Department of Linguistics

The Department of Linguistics at UMass Amherst offers:

• a top-ranked PhD program in theoretical linguistics
• M.A. program in theoretical linguistics for currently enrolled B.A. students at one of the Five Colleges (Amherst, Hampshire, Mt. Holyoke, Smith, Umass Amherst)
• an undergraduate Linguistics major, joint majors in Anthropology, Chinese, German, Japanese, Philosophy, Psychology and Russian*, a minor, and a certificate in American English Linguistics
• innovative undergraduate and graduate level courses, including general education and online courses

We are a center for research in the core areas of theoretical linguistics:

• Semantics
• Phonology
• Syntax
• Psycholinguistics
• Phonetics
• Language acquisition
• Prosody
• Morphology

Many members of the department also explore interdisciplinary connections between linguistic theory and other fields of inquiry, such as speech physiology and perception, philosophy of language, psychology, and cognitive science.