Linguistics is the study of human language: how we use language to communicate, how languages vary and change over time, how meanings are expressed and can be described, how children and adults acquire language, communication differences across cultures, and much more. In this major, students have the opportunity to learn about the core branches of linguistics, including sound systems (phonetics and phonology), word and sentence structure (morphology and syntax), conversation and text structure (discourse), meaning (semantics), and language use in society (sociolinguistics). Students are exposed to data from a wide variety of languages and may do detailed work on a number of different languages and language families. Thorough training is given in linguistic theory and in both qualitative and quantitative research methods, which students apply to a variety of empirical problems.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Due to structural changes in the undergraduate program rules in 2012, the courses that make up the new 2012 majors may be different to the pre-2012 majors, and therefore some courses cannot be counted between majors. Students are advised to contact the CASS Student Office if they are unsure about their Majors.
Learning outcomes
Graduates within the Linguistics Major will have the knowledge and skills to:
- demonstrate an understanding of the nature of the structures found in all human languages
- demonstrate an understanding of how people use languages to communicate, and of the role of language in human society
- describe the most important sorts of variation found in human languages
- make in-depth analysis in at least one linguistic sub-structure
- evaluate popular beliefs and arguments concerning language use and language diversity
Relevant Degrees
Requirements
This major requires the completion of 48 units, which must include:
6 units from completion of the following course(s):
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| LING1001 | Introduction to the Study of Language | 6 |
A maximum of 6 units may come from completion of courses from the following list:
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| LING1002 | Language and Society | 6 |
| LING1021 | Cross-Cultural Communication | 6 |
| AUST1001 | Learning an Indigenous Australian Language | 6 |
A minimum of 12 units must come from completion of courses from the following list:
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| LING2003 | Introduction to Syntax | 6 |
| LING2008 | Semantics | 6 |
| LING2010 | Sounds of the World's Languages: Phonetics and Phonology | 6 |
A maximum of 18 units may come from completion of courses from the following list:
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| ASIA2001 | Language in Asia | 6 |
| ASIA2103 | Language in Asia (L) | 6 |
| ASIA2308 | Linguistic Histories in Asia and the Pacific | 6 |
| AUST2008 | Learning an Indigenous Australian language 2 | 6 |
| GERM2048 | Spoken Interaction in German: Theory and Practice | 6 |
| INDN2101 | The Shape of Indonesian: Its Structure and Development | 6 |
| JPNS 2009: Japanese Lexicon | ||
| JPNS2019 | Japanese Phonetics and Phonology | 6 |
| JPNS2024 | Japanese Grammar and Expressions | 6 |
| LANG 2103: Second Language Pragmatics | ||
| LING2005 | Language Change and Linguistic Reconstruction | 6 |
| LING2013 | Teaching Languages | 6 |
| LING2015 | Language, Culture, Translation | 6 |
| LING2016 | Language in Indigenous Australia | 6 |
| LING2017 | Chinese Linguistics | 6 |
| LING2018 | Languages in Contact | 6 |
| LING2020 | Structure of English | 6 |
| LING2021 | Cross Cultural Communication (L) | 6 |
| LING2022 | Language Policy and Language Politics | 6 |
| LING2023 | Dictionaries and Dictionary-Making | 6 |
| LING2027 | Language and Society in Latin America | 6 |
| LING2028 | Japanese Linguistics | 6 |
| LING2029 | Assessing Language | 6 |
| LING2101 | Second Language Acquisition | 6 |
| LING2104 | The History of the English Language | 6 |
| LING2105 | Language and the law: introduction to forensic linguistics | 6 |
| LING2106 | Language and Social Interaction | 6 |
| PASI2010 | Talking the Pacific: Melanesian pidgins and creoles in social context | 6 |
| PASI 2020: Languages of the Pacific | ||
| PHIL2016 | Philosophy of Language | 6 |
| PHIL2080 | Logic | 6 |
| SPAN2601 | The Sounds of Spanish | 6 |
| SPAN2602 | The Structure of Spanish | 6 |
| SPAN2603 | History of the Spanish language. A linguistic time travel | 6 |
| SPAN2604 | Language variation across the Spanish-speaking world | 6 |
| HUMN2001 | Digital Humanities: Theories and Projects | 6 |
A minimum of 6 units must come from completion of courses from the following list:
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| ARAB3003 | Introductory Course to Arabic Linguistics | 6 |
| GERM3048 | Spoken Interaction in German: Theory and Practice | 6 |
| JPNS3011 | Language Variation and Change in the Japanese Archipelago | 6 |
| LANG3001 | Translation across Languages: the translation of literary texts | 6 |
| LANG3002 | Translation across Languages: specialised material | 6 |
| LANG3004 | Language and Society in Latin America | 6 |
| LANG3005 | Language and Identity in a European Context | 6 |
| LING3008 | Study of A Language Family | 6 |
| LING3013 | Issues in Advanced Japanese Linguistics | 6 |
| LING3107 | Morphology | 6 |
| LING3021 | Child Language Acquisition | 6 |
| LING3022 | Seminar on Semantics | 6 |
| LING3025 | Special Topics in Linguistics | 6 |
| LING3030 | A comparative study of Austronesian languages | 6 |
| LING3031 | Papuan Languages | 6 |
| LING3032 | Advanced Forensic Linguistics: Forensic Voice and Text Comparison | 6 |
| LING3119 | Phonological analysis | 6 |
| LING3126 | Syntactic Theory | 6 |
| SPAN3031 | Advanced Spanish Topics in Language and Linguistics | 6 |