Undergraduate studies in Linguistics

Study Linguistics at ANU

Linguistics is the study of human language: how we use language to communicate, how languages vary and change over time, how meanings are expressed and can be described, how children and adults acquire language, communication differences across cultures, and much more.

Students have the opportunity to learn about the core branches of linguistics, including sound systems (phonetics and phonology), word and sentence structure (morphology and syntax), conversation and text structure (discourse), meaning (semantics), and language use in society (sociolinguistics).

Students are exposed to data from a wide variety of languages and may do detailed work on a number of different languages and language families. Thorough training is given in linguistic theory and in both qualitative and quantitative research methods, which students apply to a variety of empirical problems.

Courses taught in linguistics at ANU are both theoretically and practically oriented. They address old and new theoretical debates, present different approaches, and give students training in applications of linguistics ‘in the stream of life’. You will be exposed to fascinating material from a wide variety of languages, and will be able to carry out original work on any of a number of different languages, across many domains. You will also learn to understand and to use a range of different research methods, the application of linguistics to language teaching, international communication, translation, language in politics and in international relations, and language in society.

You can study linguistics at ANU through a Bachelor of Languages, Bachelor of Arts, or Bachelor of Philosophy (Honours) (PhB).