Empirical Linguistics – What is it?
Language is everywhere. Whether we’re chatting with friends, laughing at jokes, or getting annoyed by a train delay announcement, language surrounds us. Many things can only be done through language (including gestures). Around 7,000 different languages are spoken worldwide (for now, as many of them are endangered).
We speak our native language(s) fairly well and can tell when something sounds right or completely wrong. However, it’s often hard for us to explain why that is. Linguistics (or the science of language) focuses on exactly this. Languages themselves become the subject of investigation. How do different languages vary? What do they have in common? What structures underlie them, and how do we learn to speak and understand? These are just a few of the questions explored in linguistics.
The research areas of the four professorships at the Institute for Empirical Linguistics align closely with the study focuses offered at the institute: General Comparative Linguistics, Indo-European Linguistics, Caucasian Linguistics, Baltic Linguistics, as well as Phonetics and Phonology. What unites all professorships is empirical research. Whether spoken or written, whether living or extinct languages, the research draws on a wide range of language sources. Language documentation is also a key focus at our institute.
The degree program in Empirical Linguistics (as a major or minor, in the bachelor's or master's degree program) at Goethe University offers many advantages:
- Direct connection between research and teaching
- Choice of 16 focus areas
- Language diversity (about 30 living and about 20 historical languages)
- Historical diversity
- Practical focus (field research; language documentation)
- Excellent supervision