Go to: Division of Philosophy, Religion, Psychology, and Linguistics  

Faculty

Kara Becker
Sociolinguistics, American regional dialects, social practice and identity construction, language and gender, language and discrimination. On sabbatical 2025-26.

Sameer ud Dowla Khan
Phonetics, intonational phonology, voice quality/phonation, speech acoustics, Bengali and other South Asian languages.

Matthew Pearson
Formal linguistic theory, syntax, typology and language description, phonology, morphology, the syntax-semantics interface, Austronesian languages. 

Curriculum

Linguistics as a Field

Linguistics is the study of human language: its form and its variation. Human language may be studied from a variety of perspectives, whether as a complex social behavior; as a medium for creating and embodying social meaning and identity; or as the instantiation of a highly structured system of knowledge within the mind of the language user (a mental grammar), which can be investigated empirically and modeled formally. Starting from the detailed description of phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic patterns in the world’s languages, linguists seek to discover general principles governing the structure and use of language. Research in linguistics encompasses theories of language universals and language variation across space and time, how grammar evolved in the species and develops in the individual, and how language is used to create and perform social relationships.

With its focus on language as a unique facet of human nature, linguistics bridges the divide between the cognitive sciences and the social sciences, and interfaces with the humanities, mathematics, logic, and philosophy. Linguistic concepts have contributed to the study of style and rhetoric, genre and register, poetic meter, and metaphor, thereby enhancing our understanding of literature. Linguistic analysis provides a window into the ideas of other cultures, whether distant in space and time or close to home, and thus contribute to the study of history and anthropology. Semantics has informed our understanding of the relationship of logic to language, and has influenced (and been influenced by) research in philosophy and mathematics. Finally, discoveries in linguistics have made major contributions to the development of cognitive science, and have applications in fields as diverse as neuroscience, evolutionary biology, speech and hearing technologies, computer science and artificial intelligence.

Linguistics at Reed

Reed offers a variety of linguistics and linguistics-related courses. In addition to introductory courses in formal analysis and sociocultural linguistics, more specific offerings deal with particular areas of formal analysis (phonetics, phonology, intonation, syntax, semantics), as well as in aspects of sociolinguistics (gender, contact, dialectology, discrimination), language typology, current research topics (in phonetics/phonology, in syntax, and in sociolinguistics), and research methods (field research, lab research). Courses are also offered on the overall structure of specific language regions (South Asia) and families (Austronesian).

Linguistics at Reed has an intentionally interdisciplinary orientation: through the allied field and non-native language proficiency requirements, students are encouraged to develop links to other fields, which can include e.g. anthropology, psychology, philosophy, mathematics, biology, sociology, and classical and modern languages and literatures. Students also have the opportunity to engage in linguistic fieldwork and laboratory research as part of their coursework and their thesis.

Admission to the Major

After passing our introductory series of LING 211  and LING 212  (or equivalent courses), the prospective linguistics major must present a plan of study to the department for approval.

Programs

• Linguistics

• Linguistics Minor