MA in Linguistics

Evaluation system

There will be two types of evaluation: external examination and internal assessment.

(a External examination (theoretical, 60%)

At the end of the semester, the external examination will be conducted by Dean’s Office. There will be long answer, short answer and very short answer questions in each course.

(b Internal assessment (practical, 40%)

The internal assessment may consist of:

(i) Attendance

(ii) Presentation and interaction or class participation

(iii) Mid-term exam: written and practical

(iv) Project work

(v) Field work

(vi) Term paper, etc.

(c) Dissertation

The dissertation will be evaluated by two examiners: the external and internal (supervisor).

MA in linguistics is allowed to a candidate holding a Bachelor’s Degree in any discipline, but there is no provision for private candidates. Preferences will be given to those who have majored in linguistics. An entrance examination will be held to test students’ proficiency in the English language. English is the medium of instruction and writing in examination and dissertation.

MA in Linguistics is of four semester of two year duration. Each semester is of six months and there are 60 credit hours in total for four semesters, each credit hour equaling to 16 teaching hours.

The courses comprise various fields of theoretical and applied linguistics. All the courses are compulsory in the first and second semesters.

Semester I introduces basic courses in linguistics; namely, phonetics, morphology, syntax, history of linguistics and sociolinguistics.

Semester II also offers basic courses; namely, phonology, semantics and pragmatics, linguistic typology, research methods and field linguistics and psycholinguistics.

Semester III introduces three compulsory courses; namely, historical linguistics, Nepalese linguistics and modern linguistic theories. This semester further offers various types of specialization courses like advanced phonetics, advanced phonology, advanced morphology, advanced syntax, advanced pragmatics, corpus linguistics, computational linguistics, functional-typological grammar, lexical functional grammar, role and reference grammar, minimalist program and cognitive linguistics.

Semester IV offers various courses in applied linguistics like bilingualism and multilingualism, linguistic anthropology, second language acquisition, spoken language, language contact, language documentation, language teaching, multilingual education, lexicography, literary linguistics, language policy and planning, language revitalization, clinical linguistics, forensic linguistics and translation studies.

Two courses are compulsory. The course entitled Project in linguistics and dissertation (equalling 6 credit hours) are compulsory in this semester.

Table 1 presents a flowchart of courses of study including names of the courses, code number and credit hours.

Table 1: Courses of Study: Flowchart