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Postgraduate Study

About the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics

Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics (MMLL)

Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics is the home of language and linguistics teaching and research at the University of Cambridge. With more than 770 undergraduate students, approximately 100 MPhil students and 190 PhD students we are one of the largest humanities Faculties in the University and one of the largest languages Faculties nationally. Numbers of staff and students are approximate as numbers fluctuate.

The Faculty comprises of six sections, which cover a range of languages and subject areas, and is also home to the Centre for Film and Screen Studies.The Faculty regularly tops a number of university and research rankings, and is home to a number of groundbreaking projects and initiatives.

The Section of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics:

The Section of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics was created on 1 August 2011 by merging the former Department of Linguistics and the Research Centre for English and Applied Linguistics. The Section is part of the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics.

The Section pursues an interdisciplinary approach to theoretical and applied linguistics and avoids uncritical adherence to particular views and theories. Building on the strengths of the previous institutions, the Section covers a comprehensive range of the language sciences and offers excellent theoretical and empirical research in a broad spread of fields from historical linguistics and comparative syntax to language processing and computational linguistics.

4 courses offered in the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics

The PhD in Computation, Cognition and Language is a PhD track for students who conduct basic and applied
research in the computational study of language, communication, and cognition, in humans and machines. This
research is interdisciplinary in nature and draws on methodology and insights from a range of disciplines that
are now critical for the further development of language sciences, including (but not limited to) Linguistics,
Cognitive Science, Computer Science, Engineering, Psychology and Neuroscience.  Irrespective of the discipline from which the applicant is progressing into the PhD in CCL, substantial background in linguistic theory is required. 

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The Linguistics Section is unique in the UK in that it integrates theoretical and applied linguistics in a single academic department. The Linguistics Section provides great variety and flexibility in course contents as well as subject-specific training and diversity of intellectual interactions. PhD topics in the range of research specialisms represented in the Section and beyond the Section in the MMLL Faculty are accepted. Students may choose to focus on a theoretically oriented study of the language sciences (e.g. interest in the syntactic organisation or sound structure of different languages or in the analysis of meaning in semantics and pragmatics), but may also be interested in a more applied direction of Linguistics (e.g. language acquisition, language processing, data mining of language corpora) or may choose to look at Linguistics from a specific language point of view (e.g. Italian linguistics). 

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The course integrates the study of linguistic theory, broadly understood, and applied linguistics, in a single programme. It provides great variety and flexibility of content, with subject-specific training and the opportunity for diverse intellectual interactions. These can occur across the wide range of research specialisms represented in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics (TAL) and beyond - especially elsewhere in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics (MMLL). Students can explore a variety of areas of theoretical and descriptive linguistics, such as syntactic structures, sound structure and phonetics, approaches to meaning and communication (semantics and pragmatics),  or the principles that govern the historical development of languages. Applied linguistics includes language acquisition and language processing in the areas of psycholinguistics and computational linguistics. Students can also choose to look at linguistics from the point of view of a specific language or language family, e.g. Romance linguistics or Germanic linguistics. 

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The MPhil by Thesis allows students to carry out focused research on a specific topic in a way that foreshadows a potential PhD. The area can be chosen from a wide range within linguistics or overlapping with other areas of the language sciences. Students are provided with subject-specific training and the opportunity for diverse intellectual interactions. These can occur across the wide range of research specialisms represented in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics (TAL) and beyond - especially elsewhere in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics (MMLL) and within the Language Sciences community. Students can research a topic chosen from a variety of areas of theoretical and descriptive linguistics, such as syntax, sound structure and phonetics, approaches to meaning and communication (semantics and pragmatics),  or the principles that govern the historical development of languages, most of which are offered in a given year (depending on staff availability). Applied linguistics includes language acquisition and language processing in the areas of psycholinguistics and computational linguistics. Students can also choose to look at linguistics from the point of view of a specific language or language family, e.g. Romance linguistics. 

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Department Members


Prof Ian Roberts
Director of Section

Brechtje Post
PhD Coordinator

  • 10 Academic Staff
  • 2 Postdoctoral Researchers
  • 100 Graduate Students
  • 108 Undergraduates

http://www.mmll.cam.ac.uk/dtal/

Research Areas