Language is an integral part of our daily lives, our culture, and indeed of being human. Linguistics is the study of the structure and function of language, of how languages differ, of what they all share, and of the techniques and principles used when investigating any given language. Knowledge of linguistics is central to the study of languages (eg English, Australian Aboriginal languages, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian, Thai, Vietnamese etc.). Linguistics also offers students of anthropology, mathematics, philosophy, sociology, engineering, psychology and computer science useful insights into the nature of language in their particular area of interest. Examples of the practical applications of linguistics include communications within organisations, communications interfaces with electronic systems, the preparation of materials for language teaching, the development of language policies in government and in education, and in the areas of business, professional and technical communication and speech therapy.
The first year provides students with an introduction to the nature of language, including the manner in which sounds are produced and represented (phonetics), the organisation and relationship of sounds in language (phonology), the grammatical forms of words (morphology), the organisation of words in sentences (syntax), the analysis of meaning (semantics), language change (historical linguistics) and language variation and the uses of language in social contexts (sociolinguistics). In the second and third years the areas of syntax, semantics, pragmatics, phonetics, phonology, and sociolinguistics are developed on a general and comparative basis and there are also subjects exploring varieties of English, historical and comparative linguistics, Aboriginal languages, discourse analysis, applied linguistics, psycholinguistics, first and second language acquisition, language and the sexes, linguistics for business, language in education and the structure of English.
| Published by Monash University, Clayton, Victoria
3168 Copyright © Monash University 1996 - All Rights Reserved - Caution Authorised by the Academic Registrar December 1996 |