Media

Oxford University launches new linguistics faculty

9 June 2008 

Oxford University will be creating one of the country’s biggest linguistics faculties with the launch of its new Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics Faculty on 1 August 2008.

The new faculty was announced at Professor Aditi Lahiri’s inaugural lecture today (Friday 6 June 2008), where she discussed Language Asymmetries in the Brain. Professor Lahiri, who is Professor of Linguistics at Oxford University and a Fellow of Somerville College, will be first Chair of the faculty.

Linguistics is the study of language in all its aspects; philology considers the historical study of language; and phonetics is the study of the physical sounds of human speech. The faculty sits within the Humanities Division, one of four academic divisions of the University of Oxford. Oxford has a wealth of existing expertise in the field but this is the first time it will all be brought together in one faculty.

The faculty will be made up of a core of dedicated linguistics staff, with support from other academics in related faculties such as classics and modern languages, who have linguistics expertise. There are plans to develop joint undergraduate degrees with other faculties.

Professor Lahiri said: “I am delighted to be heading up the new faculty at such an exciting time. It will be a unique institution, combining general linguistics, comparative philology and phonetics, embracing members from various different departments. Although this is the beginning of a new chapter, it is also a continuation of a long and successful tradition of the study of linguistics, philology and phonetics at Oxford.  

“Eminent scholars in the field have passed through this University, and the new faculty plans to maintain cutting-edge interdisciplinary research, including language study from ancient to modern, as well as extending to the fields of cognitive science, computing, and experimental psychology.”

The set-up of the Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics Faculty reflects the changing practice of linguistics as well as the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of research. Professor Lahiri will be working across linguistics and neuroscience, and collaborating with members of the Experimental Psychology Department.

The Head of Oxford University’s Humanities Division, Professor Sally Shuttleworth, said: “I am delighted that the new faculty is being launched. Oxford has a long history in the field of linguistics and the creation of the new faculty will help bring together all our excellent work in this area.”

The new faculty will eventually move into the £180 million humanities development in the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter.

For more information please contact the Oxford University Press Office on 01865 270046 or press.office@admin.ox.ac.uk.

Professor Aditi Lahiri and Professor Sally Shuttleworth will be available for interview.

Notes to Editors

  • Linguistics, philology, and phonetics at Oxford were formerly interdisciplinary subjects, taught across various faculties. Although there was no ‘Department of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics’, an interfaculty body, the Committee for Comparative Philology, Linguistics, and Phonetics, offered graduate degree programmes at Master's and Doctoral levels.
  • For undergraduates, option papers in various branches of linguistics, philology and phonetics were offered in several faculties. In the Modern Languages Faculty it was possible to study for a degree in Linguistics and any one of a number of European languages.
  • Oxford University’s Phonetics Laboratory was established in 1980 and in 2001 merged with the Committee for Comparative Philology and General Linguistics. It includes a small recording studio, an acoustics laboratory, a physiology laboratory, and a speech-processing laboratory. It is run by Dr John Coleman, who will be one of the leading members of the new faculty.
  • Despite not having a specific department, The Times Good University Guide ranked linguistics at Oxford in joint first place in 2007.
  • Professor Aditi Lahiri joined the University in October. She was previously Professor and Chair in General Linguistics at the University of Konstanz, in Germany. She has also worked in Linguistics at Stanford University, The University of California and Brown University and has PhDs from the University of Calcutta and Brown University.