Additional Information
For more information about the linguistics minor, contact Thomas Bonfiglio.
Breughel the Elder’s Tower of Babel
Linguistics Program
Linguistics at Richmond is an interdisciplinary program that studies the system of language as a medium of cognition and perception and as a social institution; it enables students to view human culture through the lens of human language. It focuses on such issues as phonetics; word formation; historical linguistics; syntax; semantics; cultural assumptions coded in texts; variation based on region, gender, class, race/ethnicity; how language determines cultural and social categories; and the relationship between language and thought. The linguistics minor combines the study of phenomena from such disciplines as anthropology, modern and ancient literatures and cultures, psychology, and rhetoric and communication.
The Department of Modern Literatures and Cultures offers a minor in linguistics. The minor requires MLC 350: Introductory Linguistics, one full-year of a non-Indo-European language, one 300 or higher level course in a language other than English, and four units of electives chosen from the available course list.
The Linguistics Minor
Note: The grade point average of the coursework comprising the minor must be no less than 2.00.
8 units, including
- MLC 350: Introductory Linguistics
- One full-year sequence chosen from the following non-Indo-European languages:
- ARAB 101-102 Elementary Arabic
- CHIN 101-102 Elementary Chinese
- JAPN 101-102 Elementary Japanese
- SWAH 110-111 Mentored Self-Directed Swahili
- SDLC 110-111: Self-Directed Language Learning I and II: Hebrew, Turkish, or another self-directed language chosen in consultation with the advisor
- One advanced (300 or 400 level) course in a language other than English
- Four units of elective chosen from the following (no more than two of the 100-level and no more than two in the same department):
- ANTH 101 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
- ANTH 211 Ethnographic Field Methods
- ANTH 290 Theoretical Foundations of Cultural Anthropology
- ANTH 300 Sexuality and Gender across Cultures
- CLSC 201 Classical Elements in the English Language
- ENGL 381 Modern Grammar
- FREN 481 Traduction
- MLC 198 Teaching English as a Second Language through Literature and Film
- MLC 352 Language, Race, and Ethnicity
- MLC 362 History of the Romance Languages
- MLC 410 Teaching of a Modern Second Language
- PSYC 333 Cognitive Science
- PSYC 341 Cognitive Neuroscience
- RHCS 103 Rhetorical Theory
- RHCS 104 Interpreting Rhetorical Texts
- RHCS 327 Contemporary Rhetorical Theory
- RHCS 342 Gender and Communication