Majoring in Linguistics

Students may major in linguistics for the BA degree at the University of Hawai‘i through the Interdisciplinary Studies Program. In this program, students create for themselves a major with the guidance of two faculty advisers, one in Linguistics and another in Liberal Studies. Course work must consist of an interdisciplinary program that includes the study of linguistics, one or two foreign languages, and/or related disciplines, such as anthropology, computer science, philosophy, or psychology.

Students majoring in linguistics in this way may include some or all of the MA core of courses in their BA programs and are thus able to do more advanced work in their later MA program.

Note that the Liberal Studies Program requires that at least 21 new credits to be counted towards the major be taken AFTER the student has had his or her degree proposal accepted. Most students who declare in their Junior year find no difficulty with this rule. The Interdisciplinary Studies Program has more detailed information on how to design a major.

Students majoring in another discipline may opt to get a certificate in Linguistics.

For more information about majoring in Linguistics, you may contact Professor Patricia Donegan at donegan at hawaii dot edu (replace "at" with "@" and "dot" with "."), or Professor Emanuel Drechsel at drechsel at hawaii dot edu.