- UCAS course code
- QT12
- UCAS institution code
- M20
Early clearing information
This course is available through clearing for home and international applicants
If you already have your exam results, meet the entry requirements, and are not holding an offer from a university or college, then you may be able to apply to this course.
Contact the admissions team
Bachelor of Arts (BA)
BA Linguistics and Japanese
Investigate the science of language and develop skills to thrive in a Japanese-speaking environment.
Duration: 4 years
Year of entry: 2025
UCAS course code: QT12 / Institution code: M20
- Key features:
Study abroad
Study with a language
- Typical A-level offer: ABB
- Typical contextual A-level offer: BBC
- Refugee/care-experienced offer: BBC
- Typical International Baccalaureate offer: 34 points overall with 6,6,5 at HL
Fees and funding
Fees
Tuition fees for home students commencing their studies in September 2025 will be £9,535 per annum (subject to Parliamentary approval). Tuition fees for international students will be £26,500 per annum. For general information please see the undergraduate finance pages.
Policy on additional costs
All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).
Scholarships/sponsorships
- Find out more from student finance
- Eligible UK students can apply for bursaries and scholarships
- Funding for EU and international students is on our country-specific pages
- Many students work part-time or complete a student internship
Course unit details:
Phonology
| Unit code | LELA20012 |
|---|---|
| Credit rating | 20 |
| Unit level | Level 2 |
| Teaching period(s) | Semester 2 |
| Available as a free choice unit? | Yes |
Overview
The subject matter of phonology is cognitive: the discipline studies the sounds of languages not as events in the physical world, but as representations in the minds of speakers and listeners. Phonologists seek to discover the internal structure of such mental representations, how they are stored and assembled, and how they interact with knowledge of word and sentence structure (morphosyntax), as well as with articulation and audition. This course unit uses examples of various types, from synchronic sound patterns to data from historical change and first-language acquisition, in order to explore current theoretical hypotheses on all these questions.
This course unit is a prerequisite for LELA30442 English Phonology Past and Present.
Pre/co-requisites
| Unit title | Unit code | Requirement type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Sounds of Language | LELA10322 | Pre-Requisite | Compulsory |
Compulsary pre-requisites: LELA10322 The Sounds of Language. Students who do not have this pre-requisite must contact the academic to gain approval before they can be enrolled.
Aims
This course aims to equip the student with the theoretical knowledge and practical skills necessary to analyse phonological phenomena of various types; these will include not only synchronic sound patterns, but also data from historical change and first-language acquisition. Students will see how phonologists use a wide range of empirical evidence critically to appraise and refine their models of the human phonological faculty. Students will become acquainted with current theoretical problems, including the advantages and drawbacks of constraint-based models of phonology.
Syllabus
Week 1. What is phonology?
Week 2. Syllable structure
Week 3. Markedness and syllables: Optimality Theory
Week 4. Stress and the foot
Week 5. Distinctive features
Week 6. Autosegmental behaviour and feature geometry
Week 7. Opacity and conspiracy
Week 8. The morphology-phonology interface
Week 9. The phonology-phonetics interface
Week 10. Phonological change
Week 11. Unit revision
Teaching and learning methods
One 2hr lecture per week over 11 weeks
One 1hr seminar per week over 11 weeks
E-Learning: All course materials, including lecture handouts, practice exercises, links to electronically available readings, and course and assessment info will be made available on Canvas.
Knowledge and understanding
By the end of this course, students will have gained an understanding of some of the major theoretical proposals concerning how linguistic sounds are represented in the minds of speakers (the theory of representations), how phonological representations are assembled in the mind from elements stored in memory (the theory of derivations), and how phonology interacts with other kinds of linguistic knowledge (the place of phonology in the architecture of grammar).
Intellectual skills
By the end of this course, students will have enhanced their problem-solving skills as well as their creative and critical thinking, as reflected, for example, in the ability to assess alternative analyses and hypotheses for a given data-set.
Practical skills
By the end of this course students will be able to analyse phonological data and present their analyses in standard, theoretically-informed formats.
Transferable skills and personal qualities
By the end of this course, students will have enhanced their ability to recognize how theories and claims can and must be supported empirically, as well as the ability to produce well-argued analyses.
Assessment methods
Assessment Task | Formative or Summative | Weighting |
In-term coursework: in-depth analysis of one phonological data set | Formative and Summative | 30% |
Final Exam | Summative | 70% |
Feedback methods
Feedback Method | Formative or Summative |
Verbal feedback on problems discussed in plenary lectures | Formative |
Verbal feedback on contributions to tutorials | Formative |
Comments on in-term coursework | Formative and Summative |
Global written feedback in the form of a key to a model exam paper available on Blackboard | Formative |
Face-to-face discussion of exam results if desired (on the understanding that this deanonymizes the marking) | Summative |
Recommended reading
Gussenhoven, Carlos & Haike Jacobs. 2017. Understanding phonology, 4th edn. Abingdon: Routledge
Study hours
| Scheduled activity hours | |
|---|---|
| Assessment written exam | 3 |
| Lectures | 22 |
| Seminars | 11 |
| Independent study hours | |
|---|---|
| Independent study | 164 |
Teaching staff
| Staff member | Role |
|---|---|
| Ricardo Bermudez-Otero | Unit coordinator |