Certificate Course in Phonetics and Phonology
M.A. in Linguistics and Certificate Course in Phonetics & Phonology
Admissions to the M.Phil in Linguistics
 

About Us

The Department of Linguistics, University of Mumbai is established in June 1964. The Department offers MA, M.Phil and Ph.D. programmes in Linguistics. It also offers a Certificate Course in Phonetics and Phonology. The Department follows the Credit Based Semester and Grading System for its teaching programmes.  

The Department currently has four faculty members including an Associate Professor and three Assistant Professors (for more details, see Faculty Profile).  

Vision of the Department 

The Department seeks to promote research in various aspects of human languages. This involves research in sound patterns, word formation processes, sentence structures, linguistic meaning, processes of language change, language use, relationship between language and society etc.  

The Department seeks to sensitize the students to the diversity of language structures found in human languages. Given the increasing importance of linguistic resources in the current scenario, the Department seeks to equip the students with a toolkit which would enable him/her to understand, describe and work with these resources.

The Department also seeks to instill amongst the students a sense of responsibility and respect towards the linguistic diversity of the world, by developing an attitude which is responsive to the needs of the plurilingual ethos prevalent in human societies. Special attention is given to the languages of linguistic minorities of India. Such an approach would help in promoting and strengthening participatory democratic practices.

ABOUT LINGUISTICS

Linguistics is a discipline that studies the structure, functions and use of human languages. In Linguistics, we study properties of specific languages as well as seek to search for the properties which are common to all human languages.

While examining the structure of languages, a linguist addresses the questions such as:

v  what are the units of a language; how are these units patterned, e.g sounds into words, words into larger words and phrases, phrases into sentences;

v  how are various languages different from each other and how are they similar;

v  how do children acquire any language, without being taught and in a very short period of time.

The part of linguistics that studies the structure of languages is divided into the following subfields:

            Phonetics: Study of the physical properties of speech sounds (articulation and acoustics)

            Phonology: Study of the patterns of speech sounds in languages

            Morphology: Study of processes of word formation

            Syntax: Study of the structure of sentences

            Semantics: Study of linguistic meaning

Linguistics also studies how linguistic structures exhibit variation across space and time. A subfield of Linguistics called Historical Linguistics also studies how languages change over the period of time, and in contact with each other.

Linguistics also concerns itself with the study of functions and use of human language. Languages are used for expression: for communication as well as for thinking. A subfield of Linguistics called Pragmatics studies the use of language in society and its use in communication.

Various functions of languages, such as establishing identities, organizing the relations between individuals, groups and communities etc are studied in a subfield called Sociolinguistics. Here, the complex relationship of language and society is investigated.

Linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of knowledge. It not only interacts closely with literature, culture studies, sociology, politics, philosophy, media studies, anthropology, psychology but also with education, health science, computer science and neuroscience.

Application of Linguistics extends to research in linguistics and language studies, language teaching, translation, media and journalism, special education, speech pathology etc. Many IT companies also need linguistics in the domains such as machine translations, speech-to-text conversions etc.

Studying Linguistics sensitizes one to this extremely complex knowledge system called language and to its intricate patterns. It also sensitizes one to the strengths and challenges of the multilingual situations such as India. It further makes one realize the role of languages in building a strong participatory democracy. There are around 6000-7000 languages in the World today, and many of them are on the brink of extinction. In India alone, there are 750+ languages, a majority of which are being spoken by marginalized groups and are in a grave danger of being forced out of use. It is not only important to document these languages, but also to save them from extinction. Linguistics would help one to the understanding of the forces and conditions responsible for the plight of languages and of the societies speaking them, thereby opening up possibilities of bringing about positive social change.

CONTACT US 

Postal Address

                                    Department of Linguistics

                                    Ground Floor, Ranade Bhavan,

                                    University of Mumbai

                                    Vidyanagari,

                                    Kalina, Santracruz (East)

                                    Mumbai-400 098 

E-mail:                        linguistics@linguistics.mu.ac.in 

Tel.:                             +91 22 2654 3443