Future Students

What is Linguistics?

You may have wondered, "What exactly is Linguistics, and what do linguists do?" You might assume that a linguist is mulitlingual, and a linguist may, in fact, be a polyglot, but that's not what linguistics is about, strictly speaking. Linguistics is, broadly, the scientific study of language, and many topics are studied under this umbrella. The links below help to explain the discipline to the general public:

Linguistic Society of America article on Why Major in Linguistics

Linguistic Society of America collection on The Domain of Linguistics

National Science Foundation Special Report on Languages & Linguistics