Best Graduate Schools for Linguistics

Many students find phonics, semantics, and pragmatics of linguistics programs far too fascinating to pass up as a degree goal. Studying linguistics provides a scientific foundation for broad-based study of human communication that is usually broken into three main subfields, including language meaning, language context, and language form. Within these subfields, graduate schools for linguistics offer students study possibilities involving evolutionary, social, and historical aspects. However, there are several specialty fields, including the exploration of the function, structure, and formation of language in the mind, including the study of psycholinguistics-study of the mental aspects of language and speech, neurolinguistics-study of the neural mechanisms in the human brain that control the comprehension, production, and acquisition of language, and language acquisition. The study of language comes from a diverse variety of fields, including psychology, human anatomy, linguistic anthropology and speech-language pathology.

Special Skills

Language students must have strong skills and abilities in communication, and must have strong analytical reasoning skills. Students must also have a sufficient ability to master another language and be able to understand analytical reasoning and augmentation, and have the ability to understand language from a scientific standpoint. Language study also requires strong skills in formulating hypothesis, drawing conclusions, and making arguments.

Best Graduate Schools for Linguistics in the United States

University of Arizona


The University of Arizona provides programs in the areas of human language technology and language study. Members of the faculty offer specialized research within the areas of morphology, psycholinguistics, and computational language study. They also offer a special program for the study of Native American language. Research is supported by the Social and Behavioral Science Research Institute. Faculty at the University of Arizona have received awards and honors such as the Graduate College Teaching and Mentoring Award, Postdoctoral Fellowship from MIT, IBM Graduate Fellow Award, the Governor's Prize in Computing Science.

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University of Chicago


The department of language studies at the University of Chicago offers the oldest language studies program within the United States. The university offers theoretical and complex study of the human language and offers courses in phonetics and phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. They also offer courses in Indo-European language and provide a joint doctoral program within other departments, such as the department of linguistic anthropology, the department of comparative human development, and department of psychology. Faculty have won the Mark Galler Prize, the Heldt Prize of the AAASS, and a Fulbright Scholarship.

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Boise State

 

Boise state offers two main goals to students including providing both awareness and support of the value and diversity of language. Boise State stresses studies in modern English grammar, applied English language study, and the history of the English. They also offer divisional courses in psycholinguistics, applied language study, teaching English as a second language, and studies in the language of culture and society. Faculty at Boise State has received awards such as Dale Amo Graduate Fellowship, the Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars, and the International Summer Field Researcher Award.

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Georgetown University



Georgetown University department of language offers one of the best graduate schools for linguistics with studies in more than six modernized foreign languages. Required courses cover areas such as phonetics and phonology, sociophonetics and second language teaching. They have an emphasis on applied language study, the theoretical study of language, sociolinguistics, and occupational language. Faculty and staff received honors and awards such as the National Association for Bilingual Education President Award, the Northeast Conference Award for Distinguished Service and Leadership, the Mary Glide Goethe Award and the LSA Scholarship Award.

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University of Pennsylvania


University of Pennsylvania Linguistic’s Department is the oldest modern linguistics department in the United States. They have an emphasis on syntax and phonology, as well as in semantics, discourse, historical linguistics, phonetics, sociolinguistics, and several other areas of cognitive science. Faculty and staff received honors and awards such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Benjamin Franklin Medal, the ACL Lifetime Achievement Award and the Cognitive Science Society Rumelhart Prize. Penn is also the home of the Linguistic Data Consortium (LDC), a compiler and distributor of linguistic materials for language engineering research.

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University of Massachusetts Amherst


Language studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are focused on theoretical studies, field studies and experimental education. Specifically, the university offers study in typology, morphology, prosody, and language acquisition. They offer joint majors in both Spanish and Portuguese. Research is conducted at the Center for the Study of African American language, the Prosody Lab, and the Optimality Lab. As an internationally recognized institution, faculty members have received Fulbright Fellowships, the W. Hamilton Book Award for African American English, the Sinclair Kennedy Fellowship from Harvard University and Traineeship for the National Science Foundation.

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Best UK Graduate Schools for Linguistics

University of Oxford



The University of Oxford stresses developmental study of the history of the language from a philology perspective. This perspective stresses studying linguistics through evolution, social and historical circumstances. The university also encourages the study of all aspects of phonetics, including reception, transmission, and speech production. Typical research opportunities at Oxford University include semantics study, syntax, and psycholinguistics and romance languages. The faculty at Oxford has received awards such a the Early Researcher Award, the RH Robins Prize awarded by the Philological Society, the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Johann-Kaspar-Zeuss Prize.

