University at Buffalo (UB)
Linguistics BA
Overview
Students in linguistics receive training in many skills, including analytical thinking, hypothesis formulation, experiment design, and corpus analysis. Linguistics interdigitates with many other disciplines, such as computer science, FL instruction, anthropology, speech and hearing sciences, forensics, and neuroscience. Because of this multifaceted nature, career opportunities arise in industry (artificial intelligence, speech recognition), education (ESOL, teacher training), research (as university professor), language documentation and fieldwork, government (defense and security, diplomatic agencies), and business (advertising, marketing).
Acceptance Criteria
Minimum GPA of 2.000 overall.
Minimum GPA of 2.500 in the prerequisite courses.
Current Students: Request to Add/Change to the Linguistics BA
Submit the CAS Major/Minor Change Request form to request one of the following changes to your academic plan:
- Add a major, minor, or certificate in the College of Arts and Sciences
- Drop any major
- Drop any minor
Degree Requirements
All undergraduate majors include at least 24-credit hours at the upper division (at least 300-level).
Course description and details are available in the Undergraduate Catalog.
- Core Linguistics courses:
- LIN 205 Introduction to Linguistic Analysis
- LIN 301 Structure of English: The Sound System
- LIN 302 Structure of English: Grammar and Lexicon
- One 300/400 level course in Culture and Meaning from the following:
- LIN 311 Variation in English
- LIN 315 Language in its Social Setting
- LIN 333 Introduction to Linguistic Meaning
- LIN 356 Introduction to Contemporary Theories of Metaphor
- LIN 405 Bilingualism and Language Contact
- LIN 413 Language and Cognition
- LIN 417 Psycholinguistics
- LIN 421 Linguistic Anthropology
- LIN 438 Semantics II
- LIN 455 Language Acquisition
- One 300/400 level course in Structure of Language from the following:
- ASL 411 Introduction to American Sign Language Linguistics
- CHI 410 Introduction to Chinese Linguistics
- GER 408 Structure of Modern German Grammar
- JPN 411 Introduction to Japanese Linguistics
- KOR 411 Introduction to Korean Linguistics
- LIN 427 Undergraduate Field Methods
- LIN 460 Structure of a Particular Language
- Seven additional electives from the following. At least four elective courses (12 credits) must be 300/400 level. LIN 496 Internship may count only once, for 3 credits.
- LIN 104 Writing Systems
- LIN 106 Languages of the Word
- LIN 108 The Roots of English
- LIN 200 Language in Pluralistic America
- LIN 207 Language, Society and the Individual
- LIN 215 Language and Identity at Work
- LIN 275 Languages and Cultures of Native North America
- LIN 311 Variation in English
- LIN 313 Linguistics Topics
- LIN 315 Language in its Social Setting
- LIN 320 Language and the Brain
- LIN 342 Introduction to Cognitive Science
- LIN 345 Natural Language and the Computer
- LIN 355 Child Language Development
- LIN 356 An Introduction to Contemporary Theories of Metaphor
- LIN 404 Discourse-Pragmatics
- LIN 405 Bilingualism and Language Contact
- LIN 410 Morphology
- LIN 413 Language and Cognition
- LIN 414 History of the English Language
- LIN 415 Syntax I
- LIN 417 Psycholinguistics
- LIN 421 Linguistic Anthropology
- LIN 424 Corpus Linguistics
- LIN 425 Typology and Universals
- LIN 426 Comparative Syntactic Theories
- LIN 427 Undergraduate Field Methods
- LIN 431 Phonetics
- LIN 432 Phonology I
- LIN 434 Syntax 2
- LIN 437 The Syntax of Romance
- LIN 438 Semantics
- LIN 439 Historical Linguistics
- LIN 443 Semantics II
- LIN 452 Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar
- LIN 455 Language Acquisition
- LIN 460 Structure of a Particular Language
- LIN 465 Introduction to Dialectology
- LIN 467 Computational Linguistics
- LIN 468 Advanced Computational Linguistics
- LIN 493 Sociolinguistics
- LIN 494 Senior Seminar
- LIN 496 Internship
- LIN 497 Honors Thesis
- LIN 499 Independent Study
Honors in Linguistics
Students who wish to be considered for Honors in the Linguistics BA must maintain an overall GPA of 3.0 or higher within the major and complete LIN 497 for three credits as one of their elective options with a grade of B or higher where they will work with a faculty advisor on a major research paper or project.
