Undergraduate Programme (BA)

The undergraduate programme in General Linguistics permits students to combine in a single field a variety of Arts and Social Science subjects and to develop their analytic skills in depth. Students are encouraged to explore with members of staff the many relationships of linguistics with other fields in order to discover the programme that best suits their individual goals and interests.

In the Department of Linguistics, students can investigate a variety of different languages and through such investigations, come to a better understanding of the shared structure and broad variation of the world’s languages. The BA programme provides a firm foundation so that those students who wish to do so can go on to pursue advanced studies in linguistics or go into a professional career in areas as diverse as teaching, marketing and public relations, journalism, publishing, international affairs and so forth.

The department offers a major and a minor in Linguistics. Detailed information on required coursework in the BA programme in linguistics can be found in the BA course syllabus and here. If you are majoring in Linguistics, we recommend you to choose one of several streams (concentrations) when selecting your courses. For an overview of courses offered this Below follows a summary of coursework requirements for the major and minor in Linguistics:

Major in General Linguistics:

(Applicable to students cohort 2022-23 onwards)
Students majoring in General Linguistics are required to complete 72 credits of Linguistics courses, including

• LING1000 “Introduction to language” (6 credits), with a grade C- or above;
• LING2004 “Phonetics” and LING2050 “Grammatical descriptions” (12 credits);
• one of the following courses (6 credits):
  LING2009 “Languages of the world”
  LING2034 “Psycholinguistics”
  LING2056 “Sociolinguistics”; and
• 48 credits of levels 2000 and 3000 levels advanced Linguistics courses, including at least one capstone course.

(Applicable to students cohort 2021-22 and before)
Students majoring in General Linguistics are required to complete 72 credits of Linguistics courses, including

• LING1000 with a grade C- or above, and 18 credits (three courses) from the following courses: LING2004. Phonetics, LING2009. Languages of the world, LING2034. Psycholinguistics, LING2050. Grammatical description, and LING2056. Sociolinguistics; and
• 48 credits (eight courses) of Advanced courses, including at least 6 credits (one course) of a Capstone course.

Students should enroll in the ‘English in the Discipline’ course for Linguistics. This course provides a learning experience which combines English enhancement with the acquisition of disciplinary knowledge and skills

Minor in General Linguistics

(Applicable to students cohort 2022-23 onwards)
Students minoring in General Linguistics are required to complete 36 credits of Linguistics courses, including

• LING1000 “Introduction to language” (6 credits), with a grade D or above;
• two of the following courses (12 credits):
  LING2004 “Phonetics”
  LING2009 “Languages of the world”
  LING2034 “Psycholinguistics”
  LING2050 “Grammatical descriptions”
  LING2056 “Sociolinguistics”; and
• 18 credits of level 2000 advanced Linguistics courses.

(Applicable to students cohort 2021-22 and before)
Students minoring in General Linguistics are required to complete 36 credits of Linguistics courses, including

• LING1000 with a grade D or above, and 12 credits (two courses) from the following courses: LING2004. Phonetics, LING2009. Languages of the world, LING2034. Psycholinguistics, LING2050. Grammatical description, and LING2056. Sociolinguistics; and
• 18 credits (three courses) of Advanced courses.

For a list of available courses this academic year (2024/25), please go to this page.