Linguistics is a modern and rapidly growing discipline, with roots in the traditional fields of grammar, rhetoric, and logic, as well as in anthropology and the study of specific ancient and modern languages. A major focus of linguistics today is the study of the common properties of the world's languages, which number about five thousand. Students also focus on the unique properties of individual languages in order to reach a deeper understanding of those properties and of the people who speak those languages. |
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The linguistics major can lead to jobs in business, particularly international business, public relations, software design and marketing, English as a Second Language teaching and research, foreign language teaching and research, health-related professions such as speech pathology and language disorders, industrial research and development (in speech recognition, natural language processing, text analysis and interpretation, electronic dictionary design and preparation, artificial intelligence), college teaching and research, and law. Some of these fields require appropriate graduate study. |