Undergraduate Program

The undergraduate linguistics program at Cornell provides students with an opportunity to learn about the scientific study of human language in one of the most distinguished linguistics departments in the country. Although Cornell is a large university, the relatively small size of our undergraduate program allows students to enjoy seminar-style classes and close interaction with faculty members. Our undergraduate majors typically enjoy individual attention of a sort often not available in larger departments.

The undergraduate program offers students solid training not only in all major areas of theoretical linguistics—phonetics, phonology, syntax and semantics—but also in historical linguistics and computational linguistics. Our faculty's language area interests range from Indo-European languages (Germanic, Celtic, Romance, Slavic) to Japanese, Korean, Indonesian and Cheyenne. Undergraduate students have opportunities to work directly with faculty on original independent research projects as well as to get hands-on research experience through participating in faculty and graduate students' various research projects. Many of our undergraduate majors write honors theses. Visit the Honors Program section below to learn more.

Linguistics majors and minors are also encouraged to develop programs of study which focus on individual areas of special interest.  Please reference Courses of Study for a full listing of linguistics courses.  The major or minor can be combined with a related discipline such as anthropology, computer science, philosophy and psychology or can incorporate language study from Cornell's extensive offerings in both modern languages and classical languages.

The Department of Linguistics does not handle undergraduate admissions. Prospective students interested in majoring in Linguistics at Cornell should apply to the University directly for admission to Arts & Sciences. The linguistics major and minor are hosted by the College of Arts and Sciences.

In addition to widespread university goals to foster the skills of critical analysis in both written and oral work, we expect Linguistics majors and minors to:

• gain a familiarity with the research objectives and methods of the major areas of linguistic inquiry
• acquire practical and theoretical command of the tools of the core subfields of Linguistics
• be able to apply these tools to novel problems and data
• reason, write, and communicate effectively about natural languages and the nature of language
• acquire habits of rational thought, data analysis, and problem solving, which will be transferable to other areas of inquiry

For questions regarding the linguistics major, contact Professor Michael Weiss, 218 Morrill Hall, mlw36@cornell.edu. 

Note: In addition to the major requirements outlined below, all students must meet the college graduation requirements. 

Ten courses (minimum of 37 credit hours) in linguistics and two ancillary skills courses are required to complete the major.

A. Prerequisites:

• LING 1101 - Introduction to Linguistics
• plus one of the other Foundation Courses in B.
• with a minimum grade of B- in both courses.

B. Foundation Courses:

Majors must complete all of the following courses.

• LING 1101 - Introduction to Linguistics
• LING 3302 - Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology
• LING 3303 - Introduction to Syntax and Semantics
• LING 3314 - Introduction to Historical Linguistics

C. Additional Courses:

Majors must complete 6 additional Linguistics courses (of 3 credits or more) selected in consultation with their advisor with the following conditions:

• at least 2 of these must be at the 3000 level or above
• no more than 1 of these may be at the 1000 level
• no more than 1 of these may be satisfied by four credits of coursework with a CU-UGR designation

Any course with a LING prefix except for First-Year Writing Seminars and language courses counts as a linguistics course*.

One course in another department with at least 50% linguistic content will be considered by petition. Of the six courses, at least three need to be regularly scheduled linguistics courses taken at Cornell.

*Note:  Cross-listed courses are counted as linguistics courses whether they are taken under the LING prefix or another prefix.

D. Ancillary Skills Courses:

In addition, majors must complete two courses (3 credits or more) in one or more of the following areas, selected in consultation with their advisor. This requirement is intended to equip them with practical skills relevant to their particular interests in linguistics. The Ancillary Skills Course requirement may be waived for students who are majoring in more than one field.

• Statistics
• Logic
• Computer programming
• Two semesters of study of a non-European or non-Indo-European language
• Two semesters of study beyond the level required by the Arts College of a language relevant to the student’s particular areas of interest
• Language teaching methodology

E. Additional Information:

Some substitutions to these standard requirements are possible by petition to your advisor and with approval by the director of undergraduate studies. All courses counted for the major must be taken for a letter grade. The minimum grade for courses applied to the linguistics major is C-.  The minimum grade for any transferred linguistics credits is B-.

Interested students are invited to consult with the Linguistics Director of Undergraduate Studies, Michael Weiss, mlw36@cornell.edu. To apply to the major in Linguistics, email lingdept@cornell.edu.

