Linguistics (Graduate Field)
Field Description
The interests of the faculty cover a wide range of areas in theoretical and experimental linguistics. The field's graduate program includes all facets of linguistics, as well as an exceptionally broad spectrum of courses ranging from computational linguistics and field methods to historical linguistics. All graduate students in the field are enrolled in the Ph.D. program.
Research Facilities: The department offers state-of-the-art facilities for research in phonetics, including an isolated sound booth for audio recording and perception studies, along with equipment for articulatory movement tracking, ultrasound imaging, electroglottography, and speech aerodynamics. The department also hosts a Computational Linguistics Lab which focuses on statistical parsing of large data samples, including grammar development, parameter estimation, and acquisition of lexical information from corpora. The Linguistic Meaning (LiMe) Lab focuses on all facets of linguistic meaning, from its most deterministic aspects to the fleeting meanings that arise during conversation, using insights from multiple fields such as formal semantics, pragmatics, syntax, psycholinguistics, and cognitive science. The Language Documentation Lab provides resources and space for work involving language documentation, description, and analysis, with an emphasis on understudied languages and community collaboration. The Interface Research Lab focuses on understanding the interfaces between phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.