Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It explores the unconscious knowledge that speakers have about language, in particular the relationship between sound and meaning, which is at the core of language as a system of communication. Linguists study the structure and representation of language at various levels: sounds (phonetics and phonology), words (morphology), phrases and sentences (syntax), and meaning (semantics). They also investigate questions about language universals and typology, the historical development and changes in language over time, the acquisition of language by children and adults, and the processing of language in the mind/brain. Linguistics is an interdisciplinary field that investigates language from theoretical, descriptive and experimental perspectives.
- systematically structured to ensure a smooth transition from basic to advanced courses
- exceptional in their combined areas of specialization: linguistic analysis, diverse theoretical and experimental frameworks, endangered languages
- research-oriented, offering a variety of research-intensive courses (independent study, tutorial, honours thesis) and opportunities for research assistantships.
| Lev Blumenfeld | phonology, Optimality Theory, prosody, metrics, Greek and Latin linguistics |
| Randall Gess | phonological theory, historical phonology, phonetics/phonology interface, second language phonology, French linguistics, Romance linguistics, second language teaching, language teacher education |
| Masako Hirotani | psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, syntax-phonology and semantics-phonology interfaces |
| Marie-Odile Junker | theoretical and general linguistics, cognitive semantics, language documentation and description, French and Aboriginal languages (Cree), women and language, information technology applied to language teaching and preservation, Participatory Action Research |
| Kumiko Murasugi | experimental syntax, syntactic theory, Inuktitut, Japanese, aphasia studies |
| Daniel Siddiqi | morphology, syntax, linguistic metatheory |
| Ida Toivonen | syntax, lexical semantics, morphosyntax, Finno-Ugric and Scandinavian languages |