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University of Cambridge

Modern and medieval language at the University of Cambridge brings together courses in the history and ideas on language, history and varieties of English, semantics and pragmatics, and more. Research at the University of Cambridge conducted at the Research Centre for English. Honors and associations received the faculty at Cambridge include committee members of the Linguistics Association of Great Britain, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship, and research studentships from the Research Centre for English.

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University of York 


The department of language and literature at York University has a wide selection of emphasis, including American Sign Language, Jamaican Creole, and Yiddish studies. Graduate degrees and certificates are also obtained in African studies, East Asian studies, Latin American and Caribbean studies, religious studies and women's studies. The Multimedia Language Centre of York University provides extensive developmental research opportunities. The faculty has received awards and honors including the Distinguished Faculty of Arts Nominee, the Metcalf Fellowship, the Doctoral Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Visiting Research Fellowship from the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities from University of Edinburgh Scotland.

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Newcastle University



The school of modern languages at Newcastle University offers several opportunities for study in social, historical and cultural aspects of language. Study opportunities include translation and interpretation, studies in European and Chinese languages, German studies, Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American studies, and film studies. The School of Modern Languages Research Seminar is a vital part of the Newcastle University modern language department. It offers research lectures from external speakers, students and faculty. Teachers have received the Fulbright travel grants, and the DAAD Research Fellowship.

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University of Edinburgh



Department of English language studies at the University of Edinburgh focuses on providing students with engaging education with weekly tutorials, lectures, and honours courses and seminars. Studying linguistics at Edinburgh includes phonetics and technology, sound and grammar, speech synthesis, and first language acquisition, bilingualism, sociolinguistics, and linguistic anthropology. The majority of the research from the department is centered around the Human Communication Research Centre. As one of the best graduate schools for linguistics, faculty members have been members of the Phonetics and Phonology Research Group, holders of the British Academy Research Readership, and have received the Beltane Fellowship for Public Engagement Award.

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Author Bio

Ms. Leah L. Logan currently lives in Austin, Texas with her two year-old son, and enjoys all types of writing, including article writing, journalism, and ghostwriting. Ms. Logan is a two-time international author with the release of the co-authored books “Removing the Mask: Living an Authentic Life” and “Self Architect: Redesigning Your Life” both edited by Linda Ellis Eastman.
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The Kallawaya Language of Bolivia

The latest of my anthropological endeavors includes a documentary entitled The Linguists.

Directed by Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller and Jeremy Newberger, The Linguists chronicles the global adventures of Harrison and Greg Anderson, the Harvard and University of Chicago-educated co-founder (with Harrison) of the nonprofit Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, as they race to document vanishing languages from the Andes and Siberia to India and Arizona (Thill 2009).

I almost couldn't get past the fact that David Harrison spoke over 25 languages and was able to assume a more culturally and uncluttered view of individuals questioned.

There were dozens of languages mentioned, however there was one on Bolivia that fascinated me.

Anthropology:  Kallawaya Language

The main language focus in Bolivia was Kallawaya. Kallawaya people are known for their medicinal practices, using their extensive knowledge of the more than 10,000 plants in Bolivia to create remedies. The filmmakers learned there were less than 100 native Kallawaya speakers left in Bolivia. In a country where the Spanish language was gaining ground, the Kallawaya language was still around, and the filmmakers investigated the internal factors allowing this to happen.

The Kallawaya were extremely segregated as the filmmakers quickly learned on their ride though the mountain pass, over the rocky terrain filled with lamas, looking down a steep ravine. Interestingly enough, their first encounter with a Kallawaya speaker, a healer, occurred when their tire went flat.

Kallawaya healers were difficult to track down. However, the healer that was found did not actually understand the form of structure of language they believed he could speak.

Consequently, the team moved forward and was able to meet with a Kallawaya healer, after waiting three hours, to speak about the language. The healer, Max, performed a ritual for the filmmakers prior to engaging in conversation, with coca leaves. Coca leaves are cast and used to read the patterns. Max Churra was able to simply pinpoint exactly what the filmmakers were feeling and he was quite accurate.

When sharing their findings with the Bolivian Cultural Board, they were able to convince those present that Kallawaya is still alive, yet under threat.

Kallawaya language is impossible to transmit by memorization as it’s audibly incomprehensible. Kallawaya is not learned at birth, but rather transmitted from adult males to teenage males, in order to avail themselves of the medicinal knowledge. Language is the Kallawaya’s livelihood.

