How to declare a major, joint major, or minor in linguistics
The Department of Linguistics offers a linguistics major, a minor, and several interdisciplinary majors in which the study of linguistics forms a significant part of the curriculum, including a Computational Linguistics major. To declare a major, fill out the major declaration form (you will need to be signed into your UMass account to access the form). To declare a minor in linguistics, wait until you have completed it. Once you have completed the minor requirements, fill out the minor declaration Google form (you will need to be signed into your UMass account to access the form).
Major and joint major requirements
Linguistics (“straight” major)
Note: we cannot offer Linguistics and Anthropology or Linguistics and Chinese joint majors any more, as of Fall 2023, due to the unavailability of course offerings in Anthropology and Chinese. Students interested in these joint majors should consult with advisors and consider double majoring or majoring in one field and minoring in the other.
Junior Year Writing requirement
The Junior Year Writing (JYW) requirement is met by taking LINGUIST 305 (which is currently offered every semester) or LINGUIST 350 (sporadically offered). The JYW requirement does not need to be satisfied in your junior year.
Integrative Experience requirement
See major requirements for the individual majors for courses that satisfy the Integrative Experience (IE) requirement.
IE courses offered in linguistics include:
- LING 389 (Intro to African American English, offered semi-regularly)
- LING 394BIE (Language and Cognition, currently offered every Spring semester)
- LING 404 (Field Methods, offered semi-regularly)
- LING 412 (Language Processing and the Brain, currently offered every Fall semester)