Chinese and Linguistics, MA (Hons)

Course summary

As the world’s second most spoken language, Mandarin Chinese and its associated cultures have helped to shape the contemporary world in many ways.This joint honours programme gives you the opportunity to study Chinese while developing your social scientific understanding of language. Chinese and Linguistics make an excellent joint honours choice by combining the study of:

• a language in its cultural, historical and political context

• the expression and creation of meaning

Linguistics courses of particular relevance to language students cover:

• the speech sounds of the world's languages

• variation in the languages of the world

• the structure and history of world languages

ChineseEdinburgh is the only university in Scotland to offer both single and joint honours undergraduate programmes in Chinese. We specialise in teaching students with little or no prior knowledge of the language. Our programme is not for native speakers, but we also welcome students with some experience of studying Chinese and heritage language learners.Study with us, and you will develop advanced competency in modern standard Chinese. You will gain the skills needed to use the language daily in social and professional settings, focusing on:

• reading

• writing

• speaking

• listening

• translation

You will spend Year 3 using and honing these skills studying in China or Taiwan. As well as language skills, you will also gain specialist knowledge on mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and associated diasporas in pre-modern, modern and contemporary contexts.Our courses explore:

• history

• literature

• culture

• politics

• international relations

You can also opt to learn to read Classical Chinese. LinguisticsLinguistics examines how language works, describing how sounds, words, sentences and conversations combine to express and create meaning. You will also study:

• the uses of language in everyday life

• the ways in which language varies across society and evolves over time

• how language is mastered by children

As you progress through the programme, you will have the opportunity to plan and test scientific hypotheses about linguistic phenomena using specialist linguistics and phonetics equipment.

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