MASTER OF ARTS LINGUISTICS (MLG)
| Module Code | Module Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| MLG501 | Phonology | This module creates bedrock for all sound analysis at an advanced level where it then feeds into activities of different specialisations in the form of forensics, sociolinguistics, language technology and speech correction and respective clinical applications. |
| MLG502 | Syntax | The module focuses on the investigation of a selected set of problems within major contemporary frameworks, Government Binding, Minimalism, Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG), Head Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) etc. This module provides an anchor framework of linguistic interrogation that can be manipulated for different specialisations like forensic stylistics, speech recovery, meaning interpretation, etc. It is the bedrock of language structure necessary for all students of Linguistics. The student is equipped with analytical skills for syntax, which can be applied to other modules within the programme. |
| MLG503 | Research Methods in Linguistics | This module provides for key issues and practice in research methodology within the field of Linguistics. Students will become acquainted with a range of empirical approaches to research questions and will relate these to the type of evidence and analysis required to produce the answers being sought. The module covers topics such as qualitative vs. quantitative methods and data, research ethics and data management. The students will be introduced to a wide range of methodological approaches, for example research interviews, participant observation, questionnaires and document studies. They will also be introduced to practical issues involved in making recordings and videos for linguistic research. |
| MLG507 | Discourse Studies | The module focuses on linguistic analysis of connected writing and speech. The module considers both the interactional structure and the social principles (pragmatics) that influence the production and interpretation of discourse. Students will use discourse skills in areas of media analysis, author and speaker identity, speech writing and presentation, idea pitching, persuasion, negotiation, etc. |
| MLG504 | Semantics | Semantics is an important “interface” between linguistics and the other disciplines of the cognitive sciences, in particular, psychology, cultural anthropology, and the computer sciences (artificial intelligence).This module bridges the gap as an anchor module by providing the necessary meaning analytical tools. The knowledge acquired in this module sets the student to be able to deal with semantic queries in various language-related programmes and specialisations. |
| MLG505 | Community Project | The Community Project is designed to engage linguistics students with the community and ultimately increase the visibility of linguistics while preparing students for future careers where linguistics is part of the solution. The Community Project aims to create an engagement platform between linguistics, community and industry. The Community Project gives the student opportunity to engage with the community and apply linguistics knowledge to language related matters in a community of their choice. The Community Project that a student chooses to undertake must be linked to the area of specialization that they choose. |
| OPTIONAL MODULES | ||
| MLG508 | Language Contact and Multilingualism | This module is on language contact and its outcomes, as well as the social and linguistic factors that regulate contact-induced changes. Students should be able to evaluate impacts and implications of language contact, management of multilingualism in areas of education, business and advise on policy and planning activities. |
| MLG509 | Language Ecology | |
| MLG510 | Mathematical Linguistics | This module is designed to demonstrate the application of mathematical tools relevant for linguistic analysis. Particular interest will be on set theory, relations, functions and algebra. The module provides an understanding of how these tools are applied to the formal study of natural languages for a better appreciation of language processing. Mathematics and philosophy are at the core of problem-solving, hence the need to understand how this manifests in language. Areas including propositional logic, predicate logic, and intentional logic and theory automata are also covered. At the end of this module, students should appreciate the contextualization of linguistic theory within mathematical methods. Students should then be able to use mathematical modeling to solve language issues and apply them to varied disciplines. This module is co-developed with mathematicians. |
| MLG 570 | Dissertation | The dissertation allows a student to embark on a project of their choice after they identify a problem. The project and dissertation should have identifiable deliverables and should be within the student’s study area as approved by the Departmental Board. Students are expected to be innovative and achieve among other things, patentable, innovative, industry causing and enhancing products, models, softwares, applications and protocols that enable service delivery in language related activities. |
| FORENSIC LINGUISTICS | ||
| MLG511 | Fundamentals of Forensic Linguistics | The module covers linguistic characteristics of various genres of texts and understand how language relates to law, both in terms of linguistic evidence and legal discourse. It concerns itself with the study of authorship debates, plagiarism issues, mainly through structural, lexical, and stylistic analysis. The module helps students develop skills in analysing texts such as suicide notes, hate mail, disputed novels, ambiguous legal documents, and confessions as well as comprehend how police/courts use language to question witnesses, how witnesses report events, and how lawyers and their clients use language to interact. Students must be able to comment on the linguistic aspects of various interactions in the legal system; understand what linguistic evidence is and is not admissible in courts; do a linguistic profile of a text (by paying attention to the defining characteristics of a text of a particular genre); discuss which factors determine authorship, what authorship means, and what issues are relevant to plagiarism; and understand the factors behind stylistic variation and style. |
