2026-2027 Course Catalog

Source: https://catalog.illinois.edu/undergraduate/las/linguistics-balas/ Parent: https://catalog.illinois.edu/undergraduate/

for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences in Linguistics

Linguistics is the systematic study of human language, its social functions, and its cognitive foundations. Linguists use empirical methods to answer theoretical questions about how languages are structured, how they are used for communication, how they evolved as symbolic systems, and how they change over time. Linguists then apply this scientific understanding to practical problems like how to best teach languages, how to develop effective language technology, and how to maintain knowledge of less common minority languages.

for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences in Linguistics

A Major Plan of Study Form must be completed and submitted to the LAS Student Affairs Office before the end of the fifth semester (60-75 hours). Please see your adviser.

Departmental distinction: Students are strongly encouraged to fulfill the requirements for completing their program with distinction. Candidates for the degree with distinction must register their candidacy with their advisers no later than the end of the second semester of the junior year. They must achieve a grade point average of at least 3.4 for the required 36 hours in linguistics, and register for at least 4 hours of LING 391 - Honors Individual Study, plus submit a senior honors thesis to the Department of Linguistics by the first day of the month preceding the month of graduation.

Graduation Requirements

Minimum hours required for graduation: 120 hours.

Minimum hours required major and supporting course work: normally equates to 50-52 hours. Twelve hours of 300- and 400-level courses in the major must be taken on this campus.

University Requirements

The university and residency requirements can be found in the Student Code (§ 3-801) and in the Academic Catalog.

General Education Requirements

Follows the campus General Education (Gen Ed) requirements. Some Gen Ed requirements may be met by courses required and/or electives in the program.

Course List

 | Code | Title | Hours |

| --- | --- | --- | | Composition I | | 4-6 | | Advanced Composition | | 3 | | fulfilled by LING 301 | | | | Humanities & the Arts (6 hours) | | 6 | | Natural Sciences & Technology (6 hours) | | 6 | | Social & Behavioral Sciences (6 hours) | | 6 | | fulfilled by LING 100 and LING 225 or LING 250 | | | | Cultural Studies: Non-Western Cultures (1 course) | | 3 | | Cultural Studies: US Minority Cultures (1 course) | | 3 | | Cultural Studies: Western/Comparative Cultures (1 course) | | 3 | | Quantitative Reasoning (2 courses, at least one course must be Quantitative Reasoning I) | | 6-10 | | Language Requirement (Completion of the fourth semester or equivalent of a language other than English, or completion of the third semester in two different languages other than English is required) | | 0-20 |

Major Requirements

Course List

 | Code | Title | Hours |

| --- | --- | --- | | Major core courses: | | 18 | | LING 100 | Intro to Language Science | | | LING 210 | Language History | | | LING 301 | Elements of Syntax | | | LING 302 | Elements of Phonology | | | LING 307 | Elmnts Semantics & Pragmatics | | | LING 401 | Intro to General Phonetics | | | Select one of the following: | | 3 | | LING 225 | Language, Mind, and Brain | | | LING 250 | American Voices: Linguistic Diversity in the US | | | Major electives: 15 hours of Linguistics courses at the 200- to 400-level, chosen in consultation with the student's advisor | | 15 | | Students must fulfill the LAS foreign language requirement, and in addition, complete at least 8 hours in a second foreign language. One of these languages must be a non-Western language chosen from the following list or approved in consultation with the student's advisor: American Sign Language, Arabic, Bamana, Basque, Chinese, Hebrew, Hindi/Urdu, Japanese, Korean, Lingala, Persian, Quechua, Sanskrit, Swahili, Turkish, Wolof, Zulu. Courses used to complete this requirement may also be used to meet the requirement of "Courses in linguistically relevant areas," below. | | 8-10 | | Courses in linguistically relevant areas chosen in consultation with the student's advisor. There are two ways of meeting this requirement: | | 14 | | A. The courses may come from any of the following disciplines: any foreign language, anthropology, classics, computer science, English, English as an international language, philosophy, psychology, speech and hearing science, communication. | | | | B. Students desiring to specialize in the linguistics of a particular language should complete at least four semesters of instruction in that language beyond the elementary level, and a linguistics course or independent study focusing on the selected language or its language family. | | |

for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences in Linguistics

Sample Sequence

This sample sequence is intended to be used only as a guide for degree completion. All students should work individually with their academic advisors to decide the actual course selection and sequence that works best for them based on their academic preparation and goals. Enrichment programming such as study abroad, minors, internships, and so on may impact the structure of this four-year plan. Course availability is not guaranteed during the semester indicated in the sample sequence.

Students must fulfill their Language Other Than English requirement by successfully completing a fourth level of a language other than English. See the corresponding section on the Degree and General Education Requirements page.

Total Hours: 120

for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences in Linguistics

Upon completion of the Linguistics degree, students will be able to:

1. Analyze the phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic systems of language.
2. Compare how these systems vary across languages and change over time.
3. Formulate hypotheses about how languages are processed, how they are learned, and how they express social identity.
4. Apply linguistics to solve practical problems like how to teach languages effectively or how to implement language technologies.
5. Describe linguistic analyses and defend them using reproducible empirical evidence.

for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences in Linguistics

Department of Linguistics

Department of Linguistics Faculty\ Department of Linguistics Advising

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

College of LAS admissions & requirements