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The curriculum of the Linguistics and Cognitive Science Department offers a
multidisciplinary approach to the study of language and mind. The major features
core
courses in linguistics and cognitive science followed by a choice of two tracks,
one
emphasizing linguistics and the other cognitive science.
Linguistics as a discipline focuses on the scientific study of human language,
its
theoretical, descriptive, social and behavioral bases. It also serves as a
privileged window into human cognition. As such, 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 a unified approach to the human mind and the
nature of intelligent behavior: language, meaning, knowledge, thinking,
perceiving,
remembering 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 formal and informal reasoning skills; the
nature of self and consciousness; and the reception, manipulation, storage and
retrieval of
information within the nervous system.
The Linguistics and Cognitive Science curriculum is a cooperative
intercollegiate
program; linguistics and cognitive science classes taught at the other Claremont
Colleges count as Pomona courses in the completion of the major.
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