What do students actually study in a linguistics degree?
A linguistics degree examines how language works, including speech sounds, word formation, sentence structure, meaning, language use, change, and variation across societies. Students may analyse real language data, learn research methods and relevant software, and study areas such as language acquisition, psychology, education, communication or computational linguistics. Some courses also include training in particular languages.
Key points
- Core study can include phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics and sociolinguistics.
- Students may complete data analysis, experiments, fieldwork, essays, presentations or a research project.
- Optional modules can connect linguistics with subjects such as computer science, psychology, anthropology, modern languages or speech and language studies.
Things to check
- The balance of topics, practical work and optional modules varies by university, country and degree title, so check the course modules and assessment details for the programme concerned.