Linguistics

Linguistics is the systematic study of human language. The Cambridge degree lies at the intersection of the humanities, social and natural sciences. It teaches you to understand and then look beyond the seemingly limitless differences between the world’s languages, discovering the deeper properties that languages share and through that gaining greater insight into the structure of the human mind.

Overview

Ucas code

Q100

Campus code

X

Typical offers made per year

3

Typical Undergraduate cohort

6

Minimum offer level

A Levels: A*AA

IB: 42 points, with 776 at Higher Level.

Other qualifications: check what other international qualifications are accepted at Cambridge

STEP (SIXTH TERM EXAMINATION PAPER)

COURSE DURATION

BA (Hons) 3 years full-time

Essential subjects

None

Desirable subjects

Knowledge of a foreign language to at least GCSE level is expected.

ADMISSIONS ASSESSMENT

Admissions Assessment: Interview candidates for Linguistics will take a written assessment consisting of two data questions and one essay question (60 minutes). More information can be found here.

Submitted Work: None

Why Choose St John's for Linguistics?

The Babel Fish belonging to Douglas Adams

St John’s usually have 6-8 Linguistics undergraduates, and many students studying MML, AMES, ASNC and Classics also have linguistic interests, making for a Linguistics community that’s diverse, lively, and very active.

St John’s is the only college with a dedicated Linguistics Society. This student-led group runs socials, events, technical know-how sessions and talks. It creates a great opportunity to collaborate and bring together the linguistic community in College and build some committee skills.

Our large student community is diverse and covers many disciplines, so the chances are that in College you’ll come across highly proficient speakers of the languages being covered in your lectures, supervisions and independent reading. This gives you first-hand experience as examples of phenomena you’ve being taught about, or that you independently discover and want to learn more about.

The College supports Linguistics undergraduates to undertake additional courses, such as language qualifications at the University Language Centre or coding or other training programmes. This offers brilliant opportunities for academic extension and developing career-relevant skills.

Watch this video to find out more about the Linguistics course at Cambridge.

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Our academics

Director of Studies

Sub-Director of Studies

Professor Geoffrey Horrocks

Fellow

Course structure and information

The Linguistics Tripos combines core language topics with exciting perspectives from Neuroscience, Psychology and Computer Science.

Find out more about the course structure and what to expect when studying at St John's College.

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Supporting your studies

Sound-proof booth in the Library

The College Library has a bookable sound-proof booth, which students use for online meetings or supervisions, for listening to resources or for small group discussions.

For Linguistics students, the booth is useful for working on course components like practical phonetics, that require you to produce more and less usual sounds, or where you need to listen to recordings, for example concerning varieties of English, language acquisition or psycholinguistics.

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Writer-in-residence

The College's Writer-in-residence programme brings award-winning professional writers into the St John's community to interact with students and encourage participation in the contemporary literature scene.

As well as organising guest readings and other events that are open to anyone across the University, the Writer-in-residence runs informal reading and discussion groups exclusively for St John's students and staff, and offers one-to-one meetings to any St John's students who are keen to experiment with and develop their own creative writing.

Exchange Programmes

St John's is proud to collaborate with a number of great institutions to provide exciting cultural and academic exchanges. Our current exchange partners include Caltech Scholars exchange, Collegio Ghislieri di Pavia University Exchange, Heidelberg University Exchange, Nagoya University Exchange Scheme and NUS Research Exchange Programme.

Discover student life

meet our students

There’s a great Linguistics community at St John’s - there's always people to chat with, and the Library staff are really helpful when it comes to getting books on request

Scarlett, Linguistics, undergraduate

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There’s a great Linguistics community at St John’s - there's always people to chat with, and the Library staff are really helpful when it comes to getting books on request

Scarlett, Linguistics, undergraduate

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Languages have always interested me, especially Spanish and the grammar and pattern aspects. Linguistics is about identifying specific features of languages and understanding how they work. The course gives a broad overview, covering sound, words, and society - so we study phonetics, maths, history, and psychology.

St John’s is a big College, with at least two linguists in each year and an active Linguistics Society. My Director of Studies is a renowned linguist who has written many books on syntax - she’s brilliant and very supportive. The travel grants available at St John’s are important for linguists because our degree involves languages from all over the world.

A Linguistics degree opens up so many career options. I’m considering becoming a speech and language therapist, but computational linguistics also fascinates me, so I might explore working in AI or for a tech company. Outside of academics, I’m helping to organise St John’s May Ball, which has been busy but really fun - I’ve learned lots of new skills. I’m also assistant director for a play written by another student.

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Applying

Linguistics is not a subject you can study in any depth at school, so it’s important to demonstrate in your application how you have explored and deepened your interest in and knowledge of the subject.

Language is always around you: develop a curiosity about what you see and hear. There are many ways of doing this, including, but not limited to popular science books and other books and articles on linguistic topics, YouTube videos, MOOCs, blogs, podcasts, online Linguistics atlases, Linguistics Olympiads and Linguistics essay competitions.

Linguistics is a diverse subject that brings together many different strands of language-related research. Do not be afraid to delve into one or more of these in-depth, telling us about your specific linguistics interests at the point of application, but make sure that your liveliest interests are part of the course structure to be sure that our Tripos is right for you.

You have to take a pre-interview test. Make use of available past papers to practise completing the test under timed conditions. Linguistics Olympiad puzzles are also very useful as preparation for this test.

If you are invited for interview, you will have one academic interview with the Director of Studies in Linguistics, and this will last approximately 30-40 minutes.

Before the interview, you’ll be presented with a data-based problem. We will talk about your response to this as part of the interview. We may also discuss the Linguistics-specific content that you discussed in your personal statement so make sure that you have that material fresh in your memory.

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Life after St John's

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Our societies

Modern & Medieval Languages & Linguistics Society

St John’s MMLL Soc was founded by students studying languages and linguistics as a way to connect College members across all academic years through fun socials.

Society events range from networking sessions with alumni, informal group discussions, and cinema or theatre trips to see the latest foreign language films and plays, to our ‘year abroad’ talk and special end-of-year candlelit dinner.

We take a holistic approach to MMLL life and the community is welcoming and social, with all MMLL students at St John’s automatically a part of the society.

Find out more Visit society's website

Linguistics Society

Our society promotes the study of language and linguistics among College members and supports current students.

One of the few collegiate linguistics societies at Cambridge, we are all linguistics undergraduates, postgraduates, Fellows and researchers at St John’s, but anyone who shares a lively interest in the study of language is welcome to attend our events.

These include subject advice sessions, talks, meet and greets and Formal Halls, which create a great sense of community among College linguists.

Given the subject’s interdisciplinary nature, events may involve collaboration with St John’s societies that share an affinity with the study of language.

Find out more Visit society's website

Discover all societies

Notable alumni

Dr Richard Bentley

1676

Academic, Classicist

Nobel Laureate

Royal Medal winner

Academy Award winner

Pulitzer Prize winner

Olympic Medal winner

Poet Laureate

Bentley is one of the great figures of classical scholarship. An expert in textual criticism, he studied Ancient Greek and Latin Literature. He lectured at Oxford and was keeper of the Royal Library. He is best known for his Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris, a groundbreaking academic discovery that proved that letters allegedly written by Phalaris (Sicilian tyrant of the 6th century BCE) were in fact the work of a Greek sophist of the 2nd century CE. He was Master of Trinity College in 1700-30, one of its most controversial leaders.