Treats and poems featured at LRC’s “Sweet Poetry” event
“Any poem, any language” is the theme of the Language Resource Center’s second annual celebration of National Poetry Month, April 17
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Our faculty are interested in many different aspects of language: how we speak, understand and learn language; how languages change over time; how computers can understand and generate language; and how social and cultural contexts influence language. Undergraduate and graduate students study these and other aspects of language through our diverse course offerings. Our academic programs allow students the flexibility to develop programs of study specific to their personal goals and interests.
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What do linguists study and teach?
Linguistics attempts to answer such questions as:
- How the mind enables us to produce and understand utterances
- How children acquire language
- How and why languages resemble and differ from each other
- How and why languages change over time and how they are related
- How the categories of language relate to the world
- How language use varies across different social and cultural contexts
- How to make computers talk and 'understand' human languages
Getting started...
Students interested in learning more about linguistics and its relationship to other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences are encouraged to take Linguistics 1101, a general overview that is a prerequisite for most other courses in the field or one of the first-year writing seminars offered in linguistics (on topics such as metaphor, language processing and disorders, English outside the box and the language instinct). Linguistics 1101 and our other introductory courses fulfill various distribution requirements of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Most of our 1100- and 2200-level courses have no prerequisites. These cover various topics in linguistics or the historical development of particular languages:
- LING 1109 - English Words: Histories and Mysteries
- LING 2221 - Language and Society
- LING 2223 - Language and the Law
- LING 2248 - Native American Languages
- LING 2264 - Language, Mind, and Brain
- LING 2285 - Linguistic Theory and Poetic Structure
Linguistics News
Summer Experience Grant applications now open
The grants provide funding for students in unpaid or low-paying summer experiences to offset the cost of taking on those positions.
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‘Innovative’ linguist Margarita Suñer dies at 82
Margarita Amalia Suñer, professor of linguistics emerita in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), died in Ojai, California on Feb. 29 after a long bout with Alzheimer’s disease. She was 82.
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Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ Speakers Work to Restore Language Among Cornell, Nation Communities
Linguistics Professor Sarah Murray and Research Associate Stephen Henhawk are featured in this article by the Cornell Daily Sun.
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Support Arts & Sciences on Giving Day March 14
Your gift allows the College to fulfill our mission — to prepare our students to do the greatest good in the world.
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Endangered Language Alliance Works to Map Languages Spoken in New York City
The Endangered Language Alliance (ELA), co-founded by alum Daniel Kaufman Ph.D. 2010, locates speakers of endangered languages spoken in New York City.
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Grad student Annabelle di Lustro Participated in the KAKEHASHI Project
First year Linguistics graduate student Annabelle di Lustro recently participated in the KAKEHASHI Project, an exchange program for young American researchers to visit Japan, sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (MOFA).
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18th Annual Cornell Undergraduate Linguistics Colloquium (CULC 18)
Cornell University's undergraduate linguistics association, The UnderLings, presents its eighteenth annual undergraduate research colloquium. By facilitating communication and discussion between researchers, the conference aims to promote undergraduate research at all levels throughout the linguisti...
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