U-LING-AB - Linguistics (AB)

From the earliest philosophers to modern neuroscientists, researchers from a wide range of disciplines have explored a diverse range of issues concerning the human capacity for language and the diversity of the world’s languages. Linguists work at the intersection of these issues and define linguistics as the science of language and languages. During the past 150 years, linguists have developed a variety of theoretical paradigms to describe and explain language history, dialect variation, cross-cultural similarities and differences, the neurological processing and production of language, and the evolutionary emergence of language.

The linguistics major at Duke is unusual in its range of theoretical approaches coupled to the study of languages of the world. The required courses for the major stress empirical methods and the global database; the theory courses expose the student to the perspectives offered by historical and comparative linguistics, structural linguistics, generative linguistics, sociolinguistics, semiotics, discourse analysis, philosophy, cognitive linguistics, and psycholinguistics. The major maintains the traditional and mainstream body of linguistic inquiry and, at the same time, encourages exploration of the most recent developments in language study that issue from cultural and literary theory and the biological sciences.

The major is composed of ten courses, eight of which must be at the 200 level or above. The courses combine empirical methods with theory. They are devised to provide depth and breadth in linguistic theory, the different schools of linguistics, the history and development of linguistic thought, and the interdisciplinary aspects of linguistics in the context of languages and cultures. Majors must take Linguistics 201 and 202, which define the fundamental questions of linguistic theory in the context of the world’s languages; and in the junior or senior year the capstone course Linguistics 450S, which adds cohesion to the major. For depth, the student is required to take three courses from the list of theory courses, which provide the necessary theoretical and empirical constructs for the study of linguistics. In addition, two courses are required in one of the concentrations in a specific area of linguistics. All majors are required to take at least two foreign language courses at or above the 300 level. Students may petition to add courses to the list of courses that count toward the theory and disciplinary areas below (II and III).

Departmental Graduation with Distinction

The linguistics program offers work leading to Graduation with Distinction. See the program chair.

Procedure for Selection of Students. An overall GPA of 3.3 and GPA of 3.5 in the major are required. The process for admission to the Graduation with Distinction program is initiated by the submission of a research proposal to a faculty advisor by the end of the second semester of the junior year.

Expected Product. The central requirement is an honors thesis prepared by the student under faculty supervision. The thesis generally consists of three to five chapters with an extensive bibliography.

Evaluation Procedure. Completion of the thesis, its evaluation, and its defense before a three-member faculty committee warrants Graduation with Distinction.

Levels of Distinction. The honors thesis committee will decide to grant distinction and at what level (Distinction, High Distinction, Highest Distinction) based on the quality of the completed work.

Special Courses Required. The program consists of two courses:

1. Research Independent Study (Linguistics 493). Taken in the fall semester of the senior year, this course is devoted to development of the honors thesis and includes close supervision of the writing stage of the project by a faculty member selected by the student.

2. Capstone Course (Linguistics 450S or 595). The second course is the capstone course required for all linguistics majors, which must be one of the following courses: Linguistics 450S, Senior Seminar in Linguistics, or Linguistics 595, Language, Music and Dementia.

Additional research independent study courses may be taken. Independent study courses are above and beyond the ten courses required for the major.

Website: linguisticsprogram.duke.edu/major