Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of language, one of the most distinctive and complex capacities of the human species. It examines language at every level, from the sounds and words of particular languages to the grammatical structures that organise them, the ways language is used in social and cultural contexts, the representation of language in the mind and brain, and the mechanisms by which language is acquired, processed and transmitted. Linguistics also engages with language variation and change, with the relationships between language and power, and with the diversity of the world's approximately 7,000 languages.

At the University of Leeds, this three-year full-time programme covers the scientific study of language structure, use and representation, developing your analytical skills across phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics and sociolinguistics. You will learn to describe and analyse languages systematically, to engage with linguistic theory and its empirical basis, and to apply linguistic tools to questions about language in education, in professional communication, in the media and in society more broadly. A sandwich year provides extended professional experience, a year abroad gives you the opportunity to study in a different linguistic and academic environment, and a work placement develops your professional awareness alongside your academic knowledge.

A typical entry tariff of 152 points reflects the level of analytical preparation the programme expects.

Graduates from linguistics programmes are valued across a wide range of sectors. They work in language teaching, translation and interpreting, speech and language therapy (with additional training), natural language processing and computational linguistics, publishing, broadcasting, lexicography, language policy, education and the civil service. The analytical rigour and attention to evidence that linguistics develops is also well regarded in law, market research, human-computer interaction and technology roles.

Postgraduate study in linguistics, applied linguistics, language acquisition or computational linguistics is a well-established route for those who wish to specialise.