The Undergraduate Program in Linguistics
Linguistics studies human language – in particular, the properties
all languages share and the ways that individual languages can differ.
This involves the study of the mechanisms and principles that determine
the structures of all human languages (universal grammar). The core areas
of linguistics include phonology (the study of the sound patterns of language),
morphology (the study of the internal structure of words), syntax (the
study of the internal structure of sentences), and semantics (the study
of the meaning of words and sentences). In addition to these basic areas,
the Program in Linguistics offers courses in historical linguistics, language
acquisition, psycholinguistics, and the representation of language in
the mind and brain. Students with a special interest in language and linguistics
can pursue a Certificate in Linguistics, or in special cases may apply
to the University to be an Independent Concentrator in Linguistics.
The Joint Ph.D. Program in Slavic and Theoretical Linguistics
The purpose of the Joint Ph.D. Program in Slavic and Theoretical Linguistics is to train linguists who can both apply modern theories of linguistics to the analysis of the Slavic languages and apply data from the Slavic languages to the development of linguistic theory. In order to achieve these goals, students in the Joint Program take courses in both Slavic and theoretical linguistics each semester; students also take courses in Russian and other Slavic languages. The Slavic core courses are: The Morphosyntactic Structure of Russian (a two semester introduction to the generative analysis of Russian morphosyntax); The History of the Russian Language (a two semester course that begins with a basic introduction to Common Slavic and covers the history of Russian phonology, morphology, and syntax); Comparative Slavic Linguistics (one semester), and Old Russian texts (one semester). In addition to Russian, which is the program's main focus, students normally study two other Slavic languages (Czech, Polish, and Serbian/Croatian are offered). The core courses in theoretical linguistics are: three levels of Syntax (elementary syntax in the Introductory course (Lin 213); Intermediate (generative) syntax, and Advanced (generative) syntax), Morphology, Phonology, and Linguistic Semantics. Students may also take the following courses, which are regularly offered in the Linguistics Program: Linguistic Universals and Language Diversity; Language, Mind, and Brain; From Word to Idiom to Grammar (Introduction to Construction Grammar), Lexical Semantics, Language Acquisition, Historical Linguistics, Problems in Indo-European Linguistics, The Chomskyan Revolution. Students are admitted to the Joint Ph.D. Program in Slavic and Theoretical Linguistics through the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and may apply on-line (see the link to the Graduate School). All students admitted to the Joint Ph.D. Program receive a five-year fellowship, which includes full tuition, a living stipend for each of the five years, and summer support for each summer.
Contact Leonard Babby, Director of the Program in Linguistics at: babbylhprinceton.edu if you have questions. Applicants must have a sound knowledge of Russian, and be fluent in English.
For more information on requirements for the Ph.D. program, please visit the Graduate School Home Page.
