The University of Tokyo Graduate
School of Arts and Sciences
School of Arts and Sciences
Language and Information Sciences
東京大学大学院総合文化研究科言語情報科学専攻
Hearing the phrase 'the study of language', many people may think first of the theoretical study of grammar or meaning. Undoubtedly, language forms a complex system, and those forms of research which shed light on the systematicity of language through the study of grammar or meaning constitute one of the main areas of language studies.
Some studies of linguistic systematicity do not focus on only one language but deal with several languages, and aim to reveal the dimensions of universality and diversity found in those languages (Linguistic Systematicity and Universality/Diversity).
Furthermore, language does not exist independently in itself, but is closely related to society, culture, psychology, and human physiology. As a result, language is appropriately studied from various viewpoints. Scientific studies of language, or language sciences, cover an extremely wide area, and relationships involving various elements are investigated: the relationship between language and society/culture (Language, Society and Culture), the relationship between language and psychology/physiology (Language and Mind/Brain), the relationship between language and human growth or learning (Language Acquisition and Language Loss), and the relationship between language and computers/data processing (Language Processing and Language Production).
In the Graduate Division of Language and Information Sciences, faculty members specializing in various languages actively investigate these various aspects of language, and the complete research program of our graduate division is outstanding within Japan in its comprehensiveness.
