Linguistics

Dianne Jonas , Head Tutor

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 modela 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 fields as diverse as editing, writing, translating, and language-processing software design.

The Department understands that undergraduates are interested in linguistics for a variety of reasons.  Some plan to pursue graduate studies in linguistics or a related discipline; some plan to go on to professional work:  and some see a concentration in Linguistics as interesting and valuable intellectually, but do not base their future vocational plans upon it.  The Department has kept all of these considerations in mind in designing its course offerings and concentration requirements.

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 linguistics 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 emphases are on linguistic theory, historical linguistics, and the cognitive aspects related to language.

Linguistic Theory

Every normal child learns a language between the ages of one and five.  Linguistic theory seeks to characterize this knowledge explicitly and to account for the ease and speed with which humans acquire it.  Since the bulk of the knowledge that enables us to speak and use language is unconscious, most people are unaware of its almost unbelievable complexity and richness.  Nor is it obvious to the casual observer that the underlying strutures of languages as superficially different as English, Zulu, and Navajo are deeply and fundamentally the same.  The traditional branches of linguistic theory are syntax, the study of sentence structure; phonology, the study of the sounds and sound systems; morphology, the study of word structure; and semantics; the study of meaning.

Historical Linguistics

All languages change over time, sometimes giving rise to one or more daughter languages and, eventually, to families of related languages.  Depending on their specific interests, historical linguists may investigate the processes and principles by which language change occurs, or study the documented history of individual languages, or try to recover the prehistory of language families by using the "comparative method" to reconstruct the unattested common parent of a set of attested daughter languages.  A much-studied example of a reconstructed language is "Proto-Indo-European," the parent language of the family that includes most of the ancient and modern languages of Europe (including English) and northern India.

The Linguistics track in Mind, Brain, Behavior (MBB)

The numerous connections between linguistics and other fields are reflected in the rules for the Linguistics concentration, which allow a range of combined "tracks" (NB: not joint concentrations) such as Linguistics and Psychology, Linguistics and East Asian Languages, Linguistics and Computer Science, etc.  An exciting new option in the Linguistics track in Mind, Brain, Behavior (MBB).

Since language is a distinctively human characteristic, the study of language provides an important take-off point for investigating the complexities of the human mind/brain.  Linguistics spearheaded the "cognitive revolution" in the 1950's and has occupied a privileged position in debates on cognitive issues ever since.  At Harvard, the MBB Initiative was founded to help faculty in distinct research areas collaborate on projects making use of emerging techniques in neuroscience.  One such technique, brain imaging, has long been of interest to linguists; newer experimental work is establishing connections between linguistic theory and language processing, language acquisition, language use, spatial and social cognition, evolutionary psychology and biology, and neuroscience.

The Linguistics/MBB track gives students an opportunity to delve into the neurobiological, psychological, philosophical, and evolutionary aspects of language, in the process of becoming familiar with the different ways researchers in these fields approach language-related problems.  Another option encourages exploration of the relationships between language and computer science, including computational neuroscience.  Whatever their specific choices, students who elect to concentrate in Linguistics/MBB graduate with a unique knowledge base and an invaluable set of skills and tools.

The implications of the study of language are broad and interdisciplinary.  Modern linguistic theory attempts to characterize a very complex domain of human knowledge, and is thus an area of central concern to philosophers of mind as well as to cognitive psychologists.  Furthermore, since the models of language constructed by theoretical linguists are formal in character and inspired by computational and mathematical methodologies, linguistics has a mutually beneficial relationship with computer science and the study of artificial intelligence.  Linguistics also offers a firm understanding of the nature of language to literary scholars and language teachers.  Finally since languages are cultural artifacts, the reconstruction of an extinct language can shed light on the physical surroundings and the social institutions of its speakers, making linguistics a topic of interest to anthropologists, sociologists, and archaeologists.

Since high schools and even many universities do not offer courses in linguistics, the department's introductory courses presuppose no prior background in the field.  Many linguistics concentrators, in fact, were unaware of the existence of linguistics as a subject before they took their first linguistics course at Harvard.  Our courses therefore aim to introduce students to linguistic analysis and actively engage them in it.  They also expose students to the great diversity found in the languages of the world.  Extensive foreign language background is not required or assumed.

Concentrators in Linguistics can choose between three tracks:  Linguistics; Linguistics with Related Field; and Linguistics with Mind, Brain, and Behavior track.  The three tracks have the same tutorial program and share a core set of required courses that emphasize argumentation and methodology in phonology, syntax, semantics, and historical linguistics.  The Linguistics with MBB track has an additional set of three required core courses that emphasize argumentation and methodology in mind, brain, and behavioral science.  Students who choose the straight Linguistics track meet the remainder of the non-tutorial course requirement by taking a combination of more advanced linguistics courses within the Department and linguistics-related offerings in other departments.  Examples of linguistics-related offerings in other departments include courses on the linguistic structure of particular languages (e.g., History of the German Language) and on the computational, philosophical, and psychological aspects of language (e.g., Psychology of Language).  Students who choose the Linguistics with Related Field combine courses in linguistics proper with linguistics-related courses in an approved second field such as Anthropology, Classics, Computer Science, or Psychology.  Students who choose Linguistics with MBB meet the remainder of the non-tutorial course requirement by taking a combination of more advanced courses on linguistics or on mind, brain, and behavior.  Examples of MBB-related courses typically include courses offered by the Philosophy Department (e.g., Philosophy of Language), by the Psychology Department (e.g., Cognitive Neuropsychology), and by the Computer Science Department (e.g., Natural Language Processing).

Note that Linguistics with Related Field and the Linguistics with MBB tracks are not the same as a joint concentration in Linguistics and another field.  Joint concentrators have their study cards approved by both concentrations, and the other field may require additional courses beyond those needed for the Linguistics with Related Field or Linguistics with MBB tracks.  Such students graduate with a concentration in Linguistics and the other field (e.g., Linguistics and Mathematics; Linguistics and Anthropology).  Students in the Linguistics with Related Field or with MBB tracks, on the other hand, have their study plans approved only in Linguistics, and graduate with a concentration in Linguistics alone.  (Students in the Linguistics with MBB track receive a certificate from the MBB program as well.)