Information for Prospective Undergraduates
The structure of the course
Linguistics is divided into a one-year Part I and a two-year Part II, subdivided into Parts IIA and IIB. Part I, where you follow four lecture series, provides a foundation across a wide range of linguistics taught within the Department of Linguistics. Part II allows you to specialise in the areas which particularly interest you, and in both IIA and IIB there is a wide choice of lectures taught within and beyond the Department, the latter including the linguistics of particular languages. Part IIB includes an element of individual research as you write a dissertation on a topic of your choice.
For those interested in linguistics the Linguistics Tripos provides the opportunity to focus exclusively on linguistics. For those interested in combining some linguistics with other subjects it remains possible, as has long been the case, to select within the Modern and Medieval Languages Tripos one or more papers taught by the Department of Linguistics. Students in some other Faculties can 'borrow' one linguistics paper. It is also possible to do Part II of the Linguistics Tripos having completed a Part I in another subject.
Course outline
The Linguistics Tripos will be divided into a one-year Part I and a two-year Part II.
In Part I (year one) you take four introductory papers:
- Sounds and words
- Structures and meanings
- Language, brain, and society
- History and varieties of English
In Part IIA (year two) you take four papers from a selection offered by the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, which may include the following:
- Phonetics
- Phonology and morphology
- Syntax
- Semantics and pragmatics
- Historical linguistics
- History of ideas on language
- History of the English language
- History of the French language
- First and Second Language Acquisition
- Psychology of Language Processing and Learning
- Language Typology
- Computational Linguistics
You can also choose to "borrow" papers from a list of papers offered by other Triposes, such as Modern and Medieval Languages or Classics. Please see the information on the Linguistics Tripos for a list of papers currently available.
In Part IIB (year three) as well as choosing two new papers from range above, you take a compulsory general theory paper, and will also write a dissertation on a topic of your choice.
Please also see:
- MML Faculty Undergraduate Prospectus (PDF)
- What is Linguistics?
- After your degree
- MML/Linguistics Open Days
- Cambridge University Open Days
