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Knowledge systems course: linguistics

Instilling in our students an understanding of both language-based activities and the senses/emotions that underpin our actions and intelligence, from a scientific perspective that goes beyond the realm of the traditional humanities. Through this process, we aim to nurture individuals who contribute to a new perspective of what being human is all about.

About the Program

Language is a phenomenon that lies at the very heart of human intellectual activities. As a branch of empirical science, linguistics inquiries into the structure of a particular language, how it functions, and how it is learnt and used. Alongside research on individual languages such as Japanese and English, linguistics also covers a wide range of fields including phonology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics and applied linguistics. Phonology is concerned with the system of sounds and their regularities, while syntax examines how words are put together to construct sentences. Semantics is a study of the meaning of words or sentences, and pragmatics is a study of contextual meaning and inference. Applied linguistics is concerned with issues such as second language acquisition and the teaching methods of language. There are a number of theoretical approaches in linguistics, including generative grammar and cognitive linguistics. Our linguistics program offers an educational curriculum that covers a wide range of fields and theoretical approaches in linguistics.

Academic Staff