Corpus Linguistics | Research Degrees

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Award Award	Duration Duration	Start dates Start dates	Application Application
PhD or Professional doctorate PhD or Professional doctorate	PhD: Full-time: 3–4 years Part-time: 6–8 years Professional doctorate: Part-time: 4–8 years PhD: Full-time: 3–4 years Part-time: 6–8 years Professional doctorate: Part-time: 4–8 years	October October	November to January November to January

Corpus linguistics uses specialised software to draw out patterns from large bodies of digitised language data (corpora). Especially in combination with other approaches to the study of language, corpus methods can empirically address both qualitative and quantitative research questions. Analysing large-scale corpora helps uncover patterns of communication and hidden bias in language that we might not have noticed before and has lots of exciting applications in all sorts of domains such as literature, languages, policy, education, sociology, health communication.

For example, researchers in the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics at the OU have used corpus linguistics with (critical) discourse analysis to answer questions about ideological representations in news media texts (for example, constructions of gender, representations of poverty and place, representations of social workers); with pragmatics to study professional communication such as email; and in combination with ethnography to study writing in social work practice.

Minimum 2:1 undergraduate degree (or equivalent) and an MA or research methods training at MA level (or equivalent). If you are not a UK citizen, you may need to prove your knowledge of English.

UK fee UK fee	International fee International fee
Full-time: £5,006 per year Full-time: £5,006 per year	Full-time: £12,705 per year Full-time: £12,705 per year
Part-time: £2,503 per year Part-time: £2,503 per year	Part-time: £6,353 per year Part-time: £6,353 per year

UK fee UK fee	International fee International fee
Full-time: £3,811 per year Full-time: £3,811 per year	Full-time: £9,676 per year Full-time: £9,676 per year

Some of our research students are funded via the Faculty or The Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership; others are self-funded.

For detailed information about fees and funding, visit Fees and studentships.

To see current funded studentship vacancies across all research areas, see Current studentships.

An image to illustrate the Corpus linguistics research topic