Modern Languages and Linguistics

This course allows students to study one modern language together with linguistics, the study of language itself. One half of your course will be half of the Modern Languages course, giving you practical linguistic training and an extensive introduction to the literature and thought of the European language you have chosen.

The other half of the course focuses on linguistics, where you will be introduced to the analysis of the nature and structure of human language. Topics include; how words are formed, how sentences are constructed, how we make and hear sounds, and how these sounds behave in particular languages; how age, sex and social status affect language use; how children learn to speak; how languages change and how the same language can vary according to where it is spoken; how words and sentences mean what they mean – and how they sometimes don’t mean what they seem to mean; how language is used in literature, the media and by various social groups; and how language is organised in the brain. In this part you will also apply these ideas to the study of the structure and history of your modern language.

Oxford offers facilities for the linguistic and philological study of European languages unmatched anywhere else in Britain. The University has particular expertise in general linguistics, phonetics, syntax and semantics, and in the history and structure of many individual European languages and families of related languages. These are seen to best advantage in this degree course, which combines the different elements to give a mutually reinforcing package of theoretical study of what human language is and how it works and more detailed study of specific issues of language structure and change applied to the language you are studying. You will find a wide range of options available, allowing you to concentrate on those areas you find most exciting.

The combination of a modern language with the ability for rigorous analysis will be popular with a wide range of employers. The Languages Work website has further information about careers using languages www.languageswork.org.uk.

Recent Modern Languages and Linguistics graduates include a management consultant, a brand marketing manager, a market researcher for a company in the chemical industry, and a teacher.

Tamsin, who graduated in 2000, now works as a lecturer in psychology at the University of Abertay Dundee. As part of her undergraduate degree, she spent a year teaching English in La Réunion, visiting nearby Madagascar and Mauritius along the way, and developing a flexibility, independence and resolve that have supported her ever since. She also believes that the extensive linguistic training received at Oxford has shaped her approach to psychology.

Students interested in this course might also like to consider other language courses, Oriental Studies courses, or Psychology, Philosophy and Linguisitics.

You can either study Linguistics with a Modern Language you already speak, or with a Modern Language you’d like to learn from scratch.

For the following course combinations you would usually be expected to have the Modern Language to A-level (or another academic equivalent).

Linguistics and:

The following course combinations allow you to begin studying a Modern Language from scratch.

Linguistics and: