This unit explores the fundamental properties of human language, with examples from languages spoken in every part of the world. We look at the sounds of human language: how the speech organs make them, and how different they can be across languages. We gain a detailed understanding of English consonants and vowels, and we learn how to transcribe them phonetically. We investigate the ways in which sounds can convey meanings, through the formation of words and sentences in English and many other languages. We see how and why English is different from Japanese, Swahili, German, or even Irish.

This unit introduces the study of the interrelationship between language and society. It is concerned with phenomena of language change and how that leads to varieties in a language. How are these varieties linked to social differences? What distinguishes male speech from female speech or what are the linguistic styles of different social classes or ethnic groups? What is slang, or jargon, and what distinguishes a casual conversation from an interview?

Phonetics is the study of the physical properties of human speech. Phonology is the study of the representation and organization of sound in human language. This unit introduces students to these two core fields within linguistics, while also offering a brief overview of the phonetic and phonological diversity found in the world's languages. Basic phonological patterns are explored and students are given hands on practice in analysing these patterns.

All languages can be used to build meanings of roughly equivalent complexity, but they often do this in very different ways. This core unit focuses on morphology and syntax, exploring the nature of these aspects of language, and showing how they are related to other aspects of language such as discourse and the lexicon.

Semantics deals with the meaning of words, phrases, sentences and texts, and the relations between those meanings. Our goal is to explore the diversity of ways in which meaning can be expressed linguistically in different languages, as well as of what constitutes evidence for meaning.

A language other than English is chosen for analysis (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and discourse), and for description of the ways it is used (ethnography of speaking including speech acts, speech events, registers and genres). It is examined in its areal, genetic, historical, social and typological context. We also examine sources of data and their reliability, and the way findings are presented (reference and teaching grammars and linguistic papers).

This unit will focus on the analysis of genre and register, from a functional linguistics perspective. The issue of modelling genre relations will be examined in detail, including typological and topological approaches. Register analysis will be considered from the perspective of well studied registers such as analysts. Attention will also be given to qualitative and quantitative techniques, and to multi-modal analysis (including verbiage, image, music).

'Language looks different when you look at a lot of it at once.' This unit of study introduces you to the use of computer software to look at a lot of language at once: Do we refer to 'men' and 'women' equally often? What are the five most frequent words in the English language? What is the difference between 'pure' and 'sheer'? How does television dialogue differ from real-world dialogue? And how does a computer help us to answer these and similar questions?

Discourse analysis is concerned with analysing how people create meaning(s) in a given social context. In this unit students will learn to apply linguistic methods to the analysis of discourse. 'Discourse' includes both spoken and written language as well as images. Students will learn to apply a range of advanced linguistic methods to explore different discourse varieties and to study their organisation above the sentence level. A particular focus will be on the kinds of insights provided by different analytical techniques.

Through the study of seminal research in sociolinguistics the student is introduced to the methodology and tools used for the study of linguistic variation. The unit looks at variation and change across all the primary areas of the grammar: phonetic and phonological, lexical, syntactic semantic change and variation looking at the seminal research in each areas. Students will undertake an independent research project into a topic of variation observed in Australian English.

Language is a dynamic system, under constant pressures and continually evolving. Sounds and sound systems of human languages are incredibly diverse yet at the same time there are identifiable principles or factors that seem to constrain the diversity found in the phonetic and phonological systems of language. This unit examines sound systems in language, from a holistic point of view, looking at phonetic and phonological properties of sounds. Techniques are introduced to help analyse linguistic sound systems in terms of synchronic patterns and also their diachronic development.

This elective unit explores issues and challenges at an advanced level in the analysis of word and sentence structure, and introduces a range of formal and functional models developed for the description and analysis of complex morphological and syntactic issues.

This advanced seminar aims to prepare students for independent research in linguistics through critical reading and discussion of current issues and approaches in theory, data, methodologies, and criticism in linguistics and related research domains.

Human languages show a great range of diversity in every level of structure: phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and more. Yet at the same time this diversity is constrained by universal or near-universal properties. This unit examines the nature and extent of diversity in the world's languages, exploring how this diversity can be best described, analysed, and explained. Principles of Language Typology and techniques for discovering patterns and generalizations are introduced. Explanations for diversity and universals are considered.

This unit takes a functional view of grammar, considering the ways in which English is organised to build up our picture of reality, to enable us to interact in conversation and to make our contribution coherent and relevant. It is designed to give students skills in the analysis of ideational, interpersonal and textual meaning in the clause, the nature of inter-clausal relations, and the structure of nominal, verbal and adverbial groups and prepositional phrases.

Pragmatics explores interactions of meaning and context in discourse. This unit of study introduces students to some important topics in pragmatics research: reference and speech acts, non-literal language, the role of inference and reasoning in discourse, politeness, conversation, and the ethnography of speaking.

This unit of study examines the main linguistic phenomena that occur in the contact between majority and minority languages in a context of migration, using the Italo-Australian community as a case.

This unit is designed for third year students to undertake a project that allows them to work with one of the University's industry and community partners. Students will work in teams on a real-world problem provided by the partner. This experience will allow students to apply their academic skills and disciplinary knowledge to a real-world issue in an authentic and meaningful way.

Interdisciplinarity is a key skill in fostering agility in life and work. This unit provides learning experiences that build students' skills, knowledge and understanding of the application of their disciplinary background to interdisciplinary contexts. In this unit, students will work in teams and develop interdisciplinarity skills through problem-based learning projects responding to 'real world problems'.

Language in Context: from Foundations to Cutting Edge' will focus on paired readings (one reaching back to the foundations of the discipline, the other one looking forward from the frontiers of current understandings). These will relate to language in context (in all relevant senses, from society to culture, from conversation to text, within and across modalities), including but not limited to empirical, analytical, theoretical, applied, methodological, and epistemological issues, at an advanced level.

Structure in Language: from Foundations to Cutting Edge' will focus on paired readings (one reaching back to the foundations of the discipline, the other one looking forward from the frontiers of current understandings). These will relate to structure in language (at all levels, from sound to morphosyntax to discourse), including but not limited to empirical, analytical, theoretical, applied, methodological, and epistemological issues, at an advanced level.

This unit will support the development of students' research theses. The unit will include an orientation to their honours year, thesis development workshops, regular student-supervisor consultations and preliminary thesis writing.

This unit requires students to complete an 18 000 word original piece of sustained and advanced research in Linguistics, with supervision from a member of the Department guiding the research and writing process.