Honors in Linguistics are awarded for excellence in the major, including overall GPA and completion of an honors thesis. Applications for honors should be made by the start of fall term of the senior year.

Admissions: Admission to the honors program requires an overall GPA of at least 3.3 and a GPA in the major of at least 3.5.  A student may be admitted provisionally in the honors program at the discretion of the Director of Undergraduate Studies.

Thesis: In addition to the regular requirements of the major, the candidate for honors will complete an honors thesis.  Writing an honors thesis is typically a two-semester project involving eight credits of coursework conducted during the senior year.  During their first semester of honors work, students typically register for (1) LING 4493 - Honors Thesis Research (with their thesis advisor); and (2) LING 4491 - Honors Research Workshop I.  During their second semester of honors work, students are required to register for (1) LING 4494 - Honors Thesis Research (with their thesis advisor); and (2) LING 4492 - Honors Research Workshop II.

Upon completion of the thesis, the student takes a final oral examination defending the thesis. The oral examination will be conducted by the honors committee, consisting of the thesis advisor and at least one other faculty member in linguistics. Members of other departments may serve as additional members if the topic makes this advisable. Honors students are also required to deposit a copy of the final thesis with the Director of Undergraduate Studies in Linguistics and are expected to give an oral presentation on their thesis topic during the department's year-end undergraduate honors colloquium. Honors are awarded by a departmental committee based on the thesis and overall academic record, guided by the honors committee's recommendation.

Some Recent Honors Thesis Titles

• Indirect Speech Acts and Invocations of Miranda Rights
• Morphological Detransitivization in Korean
• One of those situations where a relative pronoun becomes a complementizer
• Schizophrenic Language: The Possibility of Early Detection
• Potentially Useful, Momentously Difficult: Modeling Sentence Comprehension Difficulty with Potential Functions & Second Order Measurements
• Memorizing Chinese Characters: A case study in spaced repetition rehearsal
• Problematizing High Rising Terminal Intonation: Reanalyzing the phonetic features, discourse functions and social implications of HRT in the university classroom
• Arabic Clauses and Subject Positions: Evidence for a Higher Ground
• Evidence for Akkadian structure influence on Arabic: A case study in contact linguistics
• Just Try and Cliticize This!
• Child Interpretation of the Quantifier 'some': the Influence of the Partitive Construction
• Nominative-Genitive Conversion in Japanese: The Structure and Its Implications

The minor in linguistics gives students the opportunity to gain formal recognition for substantial coursework in linguistics without the burden of an additional major. The linguistics minor may be a valuable complement to studies in English, foreign languages, psychology, philosophy, computer science, biology, human development, or engineering and is open to undergraduates across Cornell.

Prerequisites:

Minimum grade of B- in the following:

• LING 1101 - Introduction to Linguistics 
• At least one other LING course which counts towards the minor

Requirements:

Five courses in linguistics or courses approved for the linguistics major.

Minimum of 18 credits, including:

• LING 1101 - Introduction to Linguistics 
• At least one other foundation course:
  • LING 3302 - Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology
  • LING 3303 - Introduction to Syntax and Semantics
  • LING 3314 - Introduction to Historical Linguistics
• Three additional linguistics courses (of 3 credits or more) meeting the following conditions:
  • At least 1 of these must be at the 3000 level or above
  • No more than 1 of these may be at the 1000 level

Additional Information:

Some substitutions to these standard requirements are possible by petition to your advisor and with approval by the director of undergraduate studies. All courses counted for the minor must be taken for a letter grade. The minimum grade for courses applied to the linguistics minor is C-.

Any course with a LING prefix except for First-Year Writing Seminars and Language courses counts as a linguistics course.*

*Note: Cross-listed courses are counted as linguistics courses whether they are taken under the LING prefix or another prefix.

Interested students are invited to consult with the Linguistics Director of Undergraduate Studies, Michael Weiss, mlw36@cornell.edu.  Students who declare the minor will consult with either the Director of Undergraduate Studies or an assigned minor advisor on the selection of courses appropriate to their academic objectives. To apply to the minor in Linguistics, email lingdept@cornell.edu.

The American Sign Language (ASL)/Deaf Studies minor offers the opportunity to pursue an interdisciplinary course sequence focusing on American Sign Language and Deaf culture. The courses offered range across a variety of different disciplines, to provide a broad and compelling perspective on ASL and the Deaf community.

