UCSB语言学系的研究生课程侧重于发现有关世界语言中出现的各种语言结构的一般性，理论上有意义的解释。特别注意语言结构如何随着时间的推移通过认知，文化和使用来形成，以及这些结构又如何在交流和社交互动中得到利用。该系强调以话语为基础和社会基础的方法，我们为研究生提供了一个从理论和实证角度探讨语言的性质和功能的机会。鼓励学生熟悉各种语言的各种结构，以加深他们对语言的理解。这种观点对于理解所有语言共有的更深层次的特征以及它们可能有多种不同的方式至关重要。
The graduate program of the UCSB Department of Linguistics focuses on the discovery of general, theoretically significant explanations for the range of linguistic structures that appear in the world's languages. Special attention is given to how language structures are shaped over time by cognition and use, and how these structures are in turn utilized for interactional, social, and cultural purposes, with a focus on the empirical analysis of language in its natural setting. Students are encouraged to gain breadth and depth in their understanding of language by becoming acquainted with a variety of structures in a wide range of languages. Such a perspective is essential to an appreciation of the deeper characteristics all languages share and the myriad ways they can differ. Graduate courses are offered in all of the core areas of linguistics, with especially rich training and coursework in functional and typological linguistic theory, discourse, corpus linguistics, language and cognition, language documentation and revitalization, sign language linguistics, and sociocultural linguistics. The department has particular strengths in a range of the world's languages and language varieties.