The Berkeley Linguistics Department - Courses and Degrees Linguistics is the general study of language. It addresses those features which all 5,000 languages have in common, and the ways in which languages may differ from one another, and the ways in which languages change over time. In Linguistics, you will learn how language is processed in the brain (cognitive science), sounds and their patterns (phonetics), word structure (morphology), sentence structure (syntax), meaning (semantics), how languages evolve over time (comparative and historical linguistics), and how language is used in society (sociolinguistics). The study of Linguistics teaches students to think analytically and to solve problems enabling them to successfully pursue diverse career tracks. Linguistics at Berkeley offers students a unique opportunity to study an interesting and challenging discipline in one of the world’s leading intellectual centers. While the Linguistics Department is a relatively small department, our faculty are leaders in their specialized fields. This means that UC Berkeley students get the best of both worlds—a world-class university located in a sophisticated urban environment, and, at the same time, easy access to faculty and staff for help in the major or advice on how to deal with classes, grades, and the university environment in general. All this makes Linguistics at Berkeley an excellent learning environment.