Linguistics
Students in the linguistics program study language systems and how they work with a scientific lens, with applications in a wide variety of interdisciplinary fields.
Program Overview
Linguistics involves the systematic investigation of language properties, both specific to particular languages and language in general. The program offers exposure to multiple areas of linguistics, including historical, descriptive, theoretical, and applied linguistics. It also covers interdisciplinary fields such as psychology, sociology, education, and speech pathology.
The program prepares students for graduate work in linguistics or related fields and offers enrichment to language study. It also provides an excellent background for those interested in teaching English as a second language.
Why Linguistics?
Language is fundamental to human communication, identity, and culture. The Linguistics program at UT provides a scientific and interdisciplinary approach to studying language systems and their impact on society. Students explore how languages evolve, how they are acquired, and how they function in diverse contexts, preparing them for careers in education, technology, communication, and more. With a broad curriculum that integrates psychology, sociology, education, speech pathology, and cognitive science, this program offers both theoretical knowledge and practical application in a variety of professional fields.
Careers
Graduates have entered various language-related and applied professional fields, including translation, language teaching, publishing, journalism, speech pathology, forensics, and the tech industry. Many have also pursued further study in linguistics at the graduate level.
Graduates of the Linguistics program can pursue careers in:
- Government & International Relations – Roles in diplomacy, intelligence, and language policy. Fields such as law, international relations, public policy, environmental studies, and area studies, further expanding their expertise and career opportunities.
- Computational Linguistics & AI – Speech recognition, machine learning, and AI-driven language processing.
- Translation & Interpretation – Government, business, healthcare, and legal fields.
- Education & Language Teaching – Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL) or foreign languages.
- Publishing & Journalism – Editing, content creation, and technical writing.
- Forensic Linguistics – Legal and law enforcement applications of language analysis.
- Speech Pathology & Audiology – Clinical and research careers addressing language disorders.
- Marketing & Branding – Product naming, language-driven consumer insights, and global communication strategy.
Featured Courses
LING 421
Phonetics
Introduction to the basics of phonetics – the nature of speech sounds, speech production, and speech acoustics – as well as the International Phonetic Alphabet. The class will be conducted in English, but students will examine speech sounds in many different languages. No background in any language is required.
LING 440
Translation, Linguistics, and Context
This course applies concepts and ideas from linguistics to the field of translation. Primarily drawing from linguistic pragmatics, the systematic study of human language in context, this course provides students with hands-on resources to successfully negotiate source and target language words, grammar, and texts/utterances in light of several layers of context, a process that is at the center of conceptualizing and crafting effective translations.
LING 425
Descriptive Linguistics
Introduction to concepts and methods of modern linguistics with an emphasis on analyzing the structure of human language. Provides a strong grounding in techniques of linguistic analysis in the subfields of phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics.
SPAN 432
Multilingualism
This course will offer a panoramic view of bilingualism and multilingualism from a language acquisition perspective. Topics surveyed include myths about bilingualism, early vs. late bilingualism, first vs. second language acquisition, cognitive models of bilingualism, as well as the sociolinguistics and pragmatics of bilingualism, among other topics.
Complementary Minors
