COVID-19 Updates
Please click the link to find information on recent changes for our students and affiliated faculty related to COVID-19.
Antiracism Statement
We will engage students in thoughtful conversations about race and racism to create an antiracist community.
What Linguistics Is and What Linguists Do...
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. We seek to understand the structure of language, how it is learned, how it changes over time, how it interacts with the world, how it is represented in the mind, and how humans produce and understand language.
Our work informs a wide variety of human concerns: education (foreign-language teaching, the way to approach standard and non-standard languages in the classroom), technology (speech recognition, artificial intelligence), health care (diagnosis and treatment of language disorders), language's place in a diverse society (the role of multilingualism, protections for endangered and minority dialects and languages), and the legal system (interpreting legal language and the significance of linguistic evidence).
Humanities Radio
For more information, we encourage you to listen to Episode 2 of the Humanities podcast, where Aaron Kaplan, Assistant Professor of Linguistics, answers all of these questions.
Mission Statement
The Department of Linguistics at the University of Utah is committed to advancing the understanding of human language in the service of local, national, and global communities.
We accomplish this by:
- conducting cutting-edge research on language structure, acquisition, and processing
- preparing students to achieve personal and professional goals equipped with the knowledge and skills developed through the study of linguistics.
Our Specializations and Interests
In the Department of Linguistics at the University of Utah, our faculty specialize in:
- theoretical syntax and semantics
- theoretical phonology
- second language acquisition
- second language phonology
Our faculty also have interests in historical linguistics, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics. We offer undergraduate, MA, and PhD degrees, as well as a computational linguistics certificate and a TESOL certificate.
About the Department
Linguistics provides the intellectual satisfaction of learning how human language works, while at the same time developing the analytical skills necessary to be highly competitive on the job market. Students in linguistics learn how to analyze languages and develop crucial skills for today’s job market: reasoning, critical thinking, rigorous analysis, and written and verbal communication.
Graduates of our program have been admitted to some of the top graduate programs in linguistics and other fields and found careers in ESL instruction, language analysis, and computational linguistics.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT OF LinguisticsGet Involved
News
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Melissa Mendelson Selected by U.S. Department of State for Prestigious English Language Specialist Project
The U.S. Department of State announced the selection of Melissa Mendelson of the University of Utah for an 11-week English Language Specialist project focusing on teacher training in L2 Methodology virtually for teachers in Türkiye. Mendelson is part of a select group, as her project is one of approximately 240 that the English Language Specialist Program supports each year.
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Undergraduate Research With Dr. Aniello De Santo
2 presentations by undergraduate students participating in UROP and UCUR.
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Linguistic Society of America 2023- Denver
3 Presentations by UofU Dept. of Linguistics PhD students Mohammed Al-Ariqy and Ahmen Alnuqaydan, with Dr. Aaron Kaplan
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Congratulations Shantel on Receiving the Stellar Staff Award!
College of Humanities staff enjoyed each other’s company at Desert Edge at the staff social on 12/7. In between eats & drinks and a fun blind-date-with-a-book exchange, we acknowledged the four winners of the fall Stellar Staff Award. Our very own Shantel de Arraiz, Administrative Manager of the Department of Linguistics was 1 of 4 awarded. Shantel has worked for our department for roughly 18 years. Many students can speak to how amazing she is and how hard she works to support them. She such a joy to work with and is incredibly respectful to everyone she comes in contact with. Her support allows staff and faculty to complete their jobs. More than fifteen staff members throughout the College were thoughtfully nominated by their colleagues. Thank you to all who took the time to submit nominations, and to the entire staff for their support of the College.
