{"id":520,"date":"2015-08-04T11:11:31","date_gmt":"2015-08-04T16:11:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/linguistics\/?page_id=520"},"modified":"2026-01-22T15:39:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T21:39:52","slug":"theoretical-linguistics","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/linguistics\/research-labs\/theoretical-linguistics\/","title":{"rendered":"Theoretical Linguistics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Linguistic theory aims to explain the nature of human language in terms of basic underlying principles. Linguists study the structure of natural languages in order to gain a better understanding of those principles. 51ÁÔÆæ linguists conduct research in core areas of linguistic theory:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Phonetics and phonology: the study of sound systems, sound patterns, and sound structures<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Syntax and semantics: the study of sentence structure and how it constrains meaning and interpretation<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Morphology: the study of word structure and its connections with sound and sentence structure<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Language acquisition (first and second language)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Historical linguistics and language change<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>51ÁÔÆæ Linguistics faculty are internationally recognized for their scholarly contributions, and our students conduct cutting-edge research in all areas of theoretical linguistics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Linguistic theory aims to explain the nature of human language in terms of basic underlying principles. Linguists study the structure of natural languages in order to gain a better understanding of those principles. 51ÁÔÆæ linguists conduct research in core areas &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5995,"featured_media":0,"parent":7455,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"class_list":["post-520","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Linguistics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/linguistics\/research-labs\/theoretical-linguistics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Theoretical Linguistics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Linguistic theory aims to explain the nature of human language in terms of basic underlying principles. 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