| MLG512 | Procedural Law, Evidence gathering and Presentation | This module will capacitate students to value evidence gathering during criminal and civil cases’ investigations, awareness of what constitutes forensic linguistic evidence, the steps that should be followed in evidence preservation and non-contamination, the procedures taken when presenting evidence in court. This module will also enlighten students of the general court etiquette. |
| MLG513 | Authorship: Audio Analysis and Graphology | Students will be able to analyse similarity between voices. Students will explore what constitutes plagiarism and will carry out basic analysis of texts and trademarks. Of paramount importance are the skills to model similarity indices with precision and also awareness and competence of using the relevant softwares for voice and handwriting analyses. This module will be co-developed with the Faculty of Computer Engineering. During this module, students will develop an understanding of how individuals create their own writing styles and how individuals identify with particular writing styles both in discourse and physical handwriting. |
|
CHOOSE ONE OPTIONAL MODULE |
||
| MLG514 | Forensic Phonetics | Students should be able to authenticate recordings, recognize speakers from their voices, identification of the health, emotional or psychological states of the talker and the analysis of speech for evidence of deception. This module will be co-developed with the Computer Engineering Faculty. This module focuses on the analysis of spoken communication. It includes speaker identification, enhancing and decoding spoken messages, analysis of emotions in voice, authentication of recordings. The student is equipped to master two major elements of Forensic Phonetics, i.e, the analysis (usually electro-acoustical) of those speech signals which have been transmitted and stored; the other is that of analysing the communicative acts themselves. |
| MLG516 | Rhetoric | Rhetoric a specialized module designed to expose students to the theories and applications of the writing and reading processes and to enhance critical thinking skills. This module will assist students to effectively use the tools of reading, writing, and thinking in their personal, professional, and public lives. This module enables students to undertake language analysis for forensic linguistic cases. |
| MLG503 | Research Methods in Linguistics | This module provides for key issues and practice in research methodology within the field of Linguistics. Students will become acquainted with a range of empirical approaches to research questions and will relate these to the type of evidence and analysis required to produce the answers being sought. The module covers topics such as qualitative vs. quantitative methods and data, research ethics and data management. The students will be introduced to a wide range of methodological approaches, for example research interviews, participant observation, questionnaires and document studies. They will also be introduced to practical issues involved in making recordings and videos for linguistic research. |
| MLG505 | Community Project | The Community Project is designed to engage linguistics students with the community and ultimately increase the visibility of linguistics while preparing students for future careers where linguistics is part of the solution. The Community Project aims to create an engagement platform between linguistics, community and industry. The Community Project gives the student opportunity to engage with the community and apply linguistics knowledge to language related matters in a community of their choice. The Community Project that a student chooses to undertake must be linked to the area of specialization that they choose. |
| MLG515 | Stylistics | This module exposes students to the concept of stylistics, in understanding the techniques and features of written and oral texts. The module focuses on three main activities: identifying specific stylistic features, analyzing these stylistically and linguistically and interpreting their communicative functions in writing, oral communication, reading and understanding of written and oral documents / texts. Stylistic features relating to documents such as, advertisements, legal documents, technical documents, scientific documents and newspaper articles are interrogated. Students should be able to apply stylistic knowledge to assess crime, determine the speaker, assess threat levels and is largely central to forensic analysis and profiling. Most importantly, the module allows students to exhibit their knowledge of linguistics, semantics, rhetoric, and pragmatics in the process of negotiating a given text and document and unfolding its message and intention. |
| MLG507 | Discourse Studies | The module focuses on linguistic analysis of connected writing and speech. The module considers both the interactional structure and the social principles (pragmatics) that influence the production and interpretation of discourse. Students will use discourse skills in areas of media analysis, author and speaker identity, speech writing and presentation, idea pitching, persuasion, negotiation, etc. |
| MLG570 | Dissertation | The dissertation allows a student to embark on a project of their choice after they identify a problem. The project and dissertation should have identifiable deliverables and should be within the student’s study area as approved by the Departmental Board. Students are expected to be innovative and achieve among other things, patentable, innovative, industry causing and enhancing products, models, softwares, applications and protocols that enable service delivery in language related activities. |
| LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT TECHNOLOGIES | ||
| MLG502 | Syntax |
The module focuses on the investigation of a selected set of problems within major contemporary frameworks, Government Binding, Minimalism, Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG), Head Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) etc. This module provides an anchor framework of linguistic interrogation that can be manipulated for different specialisations like forensic stylistics, speech recovery, meaning interpretation, etc. It is the bedrock of language structure necessary for all students of Linguistics. The student is equipped with analytical skills for syntax, which can be applied to other modules within the programme.
