BA Linguistics
About this course
Linguistics is the scientific study of language, and it is a discipline that touches on some of the most fundamental questions about human nature and cognition. Language is everywhere: it shapes how we think, how we communicate, how we form communities, and how we understand ourselves and others. Linguistics investigates the structure of languages, how speech sounds are produced and perceived, how words and sentences are organised, how meaning is constructed and conveyed, and how language varies across communities, changes over time, and is acquired by children and learners. At the University of Manchester, the BA Linguistics gives you the tools to explore language as an everyday phenomenon that operates at both individual and global scales. You will study phonetics and phonology, morphology and syntax, semantics and pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and psycholinguistics, developing both theoretical understanding and analytical skill across the full breadth of the discipline. Manchester has a strong linguistics research environment, and the degree benefits from faculty working at the forefront of research in areas including language acquisition, computational linguistics, and the social dimensions of language variation. The three-year full-time programme does not include a placement year or year abroad, allowing you to focus fully on your academic development throughout. Linguistics graduates are valued across a wide range of careers because the discipline trains you to think precisely about language and communication, which is relevant wherever language matters, and that is almost everywhere. Speech and language therapy, language teaching, translation and interpreting, computational linguistics and natural language processing, publishing, education, the civil service, and human-computer interaction are all fields that draw on linguistics expertise. Many graduates also pursue postgraduate study in linguistics, applied linguistics, language acquisition, or related fields, and the degree provides a strong foundation for doctoral research in any area of language science. The typical entry tariff is 136 points.
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