PhD Linguistics / Overview

Year of entry: 2023

Degree awarded
Doctor of Philosophy
Duration
3 years [full-time], 6 years [part-time]
Entry requirements
  • A Bachelors (Honours) degree at 2:1 level or above (or its international equivalent) in a related subject; and
  • A UK Master's degree with an overall average of 65% or higher, with a minimum of 65% in the dissertation and with no mark below 55% (or its international equivalent) in a related subject.

Full entry requirements

Number of places/applicants
There is no limit on the number of places available.
How to apply

Apply online

Please ensure you include all required supporting documents at the time of submission, as incomplete applications may not be considered. A Personal Statement is NOT required to be submitted. You should select 'Supporting Statement is not required for this programme'.

Application Deadlines

Admission to studying for a PhD is highly competitive, so please allow as much time as possible to prepare your application, browse our research pages and academics' profiles, and familiarise yourself with the application process and any important deadlines.

To be considered for all funding sources, you need to apply far enough in advance of the relevant funding competition deadlines, which are usually much earlier than the programme deadline listed below. For studentships within the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures (including AHRC NWCDTP and ESRC NWSSDTP), you must submit your completed programme application by Friday 13 January 2023 unless specfied otherwise in the funding competition information at www.alc.manchester.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/opportunities/

If you are applying for or have secured external funding (for example, from an employer or government) or are self-funding, you must submit your application before the relevant deadline to be considered. You will not be able to apply after these deadlines have passed.

  • For September 2023 entry: 30 June 2023
  • For January 2024 entry: 30 September 2023

Programme options

Full-time Part-time Full-time distance learning Part-time distance learning
PhD Y Y N N

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Discover more about this subject area

Programme description

Our PhD Linguistics programme enables you to carry out research in a field of linguistics that matches the interests of one of our members of staff.

The Department of Linguistics and English Language is an international centre for Linguistics, with 20 full-time members of staff and approximately 15 postgraduate research students.

We are virtually unique in the UK and beyond in the breadth of subject areas and theoretical approaches represented by our members, many of whom are internationally renowned scholars in their specialisms.

Our academics' areas of expertise include:

  • phonetics and phonology
  • morphology
  • syntax (lexical-functional grammar, role and reference grammar, construction grammar, and minimalism)
  • (formal) semantics
  • pragmatics
  • historical linguistics
  • dialectology
  • the linguistics of English
  • language contact
  • variationist sociolinguistics
  • child language acquisition
  • field linguistics and language documentation
  • typology
  • quantitative corpus-based approaches
  • forensic linguistics.

In our research, we combine the advancement of theoretical approaches with a strong concern for their empirical and methodological foundations.

Each member of staff also has a special interest in particular languages and language families, including major European languages, as well as lesser known languages of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Australia.

WE DO NOT, HOWEVER, SUPERVISE PROJECTS WITH A FOCUS ON SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING OR LANGUAGE PEDAGOGY. PLEASE, DO NOT CONTACT STAFF MEMBERS ABOUT SUCH PROJECTS.

Joint supervision arrangements for interdisciplinary projects are available.

Find out more about our Linguistics research , staff members , and what our current postgraduate research students are working on.

Open days

Find out what it's like to study at Manchester by visiting us on one of our  open days .

Fees

For entry in the academic year beginning September 2023, the tuition fees are as follows:

  • PhD (full-time)
    UK students (per annum): TBA
    International, including EU, students (per annum): £21,000
  • PhD (part-time)
    UK students (per annum): TBA

Further information for EU students can be found on our dedicated EU page.

Please note for the majority of projects where experimentation requires further resource: higher fee bands (where quoted) will be charged rather than the base rate for supervision, administration and computational costs. The fees quoted above will be fully inclusive and, therefore, you will not be required to pay any additional bench fees or administration costs.

All fees for entry will be subject to yearly review and incremental rises per annum are also likely over the duration of the course for UK/EU students (fees are typically fixed for International students, for the course duration at the year of entry). For general fees information please visit: postgraduate fees . Always contact the department if you are unsure which fee applies to your project.

Scholarships/sponsorships

The School offers a limited number of bursaries and studentships on a competitive basis, details of which can be found via the links below.

Please note that whilst we do not have closing dates for programme applications, all funding competitions have a specified deadline for submitting the funding application form and a separate (earlier) deadline for submitting the online programme application form, both of which will be stated in the funding competition details below:

Programmes in related subject areas

Use the links below to view lists of programmes in related subject areas.

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You can find regulations and policies relating to student life at The University of Manchester, including our Degree Regulations and Complaints Procedure, on our regulations website.