|
| MLG517 | Corpus Linguistics | The student will develop corpora for lexicography, language documentation, forensic assessment etc. This module focuses on computational methods in empirical linguistic analysis and natural language processing. Topics include the use of text corpora and other sources of linguistic data; morphological analysis, parsing and language modeling; applications in areas such as information retrieval and machine translation. |
| MLG518 | Lexicography and Terminology Processing | This module focuses on the advanced processes of lexicography and terminography, blending theory with practice. It seeks to produce students are not only familiar with processes involved in the compilation of dictionaries, analysing same, and processing terminology, but to be practitioners in the making. Students will be part of one or more ongoing dictionary projects or term creation/term organisation projects, attached either to the African Languages Research Institute or to independent organisations/individuals involved in the production of dictionaries, glossary lists, term banks, dictionary making or term processing software development, or related activities. A student may elect to be involved in a patentable project as an alternative to writing a dissertation. This module combines both manual and automated methodologies, with units on practical lexicography/terminography steeped in e-lexicography and language technology (computational linguistics and Artificial Intelligence) offered in collaboration with the Computer Science Department. On completion, students can work as versatile practitioners or researchers for dictionary-making institutions, big data organisations, search engine companies, translation software developers, individual organisations working with specialised terminology, publishers, electronic corpus developers/managers, and they can also work in academia as lecturers, researchers and consultants. |
| CHOOSE ONE OPTIONAL MODULE | ||
| MLG519 | Language Documentation and Terminology Development | Students will develop discipline specific glossaries, terminologies, orthographies with the use of corpus linguistics skills and language technology applications, contributing to the digitalization of Zimbabwean languages. This also includes the documentation of endangered, minority and less described languages as well as the process of terminology development. |
| MLG520 | Historical and Comparative Linguistics | The student will explore language evolution, change, and relationships and be in apposition to trace language histories and development, compare linguistic structures across languages, analyse language contact and diffusion and apply methods like comparative reconstruction |
| MLG505 | Community Project | The Community Project is designed to engage linguistics students with the community and ultimately increase the visibility of linguistics while preparing students for future careers where linguistics is part of the solution. The Community Project aims to create an engagement platform between linguistics, community and industry. The Community Project gives the student opportunity to engage with the community and apply linguistics knowledge to language related matters in a community of their choice. The Community Project that a student chooses to undertake must be linked to the area of specialization that they choose. |
| Choose Two Optional Modules | ||
| MLG 521 | Biolinguistics | The student will be able to examine ‘mirror pathologies’, that is, cases where language is intact, but general intelligence is affected such as Specific Language Impairment (SLI). The module on Biolinguistics focuses on the ontogenesis of language, that is, how it evolved in human race and how it develops within an individual. The Biolinguistics (also known as Biolinguistic Enterprise or Biolinguistic Approach) module equips students with knowledge of the biological foundations of language. The Biolinguistics module offers knowledge about language from the perspectives of neurolinguistics, psycholinguistics, philosophy of mind and evolutionary theory. The topics covered in the module include language pathology, language genetics, language evolution and language from the perspective of the laws of form. |
| MLG504 | Semantics | Semantics is an important “interface” between linguistics and the other disciplines of the cognitive sciences, in particular, psychology, cultural anthropology, and the computer sciences (artificial intelligence).This module bridges the gap as an anchor module by providing the necessary meaning analytical tools. The knowledge acquired in this module sets the student to be able to deal with semantic queries in various language-related programmes and specialisations. |
| MLG510 | Mathematical Linguistics | This module is designed to demonstrate the application of mathematical tools relevant for linguistic analysis. Particular interest will be on set theory, relations, functions and algebra. The module provides an understanding of how these tools are applied to the formal study of natural languages for a better appreciation of language processing. Mathematics and philosophy are at the core of problem-solving, hence the need to understand how this manifests in language. Areas including propositional logic, predicate logic, and intentional logic and theory automata are also covered. At the end of this module, students should appreciate the contextualization of linguistic theory within mathematical methods. Student should then be able to use mathematical modeling to solve language issues and apply them to varied disciplines. This module is co-developed with mathematicians. |
