linguistics is the study of human
language each human language is a
complex system of knowledge and
abilities enabling speakers of the
language to communicate with each other
to express ideas hypotheses emotions
desires and all the other things that
need expressing linguistics is the study
of these knowledge systems in all their
aspects how is such a knowledge system
structured how is it acquired how is it
used in the production and comprehension
of messages how does it change over time
the part of linguistics that is
concerned with the structure of language
is divided into a number of sub fields
including phonetics and phonology the
study of language sounds their
properties and patterns semantics the
study of the meaning of linguistic units
and how they are combined to form larger
meanings syntax the study of the rules
that combine words into larger units of
phrases and sentences psycholinguistics
the study of how people produce and
comprehend language in real time in this
excerpt from our online course invented
languages
professor Pranav Anand is discussing
phonetics
so I'm gonna say these are sounds made
with the tongue body up against the hard
palate and we do have one sound in
English that actually is like that it
doesn't make complete contact it's it's
like these in that you sort of you you
you you don't go all the way and hit the
hard palate it's sort of like that you
leave a little bit of a gap in those
cases and and that sound that we have in
English is yeah so again if you do the YE
and then you pull air in you'll feel
coolness right here which is because
which arises because there's a little
bit of a gap and that gap is right at
the it's right at the hard palate
linguists are concerned with a number of
particular questions about the nature of
language what properties do all human
languages have in common
how do languages differ and to what
extent are the differences systemic can
we find patterns in the differences the
study of linguistics is challenging our
major emphasizes data analysis
hypothesis formation and testing Theory
construction and good writing skills our
department offers two majors for
undergraduates to choose from a
linguistics major and a language Studies
major the two programs share a
significant part of the curriculum but
they also differ if you are more
interested in the study of language as a
mental object in its structure and
formal properties the linguistics major
might be for you if you are more
interested in language in its social and
cultural aspects the language Studies
major might be for you language studies
is an interdisciplinary major intended
to combine the intensive study of a
particular language with the basic
grounding and linguistics and elective
courses from a variety of departments
focused on the culture or cultures
associated with the language of
concentrate
languages currently supported in the
language Studies major are Chinese
French German Italian Japanese and
Spanish are you fascinated by languages
and by the way people express themselves
are you curious about the origins of
words are you interested in sharpening
your skills and logical thinking and
data analysis then perhaps the study of
linguistics is for you
the linguistics major involves classes
and phonology syntax and semantics and
electives offering Advanced Study in
these topics psycholinguistics the
structure of particular languages language
change and related topics majors are
expected to study a foreign language
through at least level 5 UCSC offers one
of the best undergraduate linguistics
programs in the country our department
is small and offers a friendly and
supportive sense of community our 13
faculty are active researchers and
leaders in their fields who are
dedicated to undergraduate education we
offer research opportunities in
theoretical and experimental linguistics
to undergraduates at all levels my name
is Rachel Boysen I was a Stevenson
student I graduated in March of 2015 and
I studied linguistics in linguistics
Department I worked on a project that we
referred to as the sluicing project it
was a research project that involved
grad students undergrad students and
faculty sluicing as an example of
ellipses which is the elimination of
redundant linguistic material often done
to avoid repetition so an example of a
sluice would be he was talking to
somebody but I don't remember who and
that would mean I was he was talking to
somebody but I don't remember who he was
talking to or she's writing a book but I
couldn't tell you why she's writing a
book but I couldn't tell you why she's
writing a book my role in the project
was an annotator role so I was looking at
the texts that we were annotating which
were all from the New York Times in the
90s and they each had an instance of a
sluicing sentence isolated and I would
go through and tag the various parts of
it
and this was done in order to create a
large searchable corpus for future
linguists to use in their own research
and technical development undergraduates
in our majors serve as research
assistants they do original research in
the lab and in the field they write
theses and present their research to the
community in our annual undergraduate
research conference our students attend
departmental colloquia and participate
in the life of the department
linguistics and language studies majors
are also encouraged to participate in
study abroad programs study abroad can
cultivate and enhance your language
skills as well as providing rich life
experiences graduates of programs in
linguistics apply their training in many
diverse areas including teaching
languages speech pathology speech
synthesis natural language interfaces
search engines machine translation
forensics naming translation and
interpretation and of course all forms
of writing editing and publishing one of
our alumni Marc Okrand even invented the
Klingon language for Star Trek
linguistics and language studies
undergraduates are supported by our
undergraduate advisor and several peer
advisors peer advisors can answer your
questions about what classes to take
when and what the linguistics courses
are like for more information about our
department and our program please visit
our website or contact our undergraduate
advisor the linguistics department
website contains information on our
majors and minors our course schedules
our faculty and more we hope you will
come to visit us at stevenson college to
learn more about our program over more
than 30 years the linguistics faculty at
UCSC has developed one of the best
undergraduate programs in linguistics in
the country and maybe even the world
your teachers will be internationally
renowned experts in their areas who have
chosen to work here because they deeply
care about teaching undergraduates they
work in these beautiful redwoods
teaching conducting research
and creating a unique curriculum which
prepares our students for careers in
academia and technology and in a variety
of non academic areas come join us
