Lx.@RU : Program : The Undergraduate Major
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[Major Requirements, Minor
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Cognate Courses]
Linguistics is the study of the structure of language. Modern work in linguistics has had a profound impact on many fields where language is central: psychology, cognitive science, computer science, philosophy, the study of individual languages, literary theory, anthropology. The Department of Linguistics offers a Major and Minor in Linguistics, both designed to provide solid training in the core areas of the discipline as well as the flexibility necessary for individuals to pursue their own specialized interests. Majors may also participate in the Departmental Honors Program in their senior year.
Interested persons should refer to the prospective students portion of the Rutgers University page for general guidelines concerning admissions, applications and university policy. Specific degree requirements for the Major, Minor, and Honors portions of the Rutgers Linguistics curriculum may be found in these pages, along with approved extradisciplinary courses. The Major Advisor, Prof. Roger Schwarzschild, is available by appointment to discuss program requirements:
Undergraduate Program Director/Advisor
Prof. Roger Schwarzschild
e-mail: sroger@ruccs.rutgers.edu
Office: Room 205, 18 Seminary Place, CAC
Phone:(732)- 932-1634
A major in Linguistics consists of ten courses of 3 credits each, distributed as follows:
Grades of C or better must be earned in all course work that is to be applied to the major.
A minor in Linguistics consists of six courses of 3 credits each, distributed as follows:
Grades of C or better must be earned in all course work that is to be applied to the minor.
Students wishing to participate in the honors program in their senior year must make written application to the departmental Major Advisor no later than May 15 of their junior year.
To be considered, a student must have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or better and a grade-point average of 3.4 or better in courses counting toward the Linguistics major. Students selected to participate in the program enroll in 01:615:495,496 and spend two terms researching and writing an honors thesis under the supervision of a faculty member from the Linguistics department.
After the thesis is submitted, an oral examination on the thesis is given by a committee consisting of the student's honors program supervisor and two other Linguistics department faculty members selected with the approval of the Major Advisor. On the basis of the committee's report on the thesis and the examination, the department determines whether the student is to be recommended for departmental honors.
Undergraduate Courses, Dept. of Linguistics
01:615:101. Introduction to the study of language (3)
Open to first-year students. May not be used for major credit.
Wide-ranging examination of human language as a social, cultural,
cognitive, historical, and formal phenomenon.
01:615:201. Introduction to linguistic theory (3)
Open to first-year students. Required for majors. Prerequisite
for all 300- and 400-level courses.
Structural properties of human language as illuminated by modern
linguistic theory. Sentence-structure, sound-patterns, word-form,
aspects of meaning. Principles of Universal Grammar.
01:615:210. Phonetics (3)
Articulatory mechanisms of speech. Physical characteristics of
speech sounds; interpretation of spectrograms. Description and
transcription of the sounds of the world's languages.
01:615:305. Syntax (3)
Prerequisite: 01:615:201.
Structure of phrases and sentences in natural language. Universal
Grammar and interfinguistic variation. X-bar theory. Case, NP-
and Wh-movement, anaphora, binding, government. Lexical representation.
Logical form.
01:615:315. Phonology (3)
Prerequisite: 01:615:201.
Sound structure of language. Phonetic underpinnings, phonological
representation, rule-systems, constraint interaction. Syllable
structure; feature geometry; vowel harmony; stress, accent, and
tone.
01:615:325. Semantics (3)
Prerequisite: 01:615:201.
Meaning in natural language. Construction of the meaning the whole
from the meaning of the parts. Syntactic structure and semantic
interpretation. Model-theoretic semantics.
01:615:330. Historical linguistics (3)
Prerequisite: 01:615:201.
Change of language structure through time. Methods of reconstructing
dead languages. Syntactic and phonological rule systems as locus
of change. Language families; the deep reconstruction controversy
.
01:615:340. Romance linguistics (3)
Prerequisite: 01:615:201.
Comparison of principal syntactic and phonological structures
of French, Spanish, Italian, and other Romance languages. Stress
patterns, vowel and consonant shifts. Pro-drop, inflection, inversion.
Contrast with English.
01:615:350. Language and context (3)
Prerequisite: 01:615:201.
Linguistic structure above the sentence level, relating language
to, context of use. Speech acts, conversational maxims, presupposition
and implicature, deixis.
01:615:360. Theories of language (3)
Prerequisite: 01:615.201.
Major twentieth-century approaches to scientific investigation
of language. Impact of linguistic theory on psychology, philosophy,
literary theory, and anthropology.
01:615:411. Morphology (3)
Prerequisite: 01:615.305 or 315 or 325.
Structure of words in natural language. Word-formation and syntax.
Effects of word-structure on sound-patteming. Inflection, derivation,
compounding, headedness, scope of affixes,
01:615:421. Language typology (3)
Prerequisites: 01:615:201 and 305.
Similarities and differences between grammatical systems, with
focus on syntax. Role of principled variation in Universal Grammar.
Overt and non-Overt movement, pro-drop, case marking, anaphora.
Markedness.
01:615:431. Investigations into an unfamiliar language (3)
Prerequisites: 01:615:201;and 01:615.305 or 315 or 325.
Study of the linguistic structure of an unfamiliar language, based
on in-class work with a native-speaker consultant.
01:615:441. Linguistics and cognitive science(3)
Prerequisites: 01:615:201; and 01:615:305 or 315 or 325.
Linguistic theory and the human mind/brain. Acquisition and processing
of natural language. Parsing. Formal learning. Language deficits.
Symbolic and connectionist approaches to language.
01:615:493, 494. Independent study (3,3)
Prerequisites: Permission of Major Advisor and Instructor.
Independent research carried out under supervision of Linguistics
faculty member.
01:615:495,496. Honors in Linguistics (3,3)
Prerequisites: Senior status; permission of Major Advisor and
Instructor.
Supervised research and writing of an honors thesis.
Approved Extradisciplinary Courses
Advanced courses in other disciplines appropriate for satisfaction of major or minor requirements of class (3) above include the following:
01:013:301 African Linguistics (3)
01:070:312 Language and Social Diversity (3)
01:070:314 Culture, Language, and Cognition (3)
01:165:325 Advanced Chinese Grammar (3)
01:190:421 Indo-European Origins of the Classical Languages (3)
01:198:452 Formal Languages and Automata (3)
01:350:411,412 Old English Language and Literature (3,3)
01:350:310,311 History of the English Language (3,3)
01:420:332 French Phonetics and Applied Linguistics (3)
01:420:333 Introduction to French Syntax (3)
01:420:403 History of the French Language (3)
01:420:407 Advanced French Syntax (3)
01:420:490 Advanced Topics in French and Francophone Linguistics
(3)
01:560:304 Introduction to Italian Linguistics (3)
01:565:325 Advanced Japanese Grammar and Rhetoric (3)
01:730:315 Applied Symbolic Logic (3)
01:730:420 Philosophy of Language (3)
01:830:351 Psychology of Language I (3)
01:830:352 Computational Psycholinguistics (3)
01:830:353 Language Acquisition (3)
01:860:351,352 Structure of the Russian Language (3,3)
01:861:451 Introduction to Slavic Linguistics (3)
01:861:452 Seminar in Slavic Linguistics (3)
01:940:362 Spanish Phonetics and Phonology (3)
01:940:363 Hispanic Bilingualism (3)
01:940:364 Structure of Modern Spanish (3)
01:940:417 History of the Spanish Language (3)
01:940:419 Hispanic Dialectology (3)
Other courses, including courses offered through the Graduate School-New Brunswick, may be selected in consultation with the Major Advisor.