Research Supervisor Connect

Linguistics

Summary

Linguistics studies the full range of aspects of human language. It investigates the phonetics, grammar and semantics or individual languages, but through this seeks to uncover the features common to all human languages, the linguistic universals.

* If you are interested in this research opportunity, please see the profiles of the Department of Linguistics staff and contact your preferred supervisor directly to discuss your proposed project.

Supervisors

Dr Gwendolyn Hyslop, Professor Monika Bednarek, Professor Nick Enfield, Associate Professor Ahmar Mahboob, Professor James Martin, Dr Nicholas Riemer.

Research location

Linguistics, School of Humanities (SOH)

Program type

Masters/PHD

Synopsis

Research students in linguistics study in a range of areas, from describing languages, carrying out research into theories of language (formal and functional), going on field-work, applying linguistic skills to areas such as translation, education, discourse analysis and intercultural communication. There's the opportunity for cross-disciplinary work - students can have supervisory teams with members from many of the language departments.  Linguistics occupies a privileged position in the field of humanities and social sciences in that it touches on many of the central issues that concern a number of disciplines. Because language is concerned with communication between humans, it is relevant for the social sciences like anthropology and sociology; but because it is the central instrument for thinking and other cognitive tasks, it is also important to psychologists. Problems of language also loom large in fields like philosophy and literary criticism. Finally linguistics has many practical applications in fields like language teaching, general education, and computer science. The department holds a weekly research seminar. In addition, students are encouraged to take part in the reading groups and master-classes offered at Sydney and at other universities in the area. Staff are keen to support research students, with a structured programme of study as well as assisting in finding field locations and funding for fieldwork.

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Opportunity ID

The opportunity ID for this research opportunity is 474