Master of Arts in Linguistics
Introduction
Linguistics is the study of human language, including its rules, structures and functions. It provides a solid foundation in all of the essential topics, and introduces the analysis of the key elements of language – sounds, words, structures and meanings. A wide range of fascinating questions are explored, such as how conversation works, how children learn language, why women and men speak differently, and how language varies between regions and social groups. Studying linguistics, students are able to probe into the nature of human communication and interaction, in which language plays a central role. Linguistics is not only about the theory of language, but also the practical application to fields such as mental health..
The Master of Arts in Linguistics degree at the Royal University of Phnom Penh is a two-year program which trains students to specialize in linguistics, to equip with linguistic theories, and analyze language and linguistic discourse at a graduate level. Students receive comprehensive training in different fields of linguistics, such as phonology, syntax, lexicology, language acquisition, discourse analysis, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, introduction to applied linguistics, the use of linguistics in areas such as health, linguistic anthropology, comparative and historical linguistics, philosophy of language, characteristics of Khmer language, history of language and history of linguistics.
Graduates of the Master of Arts in Linguistics are well-equipped to undertake individual academic research in the field of linguistics. Their deep understanding of human communication enables them to work in various positions within the government and private sectors in the fields of media, health, mental health, social development, public relations, instructors of language, and researcher in linguistics and anthropology.
Background
The Master of Arts in Linguistics is offered by the Department of Linguistics at RUPP. The Department was created in 2002, with the aim at improving research in Khmer. To do this, the Department made an effort to write a new Khmer grammar textbook, to conduct extensive field work in order to develop a linguistic atlas of Cambodia.
Vision and Goals
Master of Science in Data Science and Engineering aims to produce high quality engineers who are competent and ready to work in the 21st century, by developing soft skills: creativity, communication, teamwork, (Engineering Reasoning & Problem Solving) and self-learning process with knowledge of Data (Science & Engineering) and Artificial Intelligence.
Objectives
- Competent in principles of Data (Science & Engineering) and Artificial Intelligence
- Able to integrate theoretical, practical and professional experience in a classroom or a real-world setup
- Have 21st Century skills (CDIO): creative, communication skills and collaboration skills to work effectively.
- Able to continuous self-development and have moral and ethical principles of professional practice
Curriculum
Course Structure
The Master of Arts in Linguistics is taken over two years. It consists of 55 credits and 880 hours. Students can choose to complete the degree in two ways, by thesis or by examination. Students choosing to complete their degree by thesis attend classes to the value of 40 credits, providing them with advanced knowledge of linguistics. During their final year, they also complete an original thesis under the supervision of a linguistics professor, which is worth 15 credits. Those choosing to complete their Masters by examination do not write a thesis. Instead, they attend additional classes to the value of 15 credits, and sit a final examination for each class.
Year I
Semester I
|
Course Code
|
Course Title
|
Credits
|
|---|---|---|
|
MLN101
|
Semantics
|
2
|
|
MLN102
|
Lexicography and Lexicology
|
2
|
|
MLN103
|
Comparative Syntax and Morphology
|
2
|
|
MLN104
|
Socio-linguistics
|
2
|
|
MLN105
|
Foreign Languages I (French, English, Thai)
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2
|
|
MLN106
|
Philosophy of Language
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2
|
|
MLN107
|
Phonetics and Phonology
|
2
|
Semester II
|
Course Code
|
Course Title
|
Credits
|
|---|---|---|
|
MLN108
|
Characteristics of South-East Asian Languages
|
2
|
|
MLN109
|
Pragmatics & Enunciation
|
2
|
|
MLN110
|
Introduction to Studying Linguistic Variation
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2
|
|
MLN111
|
Historical Ethnology of Cambodia
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2
|
|
MLN112
|
Methodologies for Linguistic Research
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2
|
|
MLN113
|
General Linguistics
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2
|
|
MLN114
|
Foreign Languages II (French, English, Japanese)
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2
|
Year II
Semester I
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Course Code
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Course Title
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Credits
|
|---|---|---|
|
MLN201
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Comparative Linguistics
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2
|
|
MLN202
|
Speech Analysis
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2
|
|
MLN203
|
Information Technology
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2
|
|
MLN204
|
Cambodian Epigraphy
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2
|
|
MLN205
|
Translating Languages
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2
|
|
MLN206
|
Foreign Languages III (French, English, Japanese)
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2
|
Semester II
|
Course Code
|
Course Title
|
Credits
|
|---|---|---|
|
MLN207
|
History of Linguistics
|
3
|
|
MLN208
|
Linguistic Diversity
|
3
|
|
MLN209
|
Applied Linguistics
|
3
|
|
MLN210
|
The Noun Phrase
|
3
|
|
MLN211
|
Comparative Grammar
|
3
|
|
MLN212
|
Thesis
|
15
|
Admission
Requirements
The Master of Arts in Linguistics is taken for two years. It consists of 54 credits. Each credit is taken for 16 hours. There are thesis and non-thesis programs. In the thesis program, students are required to have 42 credits of coursework and 12 credits of thesis writing. In the non-thesis program, students are required to have 48 credits of coursework and 6 credits of a project report and to take the comprehensive examination.
