MA English Language/Politics

About this course

English language and politics is a pairing that illuminates the relationship between language, power, and public life. Language is not a neutral medium: the words politicians choose, the framing of policy debates, the construction of political narratives, and the way media and governments communicate with publics are all subjects of serious analytical inquiry when you bring linguistics and political study together. At the University of Glasgow, this part-time programme combines English language and linguistics with politics, with a year abroad available, giving you the opportunity to study this combination in an international academic environment. As the current programme description notes, the English language and linguistics strand involves the study of the structure and meaning of the English language, past and present, examining what language reveals about culture, society, and individual identity. You will engage with phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics alongside sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and the history of English. The politics strand develops your understanding of political institutions, political theory, comparative government, international relations, and the analytical frameworks used to study power. Together, the two subjects open up questions that neither addresses alone: how political language constructs realities, how rhetoric operates in democratic debate, and how the media and politicians use language to persuade, exclude, or mobilise. Graduates of this combination move into careers where the intersection of language and public life is directly relevant. Journalism, political communications, public relations, policy writing, speech writing, and communications roles in political parties, public bodies, and organisations are among the most direct pathways. The linguistics training also supports careers in education, publishing, and the media, while the political component opens doors in the civil service, policy analysis, research, and international organisations. Some graduates go on to postgraduate study in linguistics, political science, media studies, or discourse analysis. The analytical sensitivity to how language constructs meaning that this combination develops is a distinctive and valuable professional skill.

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