Linguistics
By Neda Mostafavi
Published: 13 August 2004
What do you come out with? BA
Why do it? Because you were good at French at school or have foreign languages in your background. Or perhaps you did English at A-level but were more interested in the language than the literature. Above all, you're fascinated by language, how it works and how we use it. Apparently, a lot of budding linguists have been inspired by the theories of Noam Chomsky - or more recently Stephen Pinker, who wrote Words and Rules and The Language Instinct - and so should have a much better idea of what they are letting themselves in for.
What's it about? There are three main components of linguistics: syntax, or the structure of language; phonetics and phonology, analysing the sounds of language; and semantics, the study of meaning. But once you've looked at the nuts and bolts, you'll move on to explore how language works in the human mind, society, and the world at large. It's a heady mix of art, science and philosophy, with an increasing amount of computation thrown in. It also deals with what properties are common to individual languages (in other words universal grammar for the experts).
How long is a degree? Often four years, since many people study linguistics with a foreign language, and so spend a year abroad. Otherwise,it's three.
What are the students like? Serious and scholarly, but with an artistic side. They like a bit of speculation and philosophical debate, are said to be intellectually curious, and are more prone to use words of more than two syllables than most. More usually female than male. Often quite a common subject with mature students.
How is it packaged? You'll be assessed using a mix of coursework and exams. At Manchester, you'll also have to make oral and group presentations. In the earlier years at York the exam makes up the majority of the assessment, whereas in the later years this shifts to project work and extended essays.
How cool is it? Increasingly so, especially since Pinker hit the bestseller lists. Becoming more of a mainstream option due to the theories of language that have emerged since the Seventies.
What A-levels do you need? Usually a foreign language. University College London would be pleased to see maths and English, too. At York and Essex you are only required to take a language A level if your degree is combined with that language. English language has recently become quite a common A level among applicants.
What grades? BBB at Manchester, or AAB if you combine it with English. BBC at the School of Oriental and African Studies, Essex and UCL. ABB at York with one of the Bs in the language you intend to study if yours is a joint course. CC or CCD at Westminster.
Will you be interviewed? Yes at UCL and Oxford. Not at York or Essex. Only mature or transferring students at Westminster.
Will it keep you off the dole? Pretty much. Some go into related areas like speech therapy, working with the deaf, language teaching or Tefl work abroad, or even lexicography; others move into all the usual areas for arts graduates, particularly those where language awareness is useful, such as advertising and marketing. A recent graduate of Westminster went on to work in the pronunciation department at the BBC. One of York's recent graduates set up her own software company and was even nominated as Businesswoman of the Year.
What do students say? Joleen Murray, in her 2nd year of English Language and Linguistics at Essex. "It is so in depth, it really opens your eyes to what goes on in language, and shows you how we use it."
Gyto Pugh, 20, who is studying at Edinburgh. "Linguistics is quite vigorous and there is some groundwork, such as the phonetic alphabet, to cover before it gets more interesting. I particularly enjoyed the social and historical sides, but it is still quite a scientific course." Juliette Spurling, who graduated from Essex in 2004, where she studied English Language and Linguistics. "I really enjoyed the degree, I started off with just an interest in Linguistics, but now I'm thinking of going into speech therapy."
Where's best for teaching? Lancaster got 23 out of 24. Thames Valley, UCL, Central Lancashire, Durham, Newcastle, Sheffield, Roehampton and Sussex got 22.
Where's best for research? Cambridge, Oxford, Queen Mary and UCL were rated 5*; Durham, Essex, Lancaster, Manchester, Newcastle, Westminster, York and Edinburgh got a high-rated 5; Sussex got a 4.
Where's the cutting edge? Manchester is big on language typology, historical linguistics, and syntax. UCL excels in theoretical syntax, language acquisition, and pragmatics and relevance theory. SOAS is strong on African and Asian linguistics. York specialises in conversation analysis, which explores how people manage to hold conversations looking at certain signals and roles of the conversors. They are also interested in Linguistic variation, which deals with the varieties of styles we all use and change depending on who we're talking to. The question of the evolution of language is big at Essex. At Westminster it's neurolinguistics, which deals with language in the brain.
Who are the stars? Professor Anna Davies (comparative philology), Professor Steve Pulman (computational linguistics and Professor Suzanne Romaine (Romance linguistics and sociolinguistics) at Oxford. At Manchester, Dr Yaron Matras (minority languages), Dr William Croft (language typology), Professor Nigel Vincent (historical linguistics). Professor Deirdre Wilson, (inventor of relevance theory), Professor John Wells (pronunciation), Professor Neil Smith (syntax and language acquisition) and Professor Dick Hudson (theoretical syntax) all at UCL. At York, Professor John Local for phonetics of conversation. Professor Andrew Radford for his work on syntax, Professor Martin Atkinson in the field of language acquisition and at Essex. Professor Ruth Kempson is an expert in philosophy of language at King's College London. At Edinburgh it's Professor Jim Hurford in language evolution.
Related courses: At most universities, you can combine it with a foreign language, although at UCL you are now restricted to Italian or cognitive science. At Manchester you can team it up with English, sociology, anthropology or philosophy, while SOAS lets you combine it with "just about anything".
Added value: Manchester offers an interesting course in experimental phonetics, treating sounds of speech like physical objects and using computers to analyse them. SOAS has a popular option in language, society and community, and will soon be offering the chance to do part of the degree at UCLA in Los Angeles.
