Course summary

The MPhil by Advanced Study is offered by the Linguistics Section within the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics (MMLL) as a full-time period of study and research, and introduces students to research skills and specialist knowledge. The course aims:

• to provide students with the necessary background in linguistic theory and related topics at an intermediate and advanced level using a range of approaches and methodologies;

• to give students the opportunity to acquire expertise in their specific research interests in part by offering the opportunity of specialisation through pathways in the linguistics of particular languages;

• to provide foundations for continuation to PhD research;

• to offer the opportunity to participate in the research culture within and beyond the Faculty, for example within the Language Sciences community, by attending and contributing to postgraduate seminars and reading groups; and

• to develop the research skills required to conduct independent research such as:

• formulating a realistic research proposal, with suitably delineated aims, objectives, methods and scope;

• preparing written work based on the proposal;

• mastering the construction of a valid theoretical argument;

• selecting and mastering suitable research methods;

• collecting relevant bibliography;

• using computer databases and corpora;

• using the relevant software, including statistical packages where appropriate; and

• presenting well-argued academic material to the wider research community.