Requirements:

The American Sign Language (ASL)/Deaf Studies minor consists of five courses with a minimum total of 18 credits. A student must currently be taking or have completed ASL 1102 to declare the minor.

1.  Three courses are required:

• ASL 2202 - Intermediate American Sign Language II (or proficiency at this level)
• ASL 2301 - Modern Deaf Culture 
• LING 1101 - Introduction to Linguistics (Introduction to Linguistics is vital for an accurate understanding of the structure and function of ASL as a language like any other though in a different modality)

2.  A minimum of one course from ASL/Deaf Studies electives:

• ASL 2302 - ASL Literature

• ASL 3215 - Deaf Art, Film and Theatre

• ASL 4410 - American Sign Language Linguistics 

3.  One course can be chosen from this list of interdisciplinary electives:

• BSOC 2051 - Ethical Issues in Health and Medicine 
• FGSS 4035 - Intersectional Disability Studies 
• GOVT 3087 - International Human Rights Law and Advocacy 
• ILRLR 4033 - Disability Law 
• ILRIC 4360 - Global Comparative Disability Policy 
• LING 2215 - Psychology of Language 
• LING 2221 - Language and Society 
• LING 2223 - Language and the Law 
• LING 3344 - Superlinguistics: Comics, Signs and Other Sequential Images
• PHIL 2455 - Introduction to Bioethics 

Additional Information:

The minimum grade for courses applied to the minor is C-. 

Students may apply up to one course from study abroad programs, from another institution, or an independent study toward this minor.

Interested students should consult with the Linguistics Director of Undergraduate Studies, Michael Weiss, 218 Morrill Hall, mlw36@cornell.edu. Students who declare the minor will consult with either the Director of Undergraduate Studies or ASL/Deaf Studies Minor Advisor Brenda Schertz, 215 Morrill Hall, bschertz@cornell.com on the selection of courses appropriate to their academic objectives.

To apply to the minor in ASL/Deaf Studies, email lingdept@cornell.edu.

Suggested course sequence for the ASL/Deaf Studies Minor:

First year:

Fall: ASL 1101 - American Sign Language I 

Spring: ASL 1102 - American Sign Language II 

Second year:

Fall: ASL 2201 - Intermediate American Sign Language I and LING 1101 - Introduction to Linguistics 

Spring: ASL 2202 - Intermediate American Sign Language II and ASL 2301 - Modern Deaf Culture 

Third year:

Fall: ASL 2302 - ASL Literature (Offered in the even numbered years.)

Spring: ASL 3215 - Deaf Art, Film and Theatre or another elective

Fourth year:

Fall: ASL 4410 - American Sign Language Linguistics (offered in the odd numbered years) or another elective. Complete any courses if not able to take them earlier.

LinguistList Careers - academic jobs

LinguistList Careers - internship listing

LSA Jobs - academic jobs

LSA Linguistics Annual Report - the state of linguistics in higher education

Center for Applied Linguistics

Association for Computational Linguistics - jobs in computational linguistics

College of Arts & Sciences Career Resources

The Cornell UnderLings (Cornell Undergraduates in Linguistics) is the undergraduate student group of the Cornell Department of Linguistics. It serves to seek unity in the body of linguistics students and promote linguistics at the undergraduate level in the Cornell community and the broader academic community. We have weekly meetings that include updates, activities, and discussions. Some of the events and activities we have planned include:

• Brunches with linguistics faculty members
• Movie nights showing linguistics/language-related movies
• Research talks given by graduate students or undergrads
• Linguistics board game nights

The Cornell UnderLings invites anyone of any major who is interested in languages or linguistics to join. To hear about UnderLings events, join our listserv by emailing a blank email with subject join to underlings-l-request@cornell.edu or contact us at underlings@cornell.edu for more information.

The Cornell UnderLings host the annual Cornell Undergraduate Linguistics Colloquium (CULC) to provide an opportunity for undergraduate linguistics majors from all over the world to present their research on linguistics

Undergraduate Program Coordinator:
203B Morrill Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 USA
Telephone: (607) 255-1105
Email: lingdept@cornell.edu

Director of Undergraduate Studies:
Professor Michael Weiss (mlw36@cornell.edu)