Majors and Requirements

Undergraduate Program Director: Vincent Homer

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How to declare a major, joint major, or minor in linguistics

The Department of Linguistics offers a linguistics major, a minor, and several interdisciplinary majors in which the study of linguistics forms a significant part of the curriculum, including a Computational Linguistics major (see below).

To declare a major, fill out the major declaration form (you will need to be signed into your UMass account to access the form). To declare a minor in linguistics, fill out the minor declaration Google form (you will need to be signed into your UMass account to access the form). 

Majors/joint majors

Click on the specific major/joint major to view requirements.

Linguistics Linguistics Computational Linguistics Computational Linguistics Linguistics and Japanese Linguistics and Japanese Linguistics and Philosophy Linguistics and Philosophy Linguistics and Portuguese Linguistics and Portuguese Linguistics and Psychology Linguistics and Psychology Linguistics and Spanish Linguistics and Spanish

Integrative Experience requirement

See major requirements for the individual joint majors for courses other than Linguistics courses that satisfy the Integrative Experience (IE) requirement. 

IE courses offered in linguistics include:

  • LING 389 (Intro to African American English, offered semi-regularly. LING 201 prereq)
  • LING 394BI (Language and Cognition, currently offered every Spring semester. LING 201 prereq)
  • LING 404 (Field Methods, offered semi-regularly. LING 201, 301, 302 prereqs)
  • LING 412 (Language Processing and the Brain, currently offered every Fall semester. LING 201 prereq)
  • LING 470 (Sounds of Englishes, fulfills IE requirement as of Spring 2027. LING 201, 302 prereqs)

Junior Year Writing requirement

The Junior Year Writing (JYW) requirement is met by taking LINGUIST 405 (formerly numbered 305, which is currently offered every semester) or LINGUIST 350 (sporadically offered). The JYW requirement does not need to be satisfied in your junior year.   Note that LINGUIST 405 requires LING 201, 301, and 302 as prerequisites. 

PHIL 400 used to also be offered as a JYW course but is not expected to be offered anymore for the foreseeable future as of 2025.