Master’s Degrees in Linguistics

Linguistics strives to identify the common properties of languages by studying their formal properties, their history, their diversity, their learning, and their pathologies. The Master’s degree in Linguistics – Grands Moulins Campus – is organized around a common trunk in linguistics with five specialization branches:

  • Theoretical and Experimental Linguistics (LTE)
  • Computational Linguistics (LI)
  • Linguistics Applied to the Didactics of French as a Foreign Language (LADFLE)
  • East Asian Linguistics and FLE Didactics (LAOFLE)
  • Phonetics and Phonology (Phi&Phi)

The master is part of the Paris Graduate School of Linguistics (PGSL)

PGSL

The Paris Graduate School of Linguistics (PGSL) is a recently created graduate program in the Paris area, covering all areas of language science. It offers a comprehensive curriculum integrating advanced studies and research, with close links to doctoral programs and the Empirical Foundations of Linguistics consortium. Research plays a central role in the program, and students also take elective courses to develop an interdisciplinary perspective.

Master’s Degrees specializations

Theoretical and experimental linguistics

Structure of the master degree

The Master’s degree in Linguistics – Grands Moulins Campus  offers a speciality in Theoretical and Experimental Linguistics (LTE), which is specifically oriented towards research, theorization and experimental analysis of linguistic phenomena.

In addition to a complete training in the different fields of linguistics, this program offers a thorough introduction to the different experimental methods used to describe language phenomena as well as a reasoned access to the different linguistic theories adopted in modern linguistics to explain such phenomena.

Computational Linguistics

Structure of the master degree

The Master’s degree in Linguistics – Grands Moulins Campus – Computational Linguistics (LI) is a multidisciplinary program combining linguistics, mathematics and computer science. The courses are given at the Linguistics Department and the Computer Science Department of the Grands Moulins campus.

Computational linguistics or Natural Language Processing (NLP) relates both to artificial intelligence and data science. It involves modeling and designing computer programs dealing with all aspects of human language, from speech recognition to the analysis of the meaning of a text. Its famous applications are for example machine translation, information retrieval, text generation, chatbots…
Natural language processing algorithms can also be used in computational linguistics, with the objective of increasing our knowledge about languages.

Aside from the research track in computational linguistics, the master’s degree in Computational Linguistics offers a career path with opportunities in the fields of language technology, natural language processing and data science. This meets the growing needs of the industrial world and civil society.

Phonetics and Phonology

Structure of the master degree

Phonetics and phonology are the fields of linguistics that study the properties of the sound systems of languages – from the production and perception of speech to the emergence of linguistic systems, combining the study of their acoustic and articulatory properties with formal processing through different theoretical models. The Phi&Phi program offers a specialization in phonetics and phonology anchored in a comprehensive training in all areas of linguistics.

The Master’s degree in Language Sciences – Grands Moulins Campus – Phonetics and Phonology (Phi & Phi) is specially oriented towards research, while providing advanced technical training in the analysis of acoustic signals, which can lead to various applications. Courses are given at the Linguistics Department of the Campus Grand Moulins and at the campus of the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3, the program being co-accredited by the two institutions.

A solid theoretical training is accompanied by the learning of advanced experimental methods, benefiting from a well-equipped phonetics laboratory

East Asian Languages and French as a Foreign Language

Structure of the master

For 35 years, the Linguistics Department of the University of Paris has been offering a course of study in linguistics applied to the teaching of French as a foreign language, with the aim of training specialists in the field of French as a foreign language: teaching, research, training of trainers, and pedagogical management.

Thanks to a partnership with the UFR Langues et Civilisations d’Asie Orientale, this master’s program is unique in France, and is designed for specialists in East Asian languages (Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese) who wish to qualify to work in the field of French as a foreign language in this region.

In addition to training for research in the field of FLE didactics and L2 acquisition, the Master’s degree in Linguistics applied to FLE didactics offers a professional career path with a variety of outlets that responds to the growing needs of civil society and the demand for French language abroad

Linguistics Applied to French as a Foreign Language

Structure of the master

For 35 years, the Linguistics Department of the University of Paris has been offering a course of study in linguistics applied to the teaching of French as a foreign language, with the aim of training specialists in the field of French as a foreign language: teaching, research, training of trainers, and pedagogical management.

In addition to training in research in the field of French as a Foreign Language didactics and L2 acquisition, the Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics for (FFL) didactics offers a professional path with a variety of outlets that respond to the growing needs of civil society and the demand for French language abroad.

Logos

The LOGOS master’s program is a transdisciplinary master’s program at the Université Paris Cité that covers the sciences of language in a multidisciplinary framework. It involves four main disciplines: linguistics (both empirical and formal), philosophy (philosophy of language and philosophy of science), mathematical logic and fundamental computer science.

The LOGOS MSc programme welcomes students with various backgrounds (primarily, but not exclusively, with a bachelor’s degrees in linguistics, philosophy, logic or mathematics) and aims to provide them:

  • not only with a complete set of formal skills concerning, for instance, Natural Language Processing or Machine Learning;
  • but also with a comprehensive knowledge of all the theoretical environments within which the analysis of language and linguistic phenomena takes place;
  • and with a wide-ranging understanding of all the conceptual stakes involved in the study and representation of language.

The four semesters of the master’s degree are devised as a progression almost from scratch. Each semester is composed of an average of five courses, each of which can generally be chosen among a substantial list of options, so as to allow each student to specialize as flexibly as possible, while acquiring a broad general knowledge in all four core disciplines.