Programme Description

This course focuses on the core issues of linguistic theory and linguistic description and the detailed study of the linguistic structure of a particular language. The choice of language teaching available in a particular year is likely to range over the following: English, Dutch, German, Germanic, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Old Latin, Vulgar Latin, Romance, Greek, Russian, Slavic, Semitic and Turkic amongst others.

All taught MA students are required to attend the Linguistics Seminar, which takes place usually fortnightly, on Tuesdays, from 4-5.30pm. The Seminar is the principal academic event of the Linguistics and English Language research community within the School. Presentations are given both by staff and by invited speakers from outside the university.

Course aimsThe MA in Languages and Linguistics aims to give students a grounding in breadth and depth in Linguistics and the value of linguistic theory for understanding a specific language or family of languages, by exploring the central features of linguistic theory: its history, objectives, principal theoretical frameworks, methodologies, contested areas and uncontested results. Students will gain experience of excellence in teaching and learning at an advanced level, in an environment where they will benefit from the fact that the School is also home to world-leading research in Linguistics. In-depth understanding of specific language(s) taught in the School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures will be developed.Module detailsPlease note, some information in this section will change for 2009 entry. For details of postgraduate course units currently on offer, please refer to the MA in Linguistics and English Language 2008-2009 Programme Handbook.

This MA comprises the compulsory core course units in either Introduction to Grammatical Theory (15 credits), or Phonetics and Phonology (15 credits), Research Methods I and II (30 credits), a dissertation (60 credits), and optional course units (75 credits altogether) which normally include course units from one of the participating disciplines of French, German, Italian, Middle Eastern Studies or Spanish and Portuguese. One or two course units may take the form of `Directed Reading' course units, available after consultation with an appropriate member of staff and the Course Director. One or two course units may also be taken as adapted Level-3 undergraduate course units in Linguistics and English Language, which supplement the course units on offer at MA level.

Optional course units available typically include:

* Language Change
* Sociolinguistics
* Language and Society
* Psycholinguistics
* Issues in Turkic Linguistics
* Language and Totalitarianism in Germany 1933-1989
* Interactional Pragmatics in French-speaking Contexts
* Spanish as a Pluricentric Language