• Total units 48 Units
  • Areas of interest Asian Languages, European Languages, Australian Indigenous Studies, Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
  • Major code LING-MAJ

Linguistics is the study of human language: how we use languages to communicate, how languages vary and change over time, how meanings are expressed, how children and adults acquire language, and how communication differs across communities. In this?major, you will learn about branches of linguistics, including sound systems (phonetics and phonology),?word and sentence structure (morphology and syntax), conversation and text structure (discourse), meaning (semantics), language use in society (sociolinguistics), language in education, health care and the law. You will?carry out detailed analysis of linguistic data?from a variety of languages, with a particular emphasis on the Indigenous languages of Australia and the Pacific region. The study of human language blends both scientific and humanistic approaches to building knowledge, and you will experience?a wide range?of analytic methods and theories. As language assumes ever greater importance in an interconnected, multilingual world, while remaining one of the last enigmatic frontiers for fields like natural language processing, the study of linguistics is relevant to an ever-wider range of career options. 

Learning Outcomes

  1. demonstrate a depth and breadth of insight into the relationship between language, society and culture, and into the role of language in human sociality;
  2. carry out analysis of the linguistic systems of diverse languages, including the capacity for rigorous, in-depth analysis in at least two sub-disciplines of linguistics;
  3. use a range of linguistic methods, tools and theories to investigate how language is used in different contexts, and how it varies across people, places and times;
  4. critically examine beliefs and ideologies about language use and language diversity;
  5. communicate clearly and knowledgeably about language-related topics to academic and general audiences; and
  6. engage with languages and perspectives relating to the Indigenous peoples of Australia and the Asia-Pacific.
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Requirements

The Linguistics Major requires the completion of 48 units, of which:

A maximum of 12 units may come from the completion of 1000-level courses

A minimum of 18 units must come from completion of 3000-level courses


The 48 units must consist of:

12 units from completion of the following courses:

LING1001 - Language Unlocked: An introduction to Linguistics

LING1002 - The Social Life of Language


A minimum of 12 units from the completion of the following 2000-level Linguistics courses:

LING2003 Grammar of the World's Languages

LING2008 Semantics

LING2010 Sounds of the World's Languages: Phonetics and Phonology

LING2016 Language and Society in Indigenous Australia

LING2020 Structure of English


A minimum of 18 units from completion of the following 3000-level Linguistics courses:

LING3031 Papuan Languages 

LING3032 Forensic Linguistics: Forensic Voice and Text Comparison 

LING3035 Semantic Typology 

LING3036 Advanced Sociolinguistics

LING3038 Corpus Linguistics

LING3101 Second Language Acquisition

LING3126 Topics in Advanced Syntax and Morphology

 

A maximum of 6 units from the completion of the following Linguistics disciplinary courses:

Linguistics

ASIA2001 Language in Asia and the Pacific

ASIA2308 Linguistic Histories in Asia and the Pacific

LING2005 Language Across Time

LING2018 Languages in Contact

LING2021 Cross Cultural Communication

LING3025 Special Topics in Linguistics


Applied Linguistics

LING2013 Teaching Languages

LING2015 Language, Culture, Translation

LING2023 Dictionaries and Dictionary-Making

LING2029 Language, Assessment and Policy

LING2034 Communication in Health Care

LING2105 Forensic Linguistics: Language and the Law

LING2106 Language and Social Interaction

LING2521 Child Language Acquisition


Language-Specific Linguistics

LANG3007 Romance Linguistics

LING2017 Chinese Linguistics

LING2028 Japanese Linguistics

LING2040 Austronesian languages


Indigenous Australian Languages

INDG2003 Gamilaraay: Introduction to an Australian Indigenous Language

INDG2004 Continuing Gamilaraay

INDG2005 Introduction to an Australian Indigenous Language


Other languages

ASIA2103 Language in Asia and the Pacific

FREN3515 The Sounds of French: Phonetics and Pronunciation

JPNS2024 Japanese Grammar and Expressions

JPNS3012 Teaching Japanese: Content

JPNS3014 Teaching Japanese: Method

SPAN3031 Advanced Spanish Topics in Language and Linguistics

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