So, I want to study linguistics; Where do I go?

Factual Questions
1

(Maybe this is more of an IMHO thread, but I’m mostly asking for factual information, so I’m not sure.)

I went on a college visit a week or so ago and when I told the admissions/advisor person that I want to study linguistics, she gave me a blank stare and then said that she wasn’t sure it was offered. I have a feeling that miscommunication may have played some part in her dumbfoundedness, so: if I want to start studying linguistics, what exactly do I sign up for? Does it fall under another major or did this school simply not have it?

On a more long-term note, what are the employment options in this field besides teaching it?

In case it’s not obvious, I’ve been rather lax in researching colleges thus far. Any suggestions for schools that offer a decent linguistics program?

Thanks much, and a preëmptive :rolleyes: to any cunning linguist jokes.

2

I know quite a few IT folks in Europe who’ve survived many rounds of lay-offs because of language and linguistic skills, you might consider combining, and be un-fireable.

Try UNC and NCState? Duke must, mustn’t they?

3

Penn State certainly used to have a good Linguistics department (as of ten years ago or so); I had a fascinating chat with one of the instructors one day on the subject when I was there.

4

Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s linguistics program:

http://web.mit.edu/linguistics/www/home.html

5

Most large state universities and most good private universities and colleges have linguistics departments. If you want to study linguistics as an undergraduate, you’re going to have to go to one of those colleges or universities. This doesn’t mean that you absolutely have to study linguistics as an undergraduate to get accepted into a linguistics graduate program, but since you’re already determined to do linguistics, you would be better off doing so. Start by making a list of all the colleges and universities that you’re considering and find out if they have linguistics departments. (Obvious way to start: Google on “University’s name” and “Linguistics”)

I suspect that there are going to be a number of posts to this thread each with the name of one of two universities that offer linguistics majors. That’s all very nice, but I think what you need is a list of all the places that offer linguistics degrees. Google on “Linguistic Society of America”. That’s the professional organization for linguists. I believe that somewhere on their site is a list of all the linguistics departments in the U.S.

If you’re determined to study linguistics at some college or university that doesn’t have a linguistics department, you’re going to have to figure out what you’re going to major in as an undergraduate. What else are you interested in? You’re going to have to ask somebody in the department that you’ll be majoring in what they would recommend for someone who’s going to do graduate work in linguistics.

(Um, I’m assuming that you want to get a Ph.D. in linguistics. If not, what do want to do with your life? I’m not saying that linguistics is an unworthy major for someone who’s not going on to grad school, but you better realize that you’re not going to be doing linguistics if you only get a B.A.)

6

IIRC, the folks who publish the College Blue Books every couple of years have one volume of said issue which lists schools by majors offered.

7

This is more of an IMHO answer, but I really enjoyed my linguistics class with Walt Wolfram at NC State (www.ncsu.edu). He is sort of a local celebrity since PBS did a documentary based on his work a few years ago. Since you are in SC, it seems like you might want to look at that school. I’m not sure if they offer linguistics as a major. It may be more like a concentration within the English department.

Linguistics, like many fields, seemed to be divided into factions based on various philosophies/ political positions. So if you know enough about linguistics already to have formed some opinions on the major issues, I’d suggest investigating the philosophies of the professors you’ll be studying under.

Like Wendell Wagner mentioned, a real focus on linguistics will take place in graduate school. Your undergraduate degree will be an important place to round out your education with history, literature, anatomy, poly sci, or whatever else is a driver behind the area you focus on in linguistics.

The only related employment option I remember NC State students having is speech therapy, and I believe the program focused on that was in the Communications dept. It seemed to be something you could move into with a bachelors (or at most masters) degree. In addition to helping people with speech impediments, the field of speech therapy coaching people in accent reduction seems like it has growth potential.

8

I wrote:

> . . . the name of one of two universities . . .

I meant:

> . . . the name of one or two universities . . .

9

Catalyst wrote: “So, I want to study linguistics; Where do I go?”

I suggest you ask yourself two questions: “What kind of linguistics do I want to study?” and “do I really want to go to grad school.”

Let me talk about the second question first: in my department (Linguistics Department, U-Texas at Austin), I have known some other students who came into the graduate program have finished BAs in linguistics, and who got their butts kicked by the curriculum. My sense is that doing graduate work in linguistics is several orders of magnitude more difficult than doing it at an undergraduate level, so you should ask yourself how committed you are to the field, and how hard you are willing to work.

Then there’s the job question: in academic linguistics, the job market is very poor. There are a few openings a year in the major sub-disciplines of the field, but in general there are few jobs to go around, at least in the US. Apparently the job market is somewhat better in the private sector, especially with companies involved in computer-related applications of linguistics, such as voice-recognition, machine translation, etc.

