MA Linguistics

The School's next Open Day will be held on the afternoon of  Wednesday, 8 May . The event will enable you to:

• Discover more about course content through subject specific talks or taster sessions.

• Meet academics and current students and find out more about life as a postgraduate student at Manchester.

• Explore available funding options and find out how to apply.

• Take a tour of our dedicated Graduate School and our award-winning cultural venues.

• Find out more about our world-leading research.

Please Register via our Eventbrite page .

If you have any questions about the event, please  contact us  at MASALC@manchester.ac.uk or by phoning 0161 306 1259.

Please refer to the following School page regarding subject-specific requirements. These are in addition to the basic prerequisites as shown under entry requirements:     

http://www.alc.manchester.ac.uk/study/masters/applying/

For references, please email the following link to your referees:

References for master's applications

They will submit your references directly to us and we will add them to your application.

Please use the  Online Application Form   to apply. Once you register, you can search for the course to which you wish to apply and upload the required supporting documents towards the end of this process.

Please note that this course teaches during business hours and does not offer distance learning.

The part-time mode of attendance aims to concentrate contact time onto two days.

Our MA Linguistics master's course is a flexible programme that aims to explore the breadth and the depth of linguistics.

It builds on the widest range of teaching and research expertise, covering all aspects of theoretical and descriptive linguistics, including:

• phonetics
• phonology
• morphology
• syntax
• semantics
• pragmatics
• discourse and conversation analysis
• typology
• historical linguistics
• sociolinguistics
• cognitive linguistics and psycholinguistics
• computational and corpus linguistics
• field linguistics
• the documentation and description of endangered languages.

Our teaching staff work on various practical applications of linguistics (eg language codification and language policy, institutional language, language in the community, forensic linguistics).

Our internationally-recognised expertise encompasses a breadth of languages, including English and other Germanic languages, Romance languages, Russian, Polish, Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, Kurdish and other Iranian languages, Amerindian languages, languages of South Asia, indigenous languages of Australia and historical languages such as Old English, Old Saxon and Old Norse.

You will receive a solid foundation for linguistic study in three out of four core units: 

• Grammatical Theory (compulsory);
• Phonetics and Phonology (compulsory);
• Semantics and Pragmatics;
• The Sociolinguistics of English.

The remainder of the course allows you to make the most of what our staff have to offer.

You can either take a variety of course units in different areas, including Forensic Linguistics, or specialise in one of the following pathways: Phonetics and Phonology, Sociolinguistics, Syntax and Semantics, Typology or Romani Linguistics.

We aim to:

• give you a grounding in breadth and depth in Linguistics, by exploring the central features of linguistic theory: its history, objectives, principal theoretical frameworks, methodologies, contested areas and uncontested results;
• enable you to gain experience of excellence in teaching and learning at an advanced level, in an environment that is also home to world-leading research in Linguistics.

You will learn through a variety of teaching methods.

Core course units and other MA-specific course units are typically taught as seminars, in a small group, combining lectures with discussion. Many units also have practical tutorials that will help you prepare for individual research projects.

Directed Readings involve individual or small group meetings during which pre-set readings on a particular topic are discussed.

The enhanced Level 3 undergraduate course units combine lectures or seminars, depending on the aim of the course unit, with more optional tutorials.

The aim across all teaching forms is to create the opportunity for intensive scholarly work, with areas of focus determined by students and your individual interests, which can be investigated in considerable depth.

Linguistics staff

You can see a list of our academic staff on the Linguistics and English Language website .

Course units are assessed at the end of the semester during which they are offered.

All taught course units except Introduction to Grammatical Theory and Phonetics and Phonology are assessed by examined coursework only.

All course units include formative assessments to ensure interim feedback during the semester.

My MA at Manchester was a challenging but very enjoyable and valuable experience that gave me the opportunity to work with enthusiastic and inspiring staff.

I've developed skills that have proved useful in my current role as research assistant at the University's Multilingual Manchester project, and the master's experience has helped me prepare for a PhD in Linguistics.

Leonie Gaiser

You will have access to innovative resources, including our psycholinguistics and phonetics laboratories, with facilities for signal analysis, speech synthesis, laryngography and electropalatography, computing facilities for speech analysis and one of the largest collections of linguistics texts in the UK.

Find out more on the Facilities page.

Studying Linguistics will equip you with a range of sought-after transferable skills, including written and oral communication skills, computing skills, intercultural awareness and research methods.

This course will also develop skills that will be useful in undertaking postgraduate research.

Career destinations for our graduates include language teaching, language policy, speech and language therapy, publishing and communications.