics, word origins, and grammar
Analyzing and studying how and why people use language the way they do
Experiencing and studying languages in different contexts, cultures, and countries
Diagramming sentences written in unfamiliar languages
Lawrentians sometimes pair linguistics with
Anthropology
Cognitive science
Computer science
English
Government
History
Languages: Chinese, Classics, French, German, Japanese, Russian, Spanish
Math-Computer Science
Music performance
Philosophy
Life After Lawrence
Lawrentians can enjoy careers in
Foreign service, speech-language therapy, software engineering and technology (e.g., natural language processing, speech recognition), education (secondary and higher ed), consulting, business, government, law, medicine
Recent employers include
Accenture, Epic Systems, French Cultural Embassy, Minneapolis Public Schools, UNISYS, Apple, Teach for America, Broadcast Interactive Media, VoiceBox Technologies, Waseda University, IBM, U.S. Department of Defense
Lawrentians can earn advanced degrees in
Linguistics, Cognitive Science, Law, Physical science, English, Computer Science, Teaching English as a Second Language
Recent schools include
Iowa, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Princeton, Wisconsin
Components of the Major
Introduction to Linguistics
Two of the following introductory courses: Lexical Semantics; Syntax; Phonology; or Morphology
Two of the following: Philosophy of Language; How to Do Things With Words; Topics in Logic; Cognitive Linguistics
Four electives from linguistics or computer science
Additional language study
Linguistics Senior Seminar
The Chandler Senior Experience
For your Senior Experience, you will complete your senior seminar in linguistics along with an independent study that you can complete with a faculty advisor over one, two, or three terms (based largely on your research needs). Your linguistics Senior Experience will culminate in a research paper and oral presentation to faculty and students. Linguistics majors with double-majors in other fields (e.g., language, anthropology or psychology), typically combine their interests into one Senior Experience. (One particularly creative student completed a project that served as his senior experience for three majors: music theory, Russian studies, and linguistics.)
Recent Senior Experiences include:
Native and non-native perceptions of pre-velar /æ/-raising in Wisconsin English
English-Spanish Code-switching in Bilingual Blogs: Patterns among native English speakers living abroad
What Did You Call That? An Examination of English Names Transliterated into Chinese
Machine Translation in the Connectionist Framework
Dajare: A Linguistic Analysis of Japanese Wordplay
Conceptual Metaphor and Framing in the State of the Union and Republican Rebuttal
Shakespeare in Russian: Problems and Solutions in Cross-Cultural Translation
Courtroom Narratives: The Lawyers as Storytellers
Gender Differences in Scientific Writing
