How does age, sex, social background and regional origins affect the way we speak? How do languages change over the course of time, and why? How do children learn to talk? Why do some languages appear so different from others? Linguists study these and other questions to gain insight into what it means to "know a language". An understanding of our language enhances our self-awareness, inspiring us to address fundamental questions about our communication as human beings.Linguistics is an increasingly important subject, impacting on areas in psychology, philosophy, education and artificial intelligence. It has real-world applications in such diverse fields as human rights, computer-assisted language learning, and the study of institutional language in settings like doctor-patient interactions, interviewer-interviewee dialogues, and courtroom exchanges.Our course offers you a solid grounding in linguistics, while still allowing for a large amount of personal choice. You explore a wide range of core topics in linguistics, mastering key concepts in phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics, and also investigate specialist areas including:- Multilingualism- Language and Gender- Language and the mind- Conversation and Social InteractionWe are a leading UK university for language and linguistics research (REF 2014), a place where talented students become part of an academic community in which the majority of research is rated ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’, placing us firmly within the top 10 departments in the UK. You have an opportunity to study different kinds of linguistics from structural linguistics to applied and experimental linguistics.If you want a global outlook, are interested in human communication, and want to study for a degree with real-world practical value in a world-class department, welcome to Essex.