Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It explores the unconscious knowledge that speakers have about language, in particular the relationship between sound and meaning, which is at the core of language as a system of communication. Linguists study the structure and representation of language at various levels: sounds (phonetics and phonology), words (morphology), phrases and sentences (syntax), and meaning (semantics). They also investigate questions about language universals and typology, the historical development and changes in language over time, the acquisition of language by children and adults, and the processing of language in the mind/brain. Linguistics is an interdisciplinary field that investigates language from theoretical, descriptive and experimental perspectives.

What can I do with a BA Linguistics degree?

Graduates from our BA Linguistics program acquire valuable skills in analytic reasoning, argumentation, scientific research methods and communication. There are many career opportunities for Linguistics graduates, including speech-language pathologist , linguistic policy researcher, forensic linguist, translator/interpreter, lexicographer, ESL teacher, and language materials developer.

Check Carleton’s Career Centre for further information on careers in Linguistics.

Linguistics Information

Our excellent, innovative Linguistics programs are:

  • systematically structured to ensure a smooth transition from basic to advanced courses
  • exceptional in their combined areas of specialization: linguistic analysis, diverse theoretical and experimental frameworks, endangered languages
  • research-oriented, offering a variety of research-intensive courses (independent study, tutorial, honours thesis) and opportunities for research assistantships.

Learn more by visiting the BA Linguistics information page or by contacting a Linguistics undergraduate advisor.

Core Linguistics Faculty

The following are the core Linguistics faculty members with their areas of specialization. See SLaLS faculty for a full listing of faculty members.

Ash Asudeh syntax, semantics, cognitive science, linguistic theories and grammatical architecture, language and logic, computational linguistics, psycholinguistics
Lev Blumenfeld phonology, Optimality Theory, prosody, metrics, Greek and Latin linguistics
Randall Gess phonological theory, historical phonology, phonetics/phonology interface, second language phonology, French linguistics, Romance linguistics, second language teaching, language teacher education
Masako Hirotani psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, syntax-phonology and semantics-phonology interfaces
Marie-Odile Junker theoretical and general linguistics, cognitive semantics, language documentation and description, French and Aboriginal languages (Cree), women and language, information technology applied to language teaching and preservation, Participatory Action Research
Kumiko Murasugi experimental syntax, syntactic theory, Inuktitut, Japanese, aphasia studies
Daniel Siddiqi morphology, syntax, linguistic metatheory
Ida Toivonen syntax, lexical semantics, morphosyntax, Finno-Ugric and Scandinavian languages