2016-17 Pomona College Catalog 
    
    Mar 29, 2024  
2016-17 Pomona College Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG] Use the dropdown above to select the current 2023-24 catalog.

Linguistics and Cognitive Science


Associate Professor Michael Diercks, department chair and Linguistics coordinator
Professor Debby Burke, Cognitive Science coordinator

Professor Burke
Associate Professors Diercks, Paster3
Instructor Melnick
Mellon Chau Postdoctoral Fellow Holliday
Visiting Assistant Professors Johnson, Landman
Karen Nightingale, academic coordinator

 

The curriculum of the Linguistics and Cognitive Science Department offers a multidisciplinary approach to the study of language and mind. The department offers two majors: one in linguistics and the other in cognitive science.

Linguistics as a discipline focuses on the scientific study of human language including its theoretical, descriptive, social and behavioral bases. It also serves as a privileged window into human cognition. Our evolving understanding of language has had, and continues to have, a profound influence on fields as diverse as philosophy, psychology, anthropology, sociology, literature, music and computer science.

Cognitive science is concerned with the human mind and the nature of cognition: language, meaning, knowledge, thinking, perceiving, remembering, emotion, consciousness and other mental phenomena. Central issues in the discipline include the structure, acquisition, use and internal representation of language; the interpretation of sensory experience; the development of reasoning skills; the nature of consciousness; the structure of memory; and the neural basis of cognition.

The Linguistics and Cognitive Science curricula are cooperative intercollegiate programs of the Claremont Colleges; linguistics and cognitive science classes taught at the other Claremont Colleges count as Pomona courses in the completion of the major.

 

1On leave fall 2016 2On leave spring 2017 3On leave 2016-17
     

 

Read more about our learning objectives:
www.pomona.edu/administration/academic-dean/learning-objectives