There are also more jobs in the public sector - i.e, with the government, especially since 9/11, if you are interested in one of the languages that figures prominently in the “Axis of Evil” (such as Arabic, Farsi, Pashto, Korean, and Russian - since Russian figures largely in the world of illegal arms trading). Another interesting area is forensic linguistics: the use of linguistic evidence in criminal investigataion. Check out the FBI and CIA web-sites.

As for the first question, which school you would choose to go to would depend on what area of linguistics you are interested in. For example, are you interested in formal theoretical linguistics? Formal syntax, semantics, phonology? If so, some of the best known graduate programs include MIT, Stanford, UMass-Amherst, UCSC, Northwestern, UConn, UCLA, USC, UPenn, Rutgers, and if I may say so, UT-Austin.

If you are interested in computational linguistics, then you might look at Stanford (again), Carnegie-Mellon, UPenn, University of Delaware, MIT, and (once again) UT-Austin (although our computational program is in its formative stages). If you are interested in Phonetics (one of the sub-disciplines with better job prospects), then UCLA, If you are interested in traditional historical linguistics: Harvard and Berkeley (I’m sure there are others, but I don’t know about them). When it comes to Phonetics, and other less “formal” sub-disciplines such as Applied/Pedagogical Linguistics, Functional Linguistics, I’m not sure. I will survery my colleagues and post replies later.

Now, if you don’t know what all these sub-disciplines are, then you should find out before you decide you want to go to grad school for linguistics. One of the big differences between doing undergraduate work and doing graduate work is that in grad school, you work with professors much more than you just take classes. And professors expect that your interests will be compatible with theirs, at least to a certain extent: after all, if you weren’t interested in their work, why would you have come to their program?

So it would be better for you to have an idea about what area of linguistics you want to study, so that you can make the most of the faculty, and so that you’re not in for a rude shock when you find out what grad work in linguistics is really all about.

I hope this helps.

P.S. The examples of schools I have given above is not intended to be complete, and reflects the limits of my knowledge and interests.

10

Oh, dear, I may have misunderstood the question.

Catalyst, are you looking for graduate programs or undergraduate programs? If you are looking for undergraduate programs, my apologies.

11

Majoring in an obscure (but politically important) language would be a good thing to do as an undergradute who’s planning to do grad work in linguistics. It would give you a good overview of how languages work, and it would make a good fall-back job for you if you don’t go on to grad school or if you get a Ph.D. and can’t find a linguistics job. Of course, you also have to look carefully for universities that have majors in obscure languages.

12

Yeah, I should’ve clarified; I’m looking for undergrad programs.

Nothing’s set in stone at this point, and one things that particularly concerns me is employment prospects, so I may end up doing something entirely unrelated like law or political science. Unfortunately, I’m not one of those people who was born knowing what he wants to do with his life.

13

OK, if you’re looking for an undergraduate major, ignore everything I said above.

Catalyst wrote: >>Unfortunately, I’m not one of those people who was born knowing what he wants to do with his life.

Me either! I didn’t start grad school until I was 29. I did my BA in English Lit & Comp - now THERE’s a major to avoid. I then spent 6 years out in the “real world” working a variety of different jobs, traveling, and screwing off a fair amount.

My sense is that if you want to get a Liberal Arts BA, that you could do a lot worse than linguistics. It teaches you lots of skills in pattern recognition (finding patterns in datasets), problem identification (formulating a generalization over such patterns), useful writing skills (more so than an English major would, in my experience), as well as a general “meta-linguistic awareness,” which is a sense for how you and others use languages.

Also, if you do a minor in a foreign language (especially, as Wendell points out, an obscure one of economic or political significance) or in computer science, you can complement the cognitive skills you get from linguistics with applied skills such as language ability or programming.

From what I know, employers are not especially concerned about what major you had as an undergrad: they just want to see the BA (in stark contrast to the job market for graduate degrees). So I wouldn’t worry so much about whether or not a linguistics major will get you a job. The BA will get you the job, while the major will help guide you to the kind of job you want, and will provide some foundation for skill development.

14

Here’s a list of (all? or perhaps nearly all?) the universities and colleges in North America that have linguistics departments:

http://www.lsadc.org/web2/dirprogindex.htm

The only one in South Carolina (I think) is University of South Carolina.

15

I suggest checking out the Anthropology departments of colleges, since Linguistics is sometimes housed there.

Four areas of Anthropology:
Cultural Anthropology
Physical Anthropology
Archeology
Linguistics

16

IIRC the University of Kentucky has a really kickass linguistics program …

Lexington is lovely, btw.