Linguistics - Harvard University

Linguistics from Harvard University is a Campus Bachelor Linguistics degree that prepares you for a Liberal Arts career. Linguistics , the scientific study of language, is perhaps the ultimate interdisciplinary enterprise, cutting across the humanities, social sciences, cognitive sciences, physical sciences, and biological sciences. Since it is not taught in high school, most undergraduates, including many future Linguistics concentrators, only "discover" linguistics after they come to college. Some are intrigued by the prospect of discovering formal rules to model a complex form of behavior like language; others are interested in the relationship of natural languages to other symbolic systems; still others are curious about similarities and differences they have noticed among individual languages. In exploring these and similar topics, students of linguistics not only learn a great deal about a fascinating field; they also master a variety of conceptual and empirical techniques that stand them in good stead after graduation. Recent Harvard Linguistics concentrators have gone to graduate school in linguistics , mathematics, computer science, cognitive science, English, and music; to medical school, law school, and business school; and into employment in fields as diverse as editing, writing, translating, and language-processing software design. Many students who are curious about linguistics but who have never taken a linguistics course assume that it is chiefly a subject for people with an extensive background in foreign languages. This is incorrect. While it is true that some kinds of linguists need to have active control of a variety of languages, the overriding fact is that linguistics and language learning are completely separate pursuits. People who are "good at languages" are not always good at linguistics , and vice versa; many of the world’s most successful professional linguists are fluent only in their native language. The courses offered by the Department of Linguistics reflect the extraordinary diversity of the field. The two emphases are on linguistic theory and historical linguistics . View more details on Harvard University . Ask your questions and apply online for this program or find other related Linguistics courses.