This programme gives students all of the intellectual and practical skills to engage in linguistics research, either by itself, or as part of cross-disciplinary research. University of Edinburgh offers a strong focus on theoretical understanding, drawing on the expertise of the department which is particularly strong in theory development. Additionally, students will acquire the necessary empirical skills to complement their theoretical understanding.

The key aims of the programme are to:

provide integrated specialist knowledge in core areas of linguistics
establish a foundation for advanced research in those areas
provide a comprehensive understanding of the basic principles of research in theoretical and descriptive linguistics
develop analytical skills in an interdisciplinary context
Graduates from the programme will understand how to:

analyze key data in core areas of linguistics
theorize such data
exploit empirical methods to test their theories