| MLG570 | Dissertation | The dissertation allows a student to embark on a project of their choice after they identify a problem. The project and dissertation should have identifiable deliverables and should be within the student’s study area as approved by the Departmental Board. Students are expected to be innovative and achieve among other things, patentable, innovative, industry causing and enhancing products, models, softwares, applications and protocols that enable service delivery in language related activities. |
| CLINICAL LINGUISTICS | ||
| MLG 503 | Research Methods in Linguistics | This module provides for key issues and practice in research methodology within the field of Linguistics. Students will become acquainted with a range of empirical approaches to research questions and will relate these to the type of evidence and analysis required to produce the answers being sought. The module covers topics such as qualitative vs. quantitative methods and data, research ethics and data management. The students will be introduced to a wide range of methodological approaches, for example research interviews, participant observation, questionnaires and document studies. They will also be introduced to practical issues involved in making recordings and videos for linguistic research. |
| MLG522 | Fundamentals in Clinical Linguistics | Students will be able to do the following: assessing, diagnosing and administering language disorders. This module will be co-developed with the Department of Rehabilitation in the Faculty of Health Sciences and Technology. This module applies linguistic science to the analysis of speech and language disorders, this is because linguistics sets the foundation of many speech and language diagnostic tests. The Clinical Linguistics module focuses on the application of linguistic theory to the field of Speech-Language Pathology. Students are equipped to be able to carry out research with the aim of improving assessment, treatment and analysis of disordered speech/language. The module takes a comparative approach by focusing on clinical linguistics across multiple languages. The module will cover a wide range of areas such as clinical phonetics, clinical phonology, clinical prosody, clinical morphology, clinical syntax, clinical semantics, clinical pragmatics and clinical discourse. |
| MLG523 | Developmental Language Disorders |
Student will be able to do the following:
|
| OPTIONAL MODULES | ||
| MLG521 | Biolinguistics | The student will be able to examine ‘mirror pathologies’, that is, cases where language is intact, but general intelligence is affected such as Specific Language Impairment (SLI). The module on Biolinguistics focuses on the ontogenesis of language, that is, how it evolved in human race and how it develops within an individual. The Biolinguistics (also known as Biolinguistic Enterprise or Biolinguistic Approach) module equips students with knowledge of the biological foundations of language. The Biolinguistics module offers knowledge about language from the perspectives of neurolinguistics, psycholinguistics, philosophy of mind and evolutionary theory. The topics covered in the module include language pathology, language genetics, language evolution and language from the perspective of the laws of form. |
| MLG501 | Phonology | This module creates bedrock for all sound analysis at an advanced level where it then feeds into activities of different specialisations in the form of forensics, sociolinguistics, language technology and speech correction and respective clinical applications. |
| MLG505 | Community Project | The Community Project is designed to engage linguistics students with the community and ultimately increase the visibility of linguistics while preparing students for future careers where linguistics is part of the solution. The Community Project aims to create an engagement platform between linguistics, community and industry. The Community Project gives the student opportunity to engage with the community and apply linguistics knowledge to language related matters in a community of their choice. The Community Project that a student chooses to undertake must be linked to the area of specialization that they choose. |
| MLG524 | Crosslinguistic Aspects of Aphasia | At the end of the module students are expected to detect aphasia in clients and recommend specific therapy. Students should also be able to characterize aphasics’ behavior for development of advanced interventions. This module is designed to provide students with a comprehensive study of aphasia in adults including etiologies, characteristics, assessment and management of this disorder. The module will also provide students with knowledge of how aphasia manifests itself in different languages, how it affects different languages in bilingual speakers and how it affects different linguistic components within an individual. |
| CHOOSE TWO OPTIONAL MODULES | ||
