Why Linguistics?

The Institute of Linguistics (IOL) is the academic home of faculty and students in linguistics, the scientific study of the human capacity for language.

The curriculum of our undergraduate and graduate degree programs provide a strong foundation of coursework in the traditional core areas of linguistics: phonetics/phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics/pragmatics. In addition to providing the basis for specialization in one or more of these traditional areas, this core coursework emphasizes the conception of linguistics as a branch of cognitive science and serves as a basis for investigation of topics such as language processing, language acquisition, and neurolinguistics.

We foster research that bridges the gap between linguistics as a pure science and applications such as documentation and revitalization of endangered languages, language engineering, and language technology.  The Linguistic Society of America has published an in-depth article about careers for people who study linguistics.