Course summary

Are you interested in the structure, history and evolution of the human language? Our BA in Linguistics will give you a strong understanding of the essential building blocks of the human language: structure (syntax), sound (phonetics and phonology) and meaning (semantics), along with a grounding in sociolinguistics (for example, differences between region, class, gender) and the variations of language. You’re free to choose from a variety of modules in your second year, such as psycholinguistics, language acquisition and the acoustic analysis of speech. You’ll develop the practical skill of transcribing languages using the International Phonetic Alphabet, and master qualitative and quantitative social sciences research methods to prepare you for your final year dissertation. You’ll undertake original data analysis for your dissertation, focusing on an area of linguistics that interests you most: you could examine bilingual brain behaviour, investigate communication disorders and speech therapy, or work with a native speaker of an endangered language.