Linguistics at FSU

The Linguistics Program at Florida State University equips students with the skills to investigate the sounds, structures and meaning in human language. It also helps prepare them for careers in fields such as teaching, translation and interpretation, voice or speech recognition software development, literacy programming, curriculum development, data analysis, and U.S. intelligence or foreign service, among others. We offer a wide range of courses in syntax, phonology, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, descriptive linguistics, child language acquisition, second language acquisition, historical linguistics, research methods, and computational linguistics. Our labs include a language processing and eye-tracking lab, a phonetics lab, a psycholinguistics lab, and a second language acquisition lab. Some of our students are involved in undergraduate research and/or write an honors thesis.

Linguistics Majors

The linguistics degree consists of 30 credits. Of these, 18 credit hours correspond to six required core courses, and 12 credit hours correspond to electives. The electives allow students to choose between two different majors in linguistics:

• a general linguistics major, where majors take four linguistic electives (at least one of them has to be at the 4000 level), and
• a linguistics and languages major, where majors take two linguistic electives and complete two semesters of a language course beyond or different from the language courses used to satisfy the Arts and Sciences language requirement. 

Students select one or the other major based on their choice of electives. Students can get a B.A. or B.S. degree in either major, depending on their coursework. Students who would like to pursue a B.S. will take at least two electives in research methods, language acquisition, statistics, mathematics, computational linguistics or computer science.

Please contact Antje Muntendam, Ph.D. (amuntendam@fsu.edu) or Lara Reglero, Ph.D. (lreglero@fsu.edu) for more information.

Linguistics Minor

Undergraduate students in linguistics must take at least 12 semester hours from the linguistics courses listed below; two of these must be core courses. For a list of core courses and descriptions, visit the College of Arts and Sciences Bulletin and scroll down to view courses beginning with the prefix LIN.

The following courses are also available to undergraduate linguistics students. Detailed descriptions can also be found on the Bulletin:

• EXP 4640 Psychology of Language
• FRE 3780 French Phonetics 
• GER 3780 (German) Phonetics
• GER 3930 Special Topics
• GER 3930 / LIN 4930 Special Topics: Language and Society
• IDS 2291 Language Birth, Language Death
• ITA 4930 Historical Romance Linguistics
• LIN 3108 Introduction to East Asian Linguistics
• PHI 3220 Introduction to Philosophy of Language
• RUS 4780* (Russian) Phonetics
• RUS 4840* History of the Russian Literary Language
• SPN 4700* Introduction to Hispanic Linguistics
• SPN 4701*. Spanish Second Language Acquisition (formerly SPN 4930: Studies in Hispanic Language)
• SPN 4740* Hispanic Sociolinguistics 
• SPN 4780* Spanish Phonetics
• SPN 4810* Bilingualism in the Spanish-speaking World (formerly SPN 4930: Studies in Hispanic Language)
• SPN 4840* History of the Spanish Language
• SPN 4930r* Studies in Hispanic Language

Note:  Additional courses may count with approval of the linguistics curriculum committee. 

* These courses will not count toward both a minor in linguistics and a major in a language.

Linguistics Entrepreneurship Minor

The minor in linguistics entrepreneurship is a 12-hour course of study open to students in any major at FSU. Students completing the minor will be knowledgeable about the innovative applications of linguistics. The curriculum will provide students with the skills, tools, and resources to transition from academic life to careers using linguistics and/or languages (including in industry).

Required Courses (6 credit hours)

• ENT 2000 Introduction to Entrepreneurship (Fall, Spring, Summer)
• LIN 3041 Introduction to Linguistics I (Fall, Spring)

Electives (6 credit hours)

Choose one of the following linguistics electives:

• LIN 4201 Sounds of the World’s Languages (Fall)
• LIN 2004 World Languages (Fall)
• IDS 2291 Language birth, language death (Honors; Fall, Spring)
• LIN 4512 Introduction to Syntax (Spring)
• LIN 4600 Sociolinguistics (Spring)
• LIN 4623 Psycholinguistics of Bilingualism (Fall)
• LIN 4930 Special Topics: Programming for Linguists (Fall)
• Please contact the Linguistics advisor for more options.

Choose one of the approved entrepreneurship electives, for instance:

• ENT 2802 Entrepreneurship and Contemporary Society
• ENT 3173 Franchising
• ENT 3283 Women in Entrepreneurship
• ENT 4255 Negotiations

For more information, please contact Antje Muntendam, Ph.D. (amuntendam@fsu.edu).