| MLG508 | Language Contact and Multilingualism | This module is on language contact and its outcomes, as well as the social and linguistic factors that regulate contact-induced changes. Students should be able to evaluate impacts and implications of language contact, management of multilingualism in areas of education, business and advise on policy and planning activities. |
| MLG525 | Linguistics for Communication Sciences | In this module students will be invited to apply their knowledge of language structure and function to a clinical context. A range of child and adult communication disorders will be examined. The module will cover the anatomical, physiological, psychological, audiological and neurological pathologies that underlie disorders of fetal development (e.g. cleft palate), disorders of cognitive development (e.g. Down’s syndrome and autism), congenital disorders (e.g. cerebral palsy), acquired neurological disorders (e.g. stroke, brain tumour, dementia, motor neuron disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, head trauma), acquired speech disorders (e.g. glossectomy, dysarthria), hearing disorders (genetic and infection-related), disorders of fluency (e.g. stammering) and disorders of voice (e.g. puberphonia in adolescent males, laryngectomy, vocal nodules and polyps). Students will also cover the psychiatric bases of thought disorders (e.g. schizophrenia) and of gender dysphoria (e.g. transsexual voice). In examining these conditions, the emphasis will be one of clinically accurate analysis of the main speech and language indicators involved in each. Students will design approaches to therapy and recommend for the appropriate speech correction. |
| MLG501 | Phonology | This module creates bedrock for all sound analysis at an advanced level where it then feeds into activities of different specialisations in the form of forensics, sociolinguistics, language technology and speech correction and respective clinical applications. |
| MLG570 | Dissertation | The dissertation allows a student to embark on a project of their choice after they identify a problem. The project and dissertation should have identifiable deliverables and should be within the student’s study area as approved by the Departmental Board. Students are expected to be innovative and achieve among other things, patentable, innovative, industry causing and enhancing products, models, softwares, applications and protocols that enable service delivery in language related activities. |
| SOCIOLINGUISTICS | ||
| MLG526 | Geolinguistics | The student will be able to draw linguistic maps for the nation which will help in the management of information distribution for multi purposes e.g. health, education, disaster management etc This module covers issues of language in relation to Geography. Geo linguistics is used to differentiate the areas where different varieties of a language are used. The module also discusses different type of sounds of varieties of the same language. The module will discuss language evolution, geo-location and phonetic differences and interfacing with marketing. Students will be able to utilize ICTs such as GIS to characterize the linguistic landscape. |
| MLG527 | Applied Sociolinguistics | Students should be able to design models for the interaction of languages in their societies and to recommend approached to deal with various levels of variation at all levels of language in use. Applied sociolinguistics is clearly to be interpreted as referring to activities in which the research of sociolinguists is employed (very often by sociolinguists themselves) in other fields where it can be of some value. The module explores the social aspects of language and communication. |
|
MLG528 |
Language Policy and Planning | Consultancy services related to language planning and policy. This module will be useful to all postgraduate students of Linguistics who are advancing their role as researchers and language practitioners. The module focuses on language planning as a national duty meant to eradicate conflict, promote inclusivity and national unity. Students will identify and characterise problems related to language planning and development in a multilingual society, with special reference to the development of standard languages in Zimbabwe, Africa, and the world. Students will learn how to analyse multifaceted and complex issues concerning language planning in a variety of units comprising national speech embracement, purism versus cross-fertilization, linguicide (language killing) and linguistic human rights, language revival (reclamation, revitalization and renewal), conscious versus subconscious linguistic evolution, language and nationhood, the power of the word, the politics of language and the language of politics. |
| OPTIONAL MODULE | ||
| MLG529 | Language and Gender | |
| MLG530 | Language, Human Rights and Sustainable Development | This module covers the centrality of languages in to access rights, in particular in terms of equality; inclusion and diversity, explore the impact of language to innovation, economic success and inclusive development, equip students with key theoretical tools in the areas of multilingualism, sociolinguistics and language policy; use linguistic autobiographies and recent artistic productions (television, cinema, literature, comic books) as examples to explore methodologies and topics in the area of languages and multilingualism; explore language policies at national and international level in areas such as: the requirement of language certificates, policies around Sign languages, the use of braille, the importance of multilingual education policies, language issues in displaced populations and minority communities. Students should be able to advocate for the rights of minorities from an informed perspectives and also contribute to policy development |
