English language and linguistics combines the study of the structure and meaning of the English language, past and present, to see what all this tells us about our culture, our society and ourselves. Over 50 years, we created the world-leading Historical Thesaurus of English, a unique resource charting the semantic development of the huge and varied vocabulary of English. You will also have access to dedicated laboratories for analysing spoken and written language.

: Scottish literature is the study of the poetry, drama, fiction and prose of Scotland from the 14th century to the most contemporary work. The University hosts the only academic unit in the UK exclusively dedicated to the teaching of, and research into, Scottish literature. We are home to the Centre for Robert Burns Studies, which is engaged in the production of a new, multi-volume, scholarly edition of the works of Scotland’s national poet.