RUTGERS LINGUISTICS is a renowned department, whose members are dedicated to research, training, and teaching in the field of Linguistics. The department is a center of work in Optimality Theory, syntactic research in Generative Grammar and the Minimalist Program, and semantic research focused on formal semantic theory and the syntax-semantics interface. The department also has an experimental core investigating language acquisition, phonetics, and experimental syntax and semantics.

Faculty interests range across the core areas of theoretical linguistics, which include syntax, semantics, pragmatics, phonetics, phonology, and morphology. They also include theoretically-informed approaches to language typology, computational learning and parsing, language acquisition, the psychology of language, and the philosophy of language. Language specialties include Romance, Germanic, South Asian (esp. Hindi), Japanese, Benue-Congo (esp. Yoruba), Edo, Amerindian (esp. Mohawk), Hebrew, Haitian, Amazonian, Kalaallisut, and Polynesian. We maintain close ties with the Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science (RuCCS), the Center for African Studies, and the university's Language Institute. Our faculty and students also enjoy collaborations with members of other departments with research interests in language.