Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics (Taught)

The information provided on this page was correct at the time of publication (November 2025). For complete and up-to-date information about this course, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas.

The MPhil in Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics is a taught course offering specialisation in general linguistics (including phonetics but not applied linguistics), historical and comparative linguistics, or the linguistics of specific languages.

Course structure
In addition to a compulsory paper in linguistic theory, you will specialise in general linguistics (B), Indo-European historical and comparative philology and linguistics (C) or in the linguistics of one or two selected languages (D).

There will be three examination papers:

• (i) the history of one language, or of two or more historically related languages;

• (ii) the structure of the language or languages selected; and

• (iiia) translation from, and/or linguistic comment on, texts in the language or languages selected, or (iiib) a project on an aspect of the structure or history of the language, or family of related languages, studied.

Subject (iii) may be replaced with any of the modules listed under Option B, except for History and Structure of a Language.

Options
You will specialise in either general linguistics (B), Indo-European historical and comparative philology and linguistics (C), or in the linguistics of one or two selected languages (D).

Option B
You will select three options from the following range of topics:

• Phonetics and Phonology

• Syntax

• Semantics and Pragmatics

• Historical and Comparative Linguistics

• Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics

• History and Structure of a Language

• Experimental Phonetics.

You may also ask for one option in another subject in general linguistics; approval will be subject to the availability of proper instruction and provision for examination. For students with substantial previous training in the subject, it is also possible to choose Computational Linguistics as an option.

Please note that not all options may be offered every year, depending on the availability of teaching.

Option C
You will select two ancient Indo-European languages or language groups (eg Greek, Italic, Celtic, Anatolian, Indo-Iranian, Slavic). Three exam papers cover the comparative grammar, the historical grammar, and a number of set texts for linguistic commentary in the two languages or language groups.

Option D
You may select either ancient (eg Latin, Sanskrit) or modern languages (eg French, Italian, German, Slavic languages).