This module is assessed by a compulsory three-hour written exam. It covers a range of topics in English linguistics, and in the exam you will be required to answer questions on two of these topics.

Options differ in each year, but may include:

English Words: This one-term option module considers various aspects of the lexicon of English, including the structure and meaning of words and how this changes, where new words come from, and social aspects of word use. We will discuss topics in morphology, lexical semantics and the history of English, and take a detailed look at the 'life stories' of some English words.

Sounds of English: This one-term option module will provide you with a basic understanding of articulatory phonetics and the ways in which sounds are produced; a thorough grounding in the phonetics and phonology of spoken English; an introduction to the main issues in the phonology of English; and the practical skills of phonetic transcription.

Literary Linguistics: This two-term module foregrounds the relationship between language and literary and non-literary texts, and considers language use from particular perspectives. In classes we will discuss approaches from within stylistics and dismodule analysis, and examine the ways in which specific linguistic choices create variations in style and meaning. The questions of what makes a text, and what makes a 'literary' text, will be explored; we will go on to explore topics including the difference between spoken and written texts, features of language such as deixis and metaphor, and the language of particular authors including Milton and Henry James.

History of the English Language: The module traces the growth of a standardised variety of English since the Anglo-Saxon period and considers how and why Standard English and other varieties have changed and continue to change. Classes will explore the social and cultural factors that have shaped English in different periods, and examine past and present attitudes to aspects of language (such as grammar, lexis, spelling and accent) and language change.

English Corpus Linguistics: Corpus linguistics uses large databases of texts to study linguistic phenomena. This module focuses on the English language, and is centred around two UCL parsed corpora of speech and writing, the British Component of the International Corpus of English (ICE-GB) and the Diachronic Corpus of Present-Day English (DCPSE). Students will be shown how to use these corpora to carry out empirical research. The course addresses key methodological questions of research in corpus linguistics, including statistics and empirical vs. theoretical approaches to research. The course is delivered by researchers at the UCL Survey of English Usage, the first corpus linguistics research group in Europe, based in the UCL English Department.