Minor in Linguistics
The Linguistics minor at SF State offers students a solid grounding in the tools of language analysis. Students explore the patterns of sounds, words, sentences, and conversations in a variety of languages and speech communities. What similarities are found between English, Spanish, and Swahili, for example? What patterns do Turkish and Japanese share? How can you characterize the difference between “empty” and “hollow,” when the dictionary lists them as synonyms? How do conversations among teenagers in San Francisco differ from conversations among 40-year-olds?
Students interested in any field involving language analysis — including but not limited to law, education, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and linguistics — benefit from preparation in examining language data with the rigorous methods of the discipline.
Program Learning Outcomes
- Demonstrate a solid understanding of the fundamental linguistic subfields of phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and sociolinguistics.
- Analyze grammatical aspects of English and other languages unfamiliar to them.
- Produce a field-appropriate research paper conforming to all writing conventions, citation conventions, and structural conventions in linguistics research.
Linguistics Minor — 15 units
A minimum of 6 upper-division units are required to complete the minor.
All coursework used to satisfy the requirements of the minor must be completed with a minimum grade point average of 2.0.
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| ENG 420 | Introduction to the Study of Language | 3 |
| ENG 421 | Syntax | 3 |
| ENG 424 | Phonology and Morphology | 3 |
| ENG 425 | Sociolinguistics | 3 |
| Select one: | 3 | |
| History of the English Language | ||
| Language Analysis for Language Teachers | ||
| Second Language Acquisition | ||