New linguistics minor course requirements
In December 2021 the university approved a new set of requirements for the linguistics minor.
The new minor requirements below apply to the following students:
- New Students who are admitted to UCB in Fall 2022 and thereafter
Overview of minor requirements
The new minor course requirements consists of the following four components:
- 1 lower division linguistics course: Ling 3, Ling 5, Ling 55AC, or any other lower division linguistics course
- Ling 55AC:The American Languages will be offered regularly and is the recommended course for students who have already taken Ling 100
- The lower division course must be 3 or more units (so freshman seminars are excluded)
- Transfer students may seek transfer credit for linguistics courses taken at other institutions equivalent to lower division courses
- Linguistics 100 or Linguistics W100 (the online summer course offered by UCB summer sessions)
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- Students must earn a C or better in Linguistics 100 to declare the major
3. 2 courses from different upper division course bins (of the five bins below)
4. 2 upper division elective courses
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- 1 course can be taken from the list of pre-approved electives
Additional rules:
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Binned courses and Linguistics 100 must be taken at UC Berkeley
It is often helpful for students to plan their program of study with a departmental Undergraduate Advisor, who can assist in planning the timing of required courses and in the selection of electives. You may also use the Linguistics Minor Requirement Worksheet to assist with planning your courses.
Upper division course bins
Students completing the minor must take at least 1 course from 2 different bins of the 5 bins below, ensuring breadth of training. Most regularly taught upper-division courses that survey a subfield of linguistics are included in the following five bins.
- 4-unit courses are marked by a preceding asterisk (*).
- Italicized courses are typically offered in the spring, non-italicized courses are typically offered in the fall.
Bin 1. Language and mind: *105:Cognitive Linguistics, 108:Psycholinguistics, 109: Bilingualism, C142:Language and Thought
Bin 2. Sociolinguistics and historical linguistics: *130:Comparative and Historical Linguistics, 150:Sociolinguistics
Bin 3. Phonetics and phonology: *110:Phonetics, *111:Phonology
Bin 4. Morphosyntax: *115:Morphology, *120:Syntax
Bin 5. Meaning: *106:Metaphor, *121:Formal semantics, 123:Pragmatics
- Courses must be taken at UC Berkeley to satisfy the binned course requirement.
- Additional binned courses beyond the four required courses can count towards the upper division electives requirement.
Scheduling notes:
- The department will offer at least one course from each bin every year.
- The department will offer at least four binned courses each semester, alternating courses, and will attempt to ensure that these four offerings cover four distinct bins.
Elective requirements
In addition to the five core courses, 10-13 upper division units of electives, taken for a letter grade, are required. The number of upper division units of electives is dependent on the number of units satisfied by binned courses; 30 total units, including Linguistics 100, must be taken.
At most five pre-approved courses in other departments can count towards the linguistics major. The remaining elective units must come from upper-division course offerings within the Linguistics Department, and can include binned courses beyond the one course required from that bin.
Declaring the Minor:
- Students should declare the Minor after they have completed Linguistics 100 with a 'C' grade or better by submitting the Minor Completion form (link is external)at LingMajorAdvisor@berkeley.edu(link sends e-mail) .
- The minor must be declared no later than one semester before a student's Expected Graduation Term (EGT). If the semester before EGT is fall or spring, the deadline is the last day of RRR week. If the semester before EGT is summer, the deadline is the final Friday of Summer Sessions.