Mount Allison offers several linguistics courses that can be taken as part of your degree.
Like other inquiries which are central to human experience, language has long been the focus of intellectual examination. Speculation on the nature of language appears in the works of Plato, Aristotle and other Greek philosophers.
Although a number of disciplines, from literary studies to computer science, share the study of language with linguistics, the focus of linguistics is the scientific study of language. Linguists are interested in how human language is organized in the human mind and in how the social structures of human communities shape language to their own purposes, reflecting themselves in language use.
Courses
The following courses will be offered during the 2025-26 academic year. For full course listings and course descriptions, visit the Academic Calendar.
Fall 2025
LING 2001: Introduction to the Study of Language
A general-interest course intended to acquaint students in all fields with the structural, social and psychological forces that shape language, beginning with a consideration of the origins and nature of language and proceeding to an examination of languages as systems and the ways they structure meaning.
Winter 2026
LING 3001: Fundamentals of Internal Linguistics
Prereq: Second-year standing; LING 2001; students completing a Major or Honours in Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures will be admitted without LING 2001; or permission of the Department
This course examines the nature and structure of language, the physiology of speech, word formation, theoretical concepts of sentence generation, and the phonological and historical forces involved in language creation and language change. It is recommended for senior students in language and literary studies, and students interested in language pathology. (Format: Lecture 3 Hours) (Exclusion: Any version of LING 3001 previously offered with a different title)