Unfortunately, small languages are being abandoned in the effort to procure better economical standards. Consequently, globalization and colonialism has left, and is presently still making, a deep incision on the cultural languages.

The filmmakers explained that children didn’t have to give up a language to speak another, as children were really the ones that could preserve their native speak.

"The President's Speech": An odd reaction to the President's Speech

You gotta love how language and culture collide especially when reading Oliver Sack's article, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat (And Other Clinical Tales). Yes, the title had be rolling for a bit since I'd never really read the story per se. I had certainly never heard about aphasia before this witty piece.

The basis of this amusing yet educational article was how and why aphasia patients started to laugh as one of the most prolific speakers in presidential history, Ronald Reagan, spoke to the American public on television.

Aphasia.org defines aphasia as an acquired communication disorder that impairs a person's ability to process language, but does not affect intelligence. Aphasia impairs the ability to speak and understand others, and most people with aphasia experience difficulty reading and writing.

The President's Speech: the reaction

There he was, The Old Charmer, the Actor, with his practiced rhetoric, his histrionisms, his emotional appeal . A typical American would have reveled in the president’s keen words and delighted in the fact this president was able to inspire a nation.

On the other hand and in another realm, so to speak, the aphasia ward, filled with “crazies”, exploded with laughter. Why he or she may ask?

Albeit these eccentric individuals couldn’t see the meaning of words, they could understand prose and body language and they couldn't believe the fantastic lies they were being told live on by the President.

Aphasia patients can understand natural speech, as most men and women speak this way every day. Natural speech, the meaning, is somewhat detectable and understandable to patients. Mannerisms and simple utterances flow naturally, and to an aphasia patient, they are more normal. Contrived hand gestures and body movements seem robotic, as seen in the president’s speech.

Furthermore, the tone of the speech most definitely set the patients off, so much so, their laughter flooded the room. Henry Head mentions “he speaks of “feeling tones” in his treatise aphasia, and stresses how it is preserved, and often enhanced, in aphasiacs.”

What does this mean?
 
You cannot lie to aphasiacs. Body language and expression are much more powerful because words have no meaning. Therefore a slight smirk or wink will immediately set aphasiacs off, as a light bulb in your head goes off when you have an idea. It’s immediate sometimes and it acts on reactions, which are normally the right ones the first time you have them.

Therefore the aphasiacs are laughing at the falsified gestures and cadences and the abnormal tone of the speech.


Have you read The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat by Oliver Sacks? Look at page 80 (Chapter 9). Once you have, tell me what you're interpretation was?

Leave comments below. 

Linguistic Study: Speakers of Vietnamese and An Age Referent's Obligation

Another semester is upon me as I tackle new anthropology classes and gain greater insights into the field. In my Language and Culture class, we've been debating several issues including the hegemony of English as a global language, nonverbal cues used by past and present politicians, and understanding Shakespeare in the African Bush (I know you've heard of that study).

I intend to share with you my experiences in this challenging and fascinating class. To begin, I wanted to discuss the Vietnamese language.

Part of acquiring Vietnamese language and understanding their culture is by making a distinction between the father's side of the family and the mother's. A distinction constantly reinforced by the terms that must be used when referring to these people. There are also differing expectations of these people as a result of the way Vietnamese reckon kinship and descent.

What is the world do you mean? Simply, there's a way in which to approach or speak to someone, as this works about the same way in American culture.

In Vietnamese society, the predominant sentiment in the relation between members of a social group is respect.

Speakers of Vietnamese must choose the appropriate word depending upon relative age, social status, gender, degree of acquaintance, respect, and affection between speakers and hearers who are not related to each other by blood or marriage.

This form of respect, so to speak, has its roots in the teachings of Confucianism, whereby the Vietnamese describe a position of a person in society. Their behavior towards age and seniority is an obligation or form of respect they must pay to one another, based upon their relationship. Not showing this respect for elders or persons of higher position shows an insolent attitude.

Example and Possible Consequences:

Americans, when writing letters to individuals they don’t know, will address the person as “Dear NAME”.  Vietnamese people, by contrast, use only terms expressing respect such as “kính”, “kính thưa” and never address the person by name, for this would convey a disrespectful attitude.

A parallel can be seen with the use of family names. A father’s name is typically used in Vietnamese and American households.

As a show of respect, Vietnamese use their father’s name first, not last like Americans. Family name always comes first in Vietnamese and the individual name second, followed by the middle name, if one exists
Do you share this similar distinction in your own household? Please share with the readers.

Picture © marleen1951