Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Linguists study individual languages not to communicate in them but to understand principles behind their structure, development, and variation. We encourage students to be interested in theoretical linguistics to take courses and work with faculty in our department. A major in linguistics consists of 60 hours of coursework. It includes core areas such as phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. A wide range of electives is offered, about a dozen each semester. Students are exposed to humanistic as well as scientific views of language. Emphasis is given to logical thinking, experimental work, and problem-solving skills in all language matters. The linguistics graduate program has a strong theoretical orientation and our research is concerned with both the development of a general theory of human language and detailed accounts of the structure of individual languages. Currently, two tracks are offered in the Master of Arts and Ph.D. programs: theoretical linguistics and computational linguistics. The department does not offer courses in language pedagogy, linguistic therapy or historical development except at an introductory level. Government-funded research is conducted by the faculty members in the fields of dialectology, machine translation, speech synthesis, and natural language understanding.