CHAIR OF THE DEPARTMENT: Professor Marantz
DIRECTOR OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES: Associate Professor Blake

Linguistics is the science of human language. It seeks to determine that which is necessary in human language, that which is possible, and that which is impossible. While linguists work to determine the unique qualities of individual languages, they are constantly searching for linguistic universals—properties whose explanatory power reaches across languages. The discipline of linguistics is organized around syntax (the principles by which sentences are organized), morphology (the principles by which words are constructed), semantics (the study of meaning), phonetics (the study of speech sounds), phonology (the sound patterns of language), historical linguistics (the ways in which languages change over time), sociolinguistics (the interaction of language with society), psycholinguistics, and neurolinguistics (the representation of language in the brain). Current research by faculty members extends across the field, including topics in the interaction of syntax and semantics, phonetics and phonology, languages in contact, pidgin and creole languages, urban sociolinguistics, and computer analogies of syntactic processes.

Faculty

Professor Emerita:
Umeda

Professors:
Baltin, Barker, Collins, Costello, Guy, Kayne, Marantz, Singler, Szabolcsi

Associate Professors:
Blake, Davidson, Dougherty, Gafos

Assistant Professors:
Gouskova, Pylkkänen

Research Professor:
Postal

Adjunct Professor:
Vasvari

Affiliated Faculty in Other Departments:
Aaronson (Psychology), Buchwald (Speech and Language Pathology and Audiology), Fine (Philosophy), Fryscák (Russian and Slavic Studies), Grishman (Computer Science), Kulick (Anthropology), Marcus (Psychology), McElree (Psychology), Schieffelin (Anthropology), Schiffer (Philosophy), Vouloumanos (Psychology)