BA Linguistics and Social Anthropology / Course details

Year of entry: 2024

Course description

Our BA Linguistics and Social Anthropology course will enable you to delve into the science of language - an everyday phenomenon which impacts our lives on an individual and a global scale. Through our course, you will explore the sounds and structure of languages across the globe, studying topics such as how languages change over time; how children acquire their first language; how language varies between different groups of people and across regions; how we communicate as individuals and within groups; what languages across the world have in common and how they differ; and what happens when speakers of different languages come into contact.

With its diverse local communities, Manchester is an ideal site for carrying out research on linguistic variation and multilingualism.

We have two laboratories, where you'll have the chance to use ultrasound imaging, laryngography and eye tracking technology.

You'll also be able to learn quantitative methods and use large language corpora, skills which you'll then be able to apply to other fields throughout your life.

In Social Anthropology, you will study a range of topics relating to society, culture, religion, identity and diversity, and will be introduced to methods and topics in anthropological research.

Manchester anthropologists look at the social implications of reproductive and information technologies while analysing the social meanings of consumer behaviour and studying violence, poverty, and the means for resolving conflicts and alleviating human suffering.

Special features

Placement year option

Apply your subject-specific knowledge in a real-world context through a placement year in your third year of study, enabling you to enhance your employment prospects, clarify your career goals and build your external networks.

Study abroad

You may apply to study abroad during Year 2.

We have partnerships with many institutions throughout Europe and across the globe.

Learn from experts

You will learn from staff who conduct anthropological research around the world.

We focus on economic and political issues and have also become specialists in visual and sensory media, the impact of new reproductive and genetic technologies, AIDS, sexuality and masculinities, race, cities, migration and infrastructures, urban and border politics, and crafts, play and worship.

Our strengths in Linguistics include, among others, phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics, historical linguistics, forensic linguistics, and quantitative corpus-based approaches.

Get involved with interesting projects

Our students are encouraged to take an active role in funded teaching-enhancement projects, whose outputs benefit them individually and collectively.

For example, some of our students have developed an online atlas of dialect variation in the UK and storyboards for the use in fieldwork.

Teaching and learning

You'll be taught through a mixture of:

  • formal lectures;
  • tutorials;
  • one-to-one supervision.

You'll spend approximately 12 hours each week in formal study sessions and further time in independent study.

In your independent study time, you may be reading, producing written work, revising for examinations, or working as part of a team of students.

You can also study a modern language.

Coursework and assessment

Our courses are assessed in various ways - for example, written examinations, oral presentations, and different types of coursework.

Coursework may include library research, linguistic fieldwork and data collection, or web-based research.

In your final year, you can choose to write a dissertation.

Course content for year 1

In Linguistics, you will gain a solid grounding in linguistics, taking core course units in (English) grammar and either the sounds of language or the study of meaning. You may also choose additional, optional units such as an introduction to the relation between language, the mind and the brain.

In Social Anthropology, you will receive a strong foundation in key concepts, approaches and questions.

Course units for year 1

The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.

TitleCodeCredit ratingMandatory/optional
English Word and Sentence Structure LELA10301 20 Mandatory
Key Ideas in Social Anthropology SOAN10321 10 Mandatory
Intro to Ethnographic Reading SOAN10322 10 Mandatory
Language, Mind and Brain LELA10201 20 Optional
The Sounds of Language LELA10322 20 Optional
Study of Meaning LELA10331 20 Optional
History and Varieties of English LELA10342 20 Optional
From Text to Linguistic Evidence LELA10402 20 Optional
Power and Culture: Inequality in Everyday Life SOAN10301 10 Optional
Cultural Diversity in Global Perspective SOAN10312 10 Optional
Regional Studies of Culture: 1 SOAN10331 20 Optional
Regional Studies of Culture: 2 SOAN10352 20 Optional
Introduction to Business Anthropology: Consumers, Companies and Culture SOAN10361 20 Optional
Displaying 10 of 13 course units for year 1

Course content for year 2

In Linguistics, you'll begin to tailor your degree to suit your interests. While studying two compulsory units in subjects like phonology, syntax, or semantics, and typology or multilingualism, you'll choose from a wide range of optional units tapping into academic expertise in several specialist fields such as experimental phonetics and psycholinguistics.

In Social Anthropology, you will look more in depth at the anthropological contribution to thematic areas of the study of human life, as well as developing your research skills.

Your course units will cover subjects including kinship and social life, anthropology of religion, political and economic anthropology and issues in contemporary social anthropology.

