Language and Linguistics
Welcome to the Linguistics Section of the Department of English!
The English linguistics section of the Department of English is involved in a wide range of research activities and offers courses in all major fields of English linguistics. As regards research foci, varieties of English around the world constitute a consistently prominent research topic, but also the history of the English language represents a focal point of research activities.
Methodologically, the English linguistics section generally studies and describes the English language on empirical grounds and verifies its findings statistically. In terms of teaching, these research foci find reflection in that courses on World Englishes (e.g. American, British or Indian English) as well as on all stages of the history of the English language (e.g. Middle English, Early Modern English or Late Modern English) are offered; our courses also cover a variety of corpus-linguistic techniques and quantitative methodologies. Seminars on the different levels of language organisation in terms of sounds (phonetics and phonology), words (morphology and word-formation), sentences (syntax) and meaning (semantics and pragmatics) as well as on various applied fields of linguistic research (e.g. psycholinguistics or sociolinguistics) complete the set of courses offered. These courses generally have an empirical focus and offer hands-on training in the description and analysis of a wide range of linguistic phenomena, using state-of-the-art methods in corpus linguistics, statistics and data science. The goal is to enable students to design and carry out their own linguistic research projects. The respective courses are designed for students of all lines of studies, i.e. Bachelor and Master programmes as well as the entire range of teaching-degree study programmes (L1–5).
Stay informed about upcoming guest lectures, events and new publications and explore past events hosted by the Linguistics department.
Become acquainted with our Linguistics staff from professors to student assistants and explore the latest office hours schedules to book your next one-on-one consultation.
Read more about the background, aims and approaches of both ongoing and completed Linguistics research projects.
Do you have questions or need information about your Linguistics studies? Explore our Computer Lab, our Corpus Linguistics Help initiative and other information relating to your studies here.
The Language and Linguistics section can be found in the
Department of English
Phil I, House B, 4th floor
Otto-Behaghel-Strasse 10B
35394 Gießen, Germany