Linguistics Concentration

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language; it is concerned with how languages are structured, how they change, and how language is represented in the mind/brain. Linguists therefore study grammar, the social and psychological aspects of how people use language, relationships among different languages and dialects, and how languages change over time. Linguists use various methods to study these topics —including formal analysis, experimental methods, and the investigation of “corpora” (large collections of written or recorded language).

While linguists study language from these different angles, language itself is usually divided into four basic components, each of which is addressed in LING courses in the CSI English Dept. These are:

Phonetics: The study of how speech sounds are articulated and perceived in human languages, their acoustic properties, and their measurement. Relevant Courses: LING 302 (Phonetics) and LING 402 (Speech Science)

Phonology: The study of how speech sounds form a system in languages, how they pattern, and the rules that can be used to describe the patterning. Relevant Courses: LING 303 (English Phonology)

Morphology: The study of how words are structured in languages, including how they are built from smaller units, like roots, suffixes, prefixes, and other processes, and also how words have meaning. Relevant Courses: LING 350 (Structure of Words)

Syntax and Semantics: These areas study sentence grammar: how sentences are structured, and the meanings that result from these structures. Relevant courses: LING 304 (Syntax I), LING 404 (Syntax II), LING 405 (Semantics & Pragmatics)

Additionally, the following areas address the different perspectives on language described above:

Sociolinguistics: Studies the impact of social factors, such as class, race, region, gender, and ethnicity on how people use and react to language. Relevant Courses: LING 380 (Sociology of Language)

Psycholinguistics: Studies the cognitive/psychological processes used by humans to store linguistic information in, and retrieve it from, the mind/brain. Relevant Courses: LING 305 (Language Acquisition & Psycholinguistics)

Historical linguistics: The study of how a language’s grammar (phonology, syntax, and semantics) changes over time. Relevant Courses: LING 370 (Language Change) and LING 390 (History of English)

Linguistics is highly relevant to students interested in Education, ESL/Foreign Language Teaching, Law, Publishing, Computer Technology, and careers related to Communication Disorders / Speech-Language Pathology. For more information about the Linguistics Program (including majoring in English with a concentration in Linguistics),

Please contact:

Professor Jason Bishop at jason.bishop@csi.cuny.edu (office 2S-207),

Professor Christina Hagedorn at christina.hagedorn@csi.cuny.edu (office 2S-228)

Professor Christina Tortora at christina.tortora@csi.cuny.edu (office 2S-201)

THREE REQUIRED LINGUISTICS COURSES (12 credits):

• LING 301         Introduction to Linguistics        4 credits          (formerly ENL 422)
• LING 302         Phonetics                                 4 credits          (formerly ENL 428)
• LING 304         Syntax I                                    4 credits          (formerly ENL 423)

ADDITIONAL LINGUISTICS COURSES (20 credits):

Choose FIVE additional Linguistics courses from the following:

• LING 201         Introduction to Language                               (formerly ENH 230)
• LING 303         Phonology I                                                    (formerly ENL 449)
• LING 305         Second Language Learning                           (formerly ENL 426)
• LING 350         The Structure of Words                                  (formerly ENL 447)
• LING 360         Word & Sentence Prosody
• LING 370         Language Change                                          (formerly ENL 424)
• LING 380         Sociology of Language                                   (formerly ENL 427)
• LING 390         History of English                                           (formerly ENL 425)
• LING 402         Speech Science                                             (formerly ENL 448)
• LING 403         Phonology II
• LING 404         Syntax II
• LING 405         Semantics & Pragmatics
• LING 410         First Language Acquisition
• LING 411         Psycholinguistics
• LING 412         Sign Language Linguistics
• LING 420         Anatomy & Physiology for Speech Science
• LING 430         Phonetic & Phonological Disorders
• LING 437         Introduction to Computational Linguistics
• LING 450         Audiology

REMAINING COURSES (8 or 12 credits-depending upon date of declaration)*:

These eight or twelve credits may be Linguistics (LING 201 / LING 300-level or higher), Literature (ENL), Writing (ENL), or ENL 302 (Oral Interpretation of Literature).

For English majors in the adolescence education sequence, ENL 323 (Coming of Age Narratives) or ENL 305 (Critical Approaches to Children's and Young Adult Literature) is required.