Course units for year 2

The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.

TitleCodeCredit ratingMandatory/optional
Language, Mind and Brain LELA10201 20 Optional
The Sounds of Language LELA10322 20 Optional
Study of Meaning LELA10331 20 Optional
History and Varieties of English LELA10342 20 Optional
From Text to Linguistic Evidence LELA10402 20 Optional
Phonology LELA20012 20 Optional
Analysing Grammar LELA20021 20 Optional
Typology LELA20032 20 Optional
Societal Multilingualism LELA20101 20 Optional
Quantitative Methods in Language Sciences LELA20231 20 Optional
Semantics LELA20282 20 Optional
Pragmatics: Meaning, Context, and Interaction LELA20291 20 Optional
Experimental Phonetics LELA20341 20 Optional
The Changing English Language LELA20401 20 Optional
Variationist Sociolinguistics LELA20502 20 Optional
Psycholinguistics LELA20961 20 Optional
Stylistics of English LELA21512 20 Optional
Power and Culture: Inequality in Everyday Life SOAN10301 10 Optional
Cultural Diversity in Global Perspective SOAN10312 10 Optional
Regional Studies of Culture: 1 SOAN10331 20 Optional
Regional Studies of Culture: 2 SOAN10352 20 Optional
Introduction to Business Anthropology: Consumers, Companies and Culture SOAN10361 20 Optional
Anthropology of Kinship, Gender and Sex SOAN20802 20 Optional
Anthropology of Religion SOAN20812 20 Optional
Political and Economic Anthropology SOAN20821 20 Optional
The Ethnographer's Craft SOAN20841 20 Optional
Materiality and Representation SOAN20852 20 Optional
Spanish Linguistics SPLA20772 20 Optional
Displaying 10 of 28 course units for year 2

Course content for year 3

In both subjects, your study is tailored to your own interests by drawing on course units from a wide range of specialities which build on the research expertise of our staff and includes the opportunity to conduct independent dissertation research on a topic of your choice.

Course units for year 3

The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.

TitleCodeCredit ratingMandatory/optional
Phonology LELA20012 20 Optional
Analysing Grammar LELA20021 20 Optional
Typology LELA20032 20 Optional
Societal Multilingualism LELA20101 20 Optional
Semantics LELA20282 20 Optional
Pragmatics: Meaning, Context, and Interaction LELA20291 20 Optional
The Changing English Language LELA20401 20 Optional
Variationist Sociolinguistics LELA20502 20 Optional
Psycholinguistics LELA20961 20 Optional
Stylistics of English LELA21512 20 Optional
Dissertation LELA30000 40 Optional
Topics in the Study of Meaning in English LELA30032 20 Optional
Topics in Language Development LELA30671 20 Optional
Forensic Linguistics LELA31632 20 Optional
Romance Linguistics LELA32001 20 Optional
Quantitative Methods in Language Sciences LELA32011 20 Optional
Experimental Phonetics LELA32021 20 Optional
Computational Linguistics LELA32052 20 Optional
Discourse as Social Practice LELA32061 20 Optional
Anthropology of Kinship, Gender and Sex SOAN20802 20 Optional
Anthropology of Religion SOAN20812 20 Optional
Political and Economic Anthropology SOAN20821 20 Optional
Anthropological Theory SOAN20830 20 Optional
The Ethnographer's Craft SOAN20841 20 Optional
Materiality and Representation SOAN20852 20 Optional
The Anthropology of Health and Wellbeing SOAN30251 20 Optional
Anthropology of Human Learning: Childhood and Education SOAN30372 20 Optional
Dissertation B - 20 credit dissertation SOAN30600 20 Optional
Dissertation A SOAN30610 40 Optional
Screening Culture SOAN30791 20 Optional
Anthropology of Vision, Senses and Memory SOAN30811 20 Optional
Spanish Linguistics SPLA20772 20 Optional
Displaying 10 of 32 course units for year 3

Facilities

You will access resources to enhance your learning, including an extensive collection of linguistics texts and our psycholinguistics and phonetics laboratories, with facilities for:

  • signal analysis;
  • speech synthesis;
  • laryngography;
  • Electropalatography.

You will also enjoy access to the one of the largest ethnographic film libraries in Europe for your anthropological studies.

Find out more on the facilities page.

Disability support

Practical support and advice for current students and applicants is available from the Disability Advisory and Support Service. Email: dass@manchester.ac.uk