Linguistics
Worlds within Words
Your mind is born into an empty room. The ceiling, floor, and wall are undefined, without doors, edges, or hue. Everything here is everything there is, and the concept of you isn’t even a concept yet.
But it doesn’t stay that way for long. In fact, from the moment you hear your first words, everything starts to change. The room shifts, the walls and ceiling expand, and color begins to bloom.
A lifetime’s worth of sensation, emotion, and thought will pass through this private vantage, and through it all, language will serve as each moment’s translator. It will wrap itself around every social, physical, and metaphysical construct to deliver scale, quality, nuance, and meaning. It is the vehicle the helps us navigate our external and internal experience of the world.
Studying linguistics at the College of Science puts the paintbrush and toolbox in your hands — to understand, interact with, and shape the room however you see fit. And if you feel so inclined, to also build a doorway so that others may share the space.
Degree Options
Introduces the linguistic study of the English language from current and historical perspectives. Topics include the Latin and Greek etymology of English words; the linguistics of modern English dialects; English as a global language; and the origins of English as a Germanic language, closely related to German and Dutch.
Explores the complex, often inexplicit relationship between language and culture, using a variety of methods drawn from the fields of anthropological linguistics and sociolinguistics. Questions may include: How do language and thought interact? How is language used to create and maintain social institutions and individual personae? How is language used differently by and across gender, ethnicity, and social class?
Investigates the relationship between language and gender. Topics include how men and women talk; the significant differences and similarities in how they talk, why men and women talk in these ways, and social biases in the structure of language itself.
Learning at the Source
Northeastern’s co-operative education provides linguistics students the opportunity to get out of the classroom and immerse themselves in real-world contexts. From marketing and journalism to law and special education, there’s a wide range of career options for students to pursue, while exploring their own special interests. Students will also have the opportunity to study abroad, where every experience becomes a first-hand lesson in local language and culture.
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