LINGUISTICS (LIN)

LINGUISTICS (LIN)

Linguistics is one of the three subjects offered under the department of Linguistics, English Language studies and Communication Skills. The subject is taught at Bachelor’s and Master’s levels at Makerere University. The general objective of Linguistics is to train students to be overly knowledgeable about language; its structure, its usage, its variations and/or dynamics so as to be competent and effective language users, analysts and people who can give linguistic expertise and advice. The linguistic training that students receive is of considerable value in areas such as policy formulation and execution, especially in education and language matters, in critical appraisal and implementation of programmes. Students admitted to this subject do not need any prior knowledge of linguistics. Graduates of Linguistics are equipped with relevant skills to enable them to compete favorably in the job market.  Requirements for admission are open; any student who has done an Arts combination at Advanced level and has attained the required university minimum entry requirements qualifies for it. The subject is designed to run for a period of three years.

Linguistics is a rich discipline that offers students with a vast body of knowledge of both formal and applied knowledge. The courses offered at Bachelor’s level include: Phonetics and Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, Semantics, Pragmatics and discourse analysis, Lexicology and Lexicography, Language documentation and description, Translation and interpretation studies, sociolinguistics, stylistics and literary criticism, Psycholinguistics, editing and publishing, onomastics and Language and reasoning among others. With the changing trends and development in the world, we have found it necessary to expand and enrich Linguistics curriculum to meet the ever increasing current demand for expertise in a variety of areas. The scope of coverage is now expanded to cover not only academic demands but also market demands in courses such as Computational Linguistics, forensic linguistics, sign language, clinical linguistics and speech therapy among others.

The subject is designed to allow both Linguistics Major Students and Linguistics Minor students. Majors take two core courses and two elective courses while Linguistics Minors are required to take two courses per semester for three years.

The subject boasts of a well-qualified staff, reliable and sufficient for the smooth running of the subject. These include Professors and Doctors. This has made it possible for us to produce many BAs, MAs and PhDs. The subject does research in various disciplines of formal linguistics and in language documentation and description, lexicography and sociolinguistics.

The subject works closely with other Universities such as Ruhr University in Germany, Macquerie University in Australia, NTNU in Norway in promoting Linguistics research and competence at all levels of education, and promoting its use in public life.

To ensure that we transform research and teaching through application of modern technologies, the staff is determined to:

1. To develop and deliver programmes that aim at creating awareness of the relevance of Linguistics in daily life.
2. To develop programmes that provide skills for consolidated interdisciplinary research.
3. To support schools and colleges in curriculum and human resource development.