Welcome

Welcome to English Language and Linguistics at the University of Stirling, part of English Studies within the School of Arts and Humanities.

Our focus is on a deep engagement with language as the crucial quality that makes us who we are. We investigate how language works, how people use it, what people use it for, where it came from and how it changes. We work within a vibrant research culture within Literature and Languages, and have staff with research expertise across the field, from discourse analysis and the use of language to construct identity, to historical, cognitive and evolutionary linguistics. Our teaching programmes are developed from our own research interests in combination with the needs and wishes of our students.

English Language and Linguistics forms a significant part of the undergraduate programme in English Studies at Stirling. Students have the opportunity of studying two non-advanced modules: Language and Society (an introduction to sociolinguistics) and Foundations of Language (an introduction to the forms and structures of language). In their second year students can choose to take an intermediate module in Stylistics: Writing and Language which introduces them to the linguistic choices and patterns of literary language. Two advanced modules, Language and Gender, and Language, Power and Ideology are also available, with more specialist modules likely to be introduced in the next few years.

Our postgraduate M.Litt. programme in English Language and Linguistics is taking applications now. The MLitt is suitable for students keen to extend their knowledge of English Language and Linguistics, and those who plan to proceed to advanced research.