Linguistics Major - General

NOTE: Students who enrolled at UCSD prior to Fall 2026 have the option to complete their degree under an earlier set of requirements. Please see these details about the old requirements and a list of frequently asked questions. 

• Completion of 12 upper division courses with C- or better (exception: up to four combined units of LIGN-188R, LIGN-195, or LIGN-199 taken for pass/no pass may count towards the major. In order to satisfy the upper-division course requirements, students who enroll in one of these courses for just two units are advised to enroll for another two units in any of these courses in a subsequent quarter.)
• At least 6 of the 12 major courses must be taken in residence at UC San Diego.

All Linguistics Majors must demonstrate proficiency in one one non-English natural language by one of the following:

1. pass a reading proficiency exam and oral interview administered by the Linguistics department in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Farsi, Tagalog, Portuguese, Vietnamese, or American Sign Language. It may be possible to take a proficiency exam in a language other than these.
2. earn a C- or higher in a course given at UC San Diego representing the fourth quarter of instruction in any non-English natural language.
3. score 4 or higher on the Advanced Placement (AP) exam in a non-English natural language.

Students should consult with the Linguistics Department's Undergraduate Advisors (linginfo-g@ucsd.edu) about this requirement.

Students with native language competence in a language other than English may petition to have English count as satisfying the proficiency requirement.

7 linguistic analysis and breadth courses: 

2 introductory courses in linguistic analysis: 

LIGN-102: Linguistic Analysis: Phonetics, phonology, and morphology

LIGN-103: Linguistic Analysis: Syntax, semantics, and pragmatics

1 introductory course in phonetics, phonology, or morphology from the following list:

LIGN-110: Phonetics

LIGN-111: Phonology I

LIGN-120: Morphology

1 introductory course in syntax, semantics, or pragmatics from the following list:

LIGN-121: Syntax I

LIGN-130: Semantics

LIGN-160: Pragmatics

1 course each from 3 of the 4 following areas (no course may count more than once):

Computational Linguistics

LIGN-117: The Language Code

LIGN-165: Computational Linguistics

LIGN-167: Deep Learning for Natural Language Understanding

LIGN-168: Computational Speech Processing

LIGN-169: Information Theory in Linguistics

Crosslinguistic Variation

LIGN-108: Languages of Africa

LIGN-139: Field Methods

LIGN-141: Language Structures

LIGN-142: Language Typology

LIGN-143: The Structure of Spanish

LIGN-148: The Psycholinguistics of Gesture and Sign Languages

LIGN-152: Indigenous Languages of the Americas

LIGN-177: Multilingualism

Language and Cognition

LIGN-119: First and Second Language Learning: From Childhood through Adolescence

LIGN-148: The Psycholinguistics of Gesture and Sign Languages

LIGN-154: Language and Consciousness

LIGN-155: Evolution of Language

LIGN-170: Psycholinguistics: Experimental Approaches to Language and Cognition

LIGN-171: Child Language Acquisition

LIGN-179: Second Language Acquisition Research

LIGN-180: Language Representation in the Brain

LIGN-181: Language Processing in the Brain

Language and Society

LIGN-105: Law & Language

LIGN-146: Sociolinguistics in Deaf Communities

LIGN-174: Gender and Language in Society

LIGN-175: Sociolinguistics

LIGN-176: Language of Politics and Advertising

LIGN-177: Multilingualism

LIGN-178: Spanish Sociolinguistics

Four linguistics electives:

• any four upper-division LIGN courses that have not been used to satisfy the Linguistic Analysis and Breadth requirements.

One additional linguistics elective or upper-division course in another department pertaining to the study of language. Courses currently approved to satisfy this requirement include:

• electives for the cognition and language major (except PSYC-105)
• electives for the language and society major (Note: some of these courses may have prerequisites)
• an upper-division heritage language (LIHL) course offered in the Heritage Language Program).