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Language and linguistics at Aberdeen

The University of Aberdeen prides itself in being a centre of new and vibrant research into a wide range of subfields of linguistic study. Staff research interests drive the teaching programme: current research is focussed on topics including discourse analysis, language variation and change, language attitudes, language learning (both as a child and an adult), bilingualism, and the linguistic ecology of Scotland.

Linguistics at Aberdeen is a rapidly expanding discipline. More teaching staff have been appointed recently, enhancing the range of research expertise and course options offered in language and linguistics topics, which now includes Masters programmes in English Language for Advanced Teachers of English (ELATE) and Sociolinguistics. 2002 saw the founding of the Centre for Linguistic Research, and two new phonetics laboratories featuring state-of-the-art computing and speech analysis equipment were opened in 2003. The recording studio in the Regent Building has recently been refurbished, and the growing list of resources for study and research held by the Queen Mother Library and within the Centre itself (e.g. databases of recordings, videos, CD-ROMs and DVDs, printed and online self-study materials, and borrowable recording equipment) mean that students and staff have excellent facilities for carrying out language-related projects. The Centre also runs a quest seminar series which has played host to many outstanding scholars from around the world, and organises international conferences and colloquia.

Students new to the subject are often unclear about what sorts of things they'll be looking at. In language and linguistics courses available at Aberdeen, you can discover (among many other things!):

• how all languages are basically the same underneath
• why chimpanzees and dolphins cannot be taught to talk
• the social forces behind the development of Standard English
• why women are thought to speak more correctly than men
• why Swedish is more closely related to Hindi than it is to Finnish
• how voice-recognition software works
• the truth behind the assertion that a language is a dialect with an army and a navy
• why Eskimos don't really have a hundred words for snow
• why language change isn't always (or ever) for the worse
• how to decipher texts in extinct languages
• why Colourless green ideas sleep furiously is a grammatically coherent sentence
• why we use hand gestures even when talking on the phone
• why it's true to say that everyone has an accent
• how criminals can be identified using voice profiling
• how to design and carry out your own linguistic survey or experiment

Courses

The courses we are offering in the 2010-11 session are as follows:

Level 1

• English Structure and Use (20 credit points; core course)
• Communication and Language in the Modern World (20 credit points; core course)

Level 2

• Words and Meanings: Lexis and Semanitics (15 credit points)
• Constructing Words and Meaning Morphology (15 credit points)
• History of Language in the British Isles (15 credit points)
• Sounds of English (15 credit points)

Level 3

• Language: Variation and Change (30 credit points; core course)
• Discourse Analysis (30 credit points)
• Phonetics (30 credit points)
• Language Acquisition (30 credit points)

Level 4

• Language and the Professions  (30 credit points)
• Methods and Practice in Language Variation and Change (15 credit points)
• Language Contact and Change in Language (15 credit points)
• Dissertation in Language and Linguistics (30 credit points)
• Language in North America (15 credit points)
• Language and Identity (15 credit points)

See the undergraduate catalogue of courses for further information.

Taught postgraduate programmes

MLitt/PGDip in English Linguistics for Advanced Teachers of English (ELATE)
• MLitt/PGDip in Sociolinguistics

Linguistics staff also teach on the MLitt/PGDip in Language Planning and Policy.

See the postgraduate catalogue of courses for further information.

Language and linguistics staff | Centre for Linguistic Research | Online language and linguistics resources | Linguistics seminar series

This page was last modified on: Tuesday, 25-May-2010 11:52:48 BST

School of Language & Literature
University of Aberdeen · King's College · Aberdeen AB24 3UB
Telephone: +44 (0)1224-272625 · Fax: +44 (0)1224-272624