Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. The focus of research and teaching in the linguistics program at Western is on theoretical and applied linguistics, bringing together an inter-faculty group of researchers for a truly interdisciplinary approach to the discipline. Learn More

Undergraduate

The inter-faculty Program in Linguistics allows Western students from any Faculty to study Linguistics either on its own or in combination with another subject.


Graduate

The M.A. Program can be summed up in terms of Linguistics at Western not as formal, nor social, nor applied, but as all of these: the humanistic and scientific study of language as an abstract system of symbols that is known and used.


News and Events

Linguistic Talk

March 14, 2024, 3:00pm (TALL University College Room: 3127)

Prof. Jacques Lamarche (Western University): Morphological Irregularities: Exceptions that Prove the Rules 

Abstract: In this presentation, he will explore the idea that morphological irregularities (e.g., the irregular plural forms like man~men and ox~oxen that contrast with the regular plural cat~cats, or the extreme case of morphological suppletion like go~went or be~am~is~etc.) have a natural function in natural language if we assume that model of grammar where syntactic rules operate on the formal (i.e., phonological) parts of lexemes. 

Under this view, words are labels – forms recognized as part of the lexicon of a language because they apply to realities defined outside the grammar – and grammar is understood as a logic of labeling.

Presenting an analysis of basic distinctions in English to illustrate, he will show how certain grammatical values covertly introduced by rules of composition are related to overt irregularities in the morphology of the language. The analysis leads to see morphological Irregularities in English as the Exceptions that Prove the Rules


Intent to Register 2024

Intent to register will run from March 1 - March 31, 2024 this year. Please visit our website for more information on our courses offered. 


 

Highlights

WISSLR

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  • Western Interdisciplinary Student Symposium on Language Research

TALL Laboratory

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  • The TALL laboratory provides the electronic and technical infrastructure essential to the pursuit of leading edge linguistics research.