Wayne State Linguistics

About Linguistics

Linguistics is devoted to the scientific study of language structure and use. The Linguistics Program at Wayne State offers an interdisciplinary approach to this field, permitting students to explore a wide range of topics and issues in language research. It is administered by a director, Professor Ljiljana Progovac, a student advisor, Professor Martha Ratliff, and an advisory committee of participating faculty who regularly teach courses for the Program.

Training in linguistics prepares students for advanced work in linguistic research, as well as for employment in teaching English and foreign languages; computer systems (especially natural language processing); broadcasting, mass media and journalism; publishing and editing; translation; international business; intercultural communication and negotiation; law; and generally any profession requiring the precise use or analysis of speech or writing.

Learning Outcomes

There are specific learning outcomes expected of Linguistics majors. Students should be able to analyze and explain the structure of sounds, words, and sentences in language data drawn from a wide representative sample of the world's languages. As a result, they should be able to explain the properties of linear order, categorization, and hierarchical structure, in each of these components of grammar. They should also be able to articulate the defining properties of human language, which include innateness, creativity, recursion, and displacement.

When it comes to the structure of sentences and phrases (syntax), students should be able to recognize syntactic patterns in English and other languages for which glosses are provided and to utilize the theoretical concepts of syntactic theory in order to describe and analyze such patterns. They should be able to analyze the structure of reasonably complex sentences and to represent them precisely by drawing syntactic diagrams. The students should also be able to test the predictions of the syntactic theory by gathering relevant data and determining whether they conform to the theory or not.

As far as phonology is concerned, students should be able to find patterns in data sets and write rules that capture the changes sounds undergo under the influence of neighboring sounds. They should develop a sense of what is natural in speech sound inventories and sound change processes. They should also be able to explain the differences between contemporary theories/models of how sounds are stored and produced.

Students should also be able to recognize and analyze the patterns of language usage as researched in a wide variety of linguistic disciplines, such as Sociolinguistics, Psycholinguistics, Pragmatics, Anthropological Linguistics, etc.