| MLG 503 | Research Methods in Linguistics | This module provides for key issues and practice in research methodology within the field of Linguistics. Students will become acquainted with a range of empirical approaches to research questions and will relate these to the type of evidence and analysis required to produce the answers being sought. The module covers topics such as qualitative vs. quantitative methods and data, research ethics and data management. The students will be introduced to a wide range of methodological approaches, for example research interviews, participant observation, questionnaires and document studies. They will also be introduced to practical issues involved in making recordings and videos for linguistic research. |
| MLG505 | Community Project | The Community Project is designed to engage linguistics students with the community and ultimately increase the visibility of linguistics while preparing students for future careers where linguistics is part of the solution. The Community Project aims to create an engagement platform between linguistics, community and industry. The Community Project gives the student opportunity to engage with the community and apply linguistics knowledge to language related matters in a community of their choice. The Community Project that a student chooses to undertake must be linked to the area of specialization that they choose. |
| CHOOSE TWO OPTIONAL MODULES | ||
| MLG531 | Anthropological Linguistics | This module deals with the relationship between language and culture emphasising the variation and usage in relation to culture. The student should be able to relate how activities such as codeswitching, creole development, language endangerment, and constructed languages reflect on our changing societies. The student is equipped to address the ethics of fieldwork as a means of investigating these important social phenomena at the interfaces of language/ecology, and language/identity. |
| MLG532 | Applied Onomastics | The module builds on the undergraduate module, Onomastics. Students who register for this module should have successfully completed the undergraduate module as it offers an introductory appreciation of the disciplinary, reveals strong connections with theoretical linguistics and sociolinguistics as well as its interdisciplinary orientation. The Applied Onomastics module equips students with conceptual and practical skills to investigate the properties of names in the context of non-onomastic activities. Recognising that personal and place names, in particular, can function as causative agents or clues to deeper social or cultural realities, the aim of the module is to demonstrate how onomastics can offer practical solutions and insights to issues encountered in a wide range of contexts. The module draws cases and examples from Africa in general and Zimbabwe, in particularly. The body of knowledge covered includes; names and bi/multilingualism, cross-cultural naming practices, African surnames and identities, geographical names and cultural heritage, names and the media, onomastics and psychology and cognition, names and (inter)national security, linguistic landscaping and branding. Emphasis is placed on field work, processing naturally occurring data and solution based group projects. Students should have a working knowledge of variety of disciplines that include cartography, cultural geography, archaeology, sociolinguistics, politics, psychology and cognition and business and marketing. Grounding in the aims of applied onomastics as a discipline and the link between applied onomastics and applied linguistics and related theories and methodologies, is crucial. |
| MLG508 | Language Contact and Multilingualism | This module is on language contact and its outcomes, as well as the social and linguistic factors that regulate contact-induced changes. Students should be able to evaluate impacts and implications of language contact, management of multilingualism in areas of education, business and advise on policy and planning activities. |
| MLG509 | Language Ecology | Students will explore how languages interact with their environment and study language in social, cultural, and political contexts and examine language contact, shift, and revitalization. The module allows students to analyze language policy and planning and investigate linguistic diversity and multilingualism. |
| MLG 570 | Dissertation | The dissertation allows a student to embark on a project of their choice after they identify a problem. The project and dissertation should have identifiable deliverables and should be within the student’s study area as approved by the Departmental Board. Students are expected to be innovative and achieve among other things, patentable, innovative, industry causing and enhancing products, models, softwares, applications and protocols that enable service delivery in language related activities. |
