UB Programs At-A-Glance

Linguistics

Department of Linguistics
College of Arts and Sciences
609 Baldy Hall
North Campus
Buffalo, NY 14260-1030

Phone: 716.645.2177
Fax: 716.645.3825
Web: linguistics.buffalo.edu

Karin Michelson
Chair

Jeri J. Jaeger
Director of Undergraduate Studies
jjaeger@buffalo.edu

About the Department

Language is what sets humans apart from all other species. While all living things communicate, only humans tell jokes, reminisce about the past, lie, make up wonderful imaginative new worlds, persuade each other to vote a certain way or buy a certain product, argue, create innovative social contracts, and make promises. Only humans can create reality by speaking it: "I now pronounce you husband and wife," "I now dub thee Sir Lancelot of King Arthur's realm," or "I hereby confer on you the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics." Language is the foundation for most human interaction and cognition. The study of linguistics allows students to become intimately acquainted with this cornerstone of human life.

The University at Buffalo's Linguistics department offers a comprehensive program covering the major areas of linguistics: phonetics, phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax, and discourse/pragmatics. Our courses focus on the interface between language and cognition, language and society, empirically grounded linguistic theory, and both cross-linguistic studies and in-depth studies of individual languages other than English. Faculty research areas emphasize semantics, Native American Languages, linguistic theory, adult and developmental psycholinguistics, typology and universals, computational linguistics, and sociolinguistics. The department resources include a computational linguistics research laboratory, a phonetics laboratory, and a linguistics Library.

The Linguistics department also houses the programs in German, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Polish, and Russian, as well as the World Languages Program. Through the latter, students may study a broad range of less frequently taught languages such as ASL, Arabic, Danish, Modern Greek, Hindi, Irish, Thai, and Ukrainian.

Degrees Offered

Undergraduate: B.A., Minor
Concentrations: Applied Linguistics; Language, Society, and Communication; Language and Cognition
Combined: B.A. (Applied)/Ed.M. (English for speakers of other languages)
Graduate: M.A., Ph.D.
Concentrations (M.A.): General Linguistics, Germanic Linguistics, Sociolinguistics and Contact Linguistics

About Our Degrees

The Applied Linguistics track focuses on the teaching of English as a second language, bilingual education, and foreign language teaching; the track features a teaching internship. The B.A. can be a terminal degree, or can prepare the student to enter M.A. programs in Education and certification programs in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). Majors in this track receive a thorough grounding in the structure of English as well as surveying many other languages; they become knowledgeable about the function of language in society; and they receive practical teaching experience.

The Language, Society, and Communication track prepares students for careers in the media, public relations, business, editing, and industry. Majors explore the central role that language plays in society, social interaction, and communication. Required courses focus on basic issues of the structure and use of language. Electives focus on specific social and cultural contexts in America and other countries, and on methods for studying the use and interpretation of language in distinctive social contexts.

The Language and Cognition track prepares students for careers and advanced training in linguistics, cognitive science, language education, child development, and adult language disorders. It is designed for students interested in exploring the interface between language structure and use and other human cognitive processes. Courses focus on the acquisition of language, language production and comprehension, the construction and conveyance of meaning, and the representation of language in the brain.

Honors Tracks

The honors program involves a more intensive examination of current issues in linguistics, and requires an original honors thesis.

The Language Structure and Theory honors track prepares students for graduate study in linguistics, cognitive science, or the structure of particular languages. Majors become proficient at all levels of linguistic analysis, working with a wide range of languages, and gain an overview of theoretical issues.

The Language and Cognition honors track prepares students for graduate study in linguistics, cognitive science, or psychology of language. Majors are thoroughly immersed in issues of language structure, processing, acquisition, and representation, and gain an overview of current theoretical issues in these areas.

Acceptance Criteria

Minimum GPA of 2.0 overall.
Minimum GPA of 2.5 in LIN 205 and LIN 207.

Acceptance Information

Students are required to apply to the director of undergraduate studies for acceptance into the major. Students may apply to the major at any time, and are encouraged to discuss their academic plans with the director as early as possible. Students who have not completed the prerequisite courses may be accepted into the major on a provisional basis, pending successful completion of LIN 205 and LIN 207.

Number of applicants (2003-2004): 25
Number accepted (2003-2004): 25
Total number of majors (as of May 2004): 79
Total number of minors (as of May 2004): 18

Degree Requirements

Please see the Undergraduate Catalog.

