About Us

The Rutgers University Undergraduate Language and Linguistics Club is a newly formed student organization whose purpose is to bring together students of Rutgers University who share a common interest in human language. Our weekly meetings feature guest speakers, presentations by members of the group, group discussions, debates and (glory of glories) free pizza. Weekly topics can be anything realting to the study of language, but will at first be taken mostly from the academic fields of linguistics, psychology, and philosophy. Anyone is welcome to come by; you need not be a major in linguistics or anything else. The meetings are designed to promote learning and thought about language amongst the members of the group, so anyone with an interest in language is sure to have a great time!

Why have a club centered on language? In a way, this question is a bit like "why have a club centered on history?" The subject of "language" is actually quite broad, and the number of different topics which could be approached by a club with "language" as its focus would be enough to sustain several such clubs. However, there is also the question of why a club centered on language should exist at all. The simple answer is that many Rutgers students are interested in language and would like to have a club where they may learn more about it. There are deeper motivations than this, however.

Language is a phenomenon with a most complex nature, and so there are many seemingly disparate fields concerned with its study: linguistics, philosophy, psychology, logic, anthropology, sociology, literature theory and foreign language studies are all academic areas that concern, to some extent, the nature and scope of human language. However, because these fields are so different in their ideologies, the presentations given to language and the methodologies adopted for its study differ greatly.

Students with an interest in human language may center themselves in any one of these fields. However, no student can expect to have knowledge of all that is written on language in all of these fields. Therefore, different students' knowledge of language and their attitudes towards it will differ according to the disciplines they have chosen to commit themselves to.

The Language and Linguistics Club exists to broaden students' perspectives on language. Talks and presentations not only teach about language, but also expose students to the ways that language is studied in different disciplines. To the student of psychology of language, a lesson in the philosophical debate over propositional attitude sentences teaches about those sentences, but also teaches how philosophers study language. By meeting students with differing opinions about language, and by engaging in intelligent debate with them, one's own understanding of language widens. The Rutgers University Undergraduate Language and Linguistics Club is here to promote that widened understanding among its members. Anyone with a love of language and a desire to learn more about it is encouraged to come to our weekly meetings.