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Marianne Ignace appointed to Order of British Columbia
“A leading advocate for Indigenous data sovereignty, she helped reshape research ethics by promoting community ownership of oral histories and knowledge.” learn more →
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Term Info: Fall 2026
Need an elective for Fall 2026? Register today! learn more →
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Phoenix Neuscheler wins 2026 CLA Best Student Poster
“Judges mentioned that the presentation of data on the interaction between reduplication and applicatives was fascinating and constituted an impressive feat of elicitation.” learn more →
Hear from our students
Watch videos of our undergraduate students sharing their experiences at LING:
“What I love about linguistics is that language is such a human thing. And what linguistics does is instead of enforcing or prescribing rules for how people should speak, it describes and seeks to understand how languages evolve and develop and how they work.”
— Student of LING 220: Introduction to Linguistics
“My favourite part of this class is developing language games and gaining real-world experience with kids visiting Science World. The course truly brings linguistics to life and you get to see what the science of language is about first hand.”
— Student of LING 350: First Language Acquisition
The science of language
Linguistics is the scientific study of language, including language analytics, how languages evolve, and how we use language to communicate. Linguistic research advances knowledge on how we socialize, how we understand or misunderstand one another, and how we use language to interpret the world around us. Areas of study include sounds (phonetics and phonology), words (morphology), sentences (syntax), pattern and variation analysis (corpus linguistics), narratives and conversations (discourse analysis), meaning (semantics and pragmatics) and the study of individual languages, including Indigenous languages.
SFU Linguistics is one of the largest and most diverse linguistics programs in Canada. We offer a wide range of courses about language at the undergraduate level, including a certificate program in the Linguistics of Speech Science. We also offer graduate programs for MA and PhD degrees. The work conducted in our research labs aims to address questions such as how language is acquired in early childhood, how second languages are acquired, and what insights can be gained from computational analysis of language data.
Career options related to linguistics continue to expand as the value of skills in areas such as natural language processing, discourse analysis, practical application of phonetic science, and sociolinguistic analysis is being recognized in our increasingly data-driven world. Linguistics graduates may choose to work in language analytics, big data processing and management, forensic linguistics, ESL instruction, speech language pathology, and publishing.
News and events
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August 06, 2026
Boey Kwan earns First Class with Distinction and begins career in fintech
“In my everyday life, I constantly feel excited to expand my horizons and challenge the way that I approach puzzles and problems, so that I don't become complacent or stagnant.” -
August 06, 2026
PhD Thesis Defence: Sylvia Cho
Sylvia’s thesis is titled “Cross-language voice variation and talker identity in Korean heritage speakers.” -
August 05, 2026
Phoenix Neuscheler wins 2026 CLA Best Student Poster
“Judges mentioned that the presentation of data on the interaction between reduplication and applicatives was fascinating and constituted an impressive feat of elicitation.” -
August 04, 2026
Marianne Ignace appointed to Order of British Columbia
“A leading advocate for Indigenous data sovereignty, she helped reshape research ethics by promoting community ownership of oral histories and knowledge.” -
July 31, 2026
Melissa Wong shares her journey as a Dean’s Undergraduate Fellow
“I learned that success for even the most powerful and influential people is not always linear, or even intentional, but holding your values close and letting them drive you unconditionally will always pay off in the end.” -
July 29, 2026
Connecting Haida Language Learners Across Borders Through Story
Dr. Jasḵwaan Bedard will detail discoveries made while translating a 1901 document from its original Americanist phonetic notation into X̱aad Kíl. -
July 21, 2026
Drs. Schneider and Vander Klok each awarded Insight Development Grant
Schneider's project is Hul'q'umi'num' Lexical Suffixes: From Building Words to Cohering Oral Paragraphs. Vander Klok's project is Argument/Oblique Alternations Within Applicative Constructions: Insights from Austronesian.