About Our Courses

The Linguistics department offers a broad spectrum of courses, from large introductory survey courses such as LIN 106 Languages of the World and LIN 200 Language in Pluralistic America, through intermediate level courses which are designed for both majors and non-majors, such as LIN 275 Languages and Cultures of Native North America, LIN 320 Language and the Brain, and LIN 355 Child Language Development, to advanced courses for majors on such specialized topics as LIN 405 Bilingualism, LIN 431 Phonetics, LIN 415 Syntax 1, and LIN 425 Typology and Universals.

The typical class size for:

Freshman/introductory courses is: 40-100
Sophomore/intermediate courses is: 20-100
Upper level/advanced courses is: 10-25

In the Department of Linguistics, what do student teaching assistants (TA's) do?

They either are instructors, or they assist instructors.

Suggested Introductory Courses

About Our Faculty

The Director of Undergraduate Studies, Dr. Jeri J. Jaeger, is available year-round for advisement. Her office hours are regularly posted outside her office, 618 Baldy Hall (e-mail: jjaeger@buffalo.edu).

The faculty of the Linguistics department includes internationally known and respected scholars, with diverse backgrounds and interests.

Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus Wolfgang Wölck is widely praised for his teaching and research on bilingualism, dialectology and language planning. Leonard Talmy is well known for his research in cognitive semantics, focussing on the semantics of space, time and motion. Karin Michelson, who specializes in phonology, morphology and field studies, has just completed a dictionary of Oneida in conjunction with the Native American community. Robert D. Van Valin Jr. is the author of Syntax: Structure, Meaning and Function, a book that explores the universal and language-specific aspects of the structure and function of grammatical systems. Jeri Jaeger works in the areas of phonetics, psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics, and is currently completing a book on how young children's speech errors serve as a window to language acquisition. David Zubin's research focuses on the structure of narratives, and the semantics of noun categories cross-linguistically, particularly German, Korean and Mandarin. Matthew Dryer has created the world's largest data base of language structure, and uses it to answer questions about word order patterns and grammatical relations. Jean-Pierre Koenig is a leading researcher in computational linguistics, syntax and semantics, and the mental representation of words. Juergen Bohnnemeyer's research explores cross-linguistic semantics, with a focus on Mayan languages, as well as the relationship between language and culture. Michelle Gregory is a computational linguist; her research focuses on the computer modeling of speech sounds and intonational patterns in discourse.

Robert Hoeing, in the German program, teaches everything from syntax to Grimm's Fairy Tales. David Fertig specializes in historical linguistics and sociolinguistics. His interests range from the runes of the Germanic tribes to the rights of linguistic minorities. Mitsuaki Shimojo, in the Japanese program, looks into the function of syntax in discourse, with a focus on Japanese syntax. Tsan Huang’s research focuses on phonetics, in particular the perception of tone languages. EunHee Lee’s research centers on formal semantic theories with an emphasis on tense and aspect in Korean.

Special Academic Opportunities

The Linguistics department offers a teaching internship, where interns are placed in the Buffalo public schools as teacher’s aides or tutors; venues include Spanish-English bilingual schools, urban elementary schools, and international schools. Interns can also work with Literacy Volunteers, or as ESL tutors in the Linguistics department.

Each year the department presents the Wolfgang Wölck Award to a graduating senior with outstanding academic accomplishments and service to the department.

Extracurricular Activities

Undergraduate Linguistics Association; for more information, call (716) 645-2177.

See the UB Student Association.

Complementary Programs and Courses

Minors that Complement Linguistics

  • Anthropology
  • Computer Science
  • Foreign languages
  • Philosophy
  • Speech and Hearing Science


Majors that Complement Linguistics

  • Anthropology
  • Communication
  • Computer Science
  • Foreign languages
  • Philosophy
  • Psychology
  • Speech and Hearing Science

Career Information

Students completing a B.A. in Linguistics most often continue in graduate programs, either in linguistics, teaching English as a second language, or cognitive science. Our students have also gone on to law school, medical school, and graduate work in library sciences. Students who have not pursued graduate work have found employment teaching English in countries such as France, Thailand, Korea, Japan, and China; our students have also been employed in the fields of publishing, literacy development, marketing, public service organizations, and language technology. Specifically, careers open to student with linguistics degree include:

  • Acoustics technology
  • Computational linguistics
  • Editing
  • Educational policy
  • English as a second language instruction
  • Foreign service
  • Journalism
  • Language teaching
  • Law
  • Linguistics
  • Multicultural services
  • Speech synthesis
  • Translation and interpretion

Links to Further Information About This Program