Linguistics Program at South Carolina

The purpose of a minor in Linguistics is to provide the English Literature student with an opportunity to obtain a thorough understanding of fundamental linguistic concepts and an awareness of linguistic approaches to phonetic and phonological properties of language, to word structure and meaning, and to sentence and discourse structure. The incorporation of Linguistics into the program of study would be of particular benefit to the Literature student who anticipates teaching to non-native speakers of English. In this regard, courses in English as a Second Language (ESL) and Second Language Acquisition (SLA) will be very useful. Note that a minor comprised of courses in the ESL/SLA area can easily be turned into a TEFL Certificate, since the TEFL Certificate requires only six courses and up to three courses from one program (such as a Ph.D.) can apply to another graduate program. Completing this specialization, we believe, will lead to enhanced employment prospects for the student who does so. For the literature student who is pursuing a specialization in Old and Middle English texts, a Linguistics minor centered around historical linguistics and the history of the English language is likely to be useful, since English departments often expect that courses in medieval literature and in history of the language will be taught by the same individual. For the student interested in literary theory, courses in linguistic theory and in linguistic approaches to literature (such as LING 781) can open up new perspectives in textual analysis. A minor in Linguistics will augment such a student's teaching portfolio, leaving them able to teach basic courses on language and grammar, in addition to history of the English language.

The LING courses listed below are all courses which might be appropriate to a specialization in Linguistics for a Ph.D. student in English Literature. Note that LING 600/ENGL 680 Survey of Linguistics is a prerequisite to many of the other course offerings. For this reason, and because LING 600 provides a general overview of the discipline, students taking a specialization in Lingusitics are strongly advised to include LING 600 in their program of study. Those courses which are ESL-related (and which might thus apply toward a TEFL Certificate) are noted in the list below. Those courses that have ENGL cross-listings are also noted below.