Fee
The M.A. in Linguistics is offered both as a scholarship and fee-paying course. Fee-paying is payable at the beginning of each academic year.
Enrollment
The program of Master of Arts in Linguistics at the Royal University of Phnom Penh is opened to staff of RUPP and the general public. Potential applicants must possess a bachelor’s degree of Arts.
Enrolment takes place before the start of class in October. Prospective students enroll directly through the Department of Linguistics at the Royal University of Phnom Penh.
Couse Description
Dr. Francois Alberola
Year I, Semester I
In this course, students examine the major philosophical theories concerning the nature and use of language, enabling them to come to a personal understanding of the philosophy of language.
Dr. Chan Somnoble
Year I, Semester I
This course complements the Lexicography and Lexicology subject, taken simultaneously. Students discuss the different approaches to the study the problem of the emergence of meaning in language proposed by various linguistic schools. As part of this, students explore the meaning of sentences, sentence constituents, and compare polysemy to semantic identity. Topics covered include syntax and semantics, the role of grammar, the foundations of tense and aspect categories, predicates, transitivity, how to deal with polycategorical units and how to distinguish word classes in Khmer.
Dr. Prum Maol
Year I, Semester I
In this course, students learn about the use of words, and their meanings. Students focus on the theory and methodology of meaning analysis, and consider the methodology that is used in dictionaries. Students also learn how to describe lexical items including microstructure and macrostructure; how to define lexical items; compare lexical units to grammatical units; discover what is a ‘semantic field’; and cover units on etymology; meaning and denotation; how context influences polysemic units, synonymy, antonymy, idiomatic expressions, analysis of word constituents; and various approaches to the semantics of lexis.
Dr. Sylvain Vogel
Year I, Semester I
In this course, students learn about word classes and focus on the structure of language as seen in the structure of language seen through the syntactic characteristics of their phrase constituents. Students explore word classes, their definitions, whether word classes are the same in all languages, and whether word classes are defined in the same way in all languages.
Dr. Louis Arsac
Year I, Semester I
Students learn that acquiring a new language is not just acquiring a set of new syntax, grammar and lexical rules, but also involves learning a new ‘cultural and civilizational grammar’. This involves distinguishing between two sets of rules, the rules of grammar on one hand, and the rules of communication on the other. The problem of acquiring a cultural and civilizational grammar is best dealt with a sociolinguistic approach. Such an approach requires students to take account of the historic, psychological and cultural aspects of speech, and to acknowledge the diversity and complexity of empirical situations which can complicate communication in a foreign language.
Dr. Chan Somnoble, Dr. Im Francois
Year I, Semester I
As part of their Masters program, students learn either English or French as a foreign language. They develop their abilities in speaking, reading and writing, and focus on learning general and technical linguistics terms and jargon. As well as studying either English or French intensively, students can choose to learn aspects of other foreign languages, including Thai and Japanese.
Dr. Jean-Michel Filippi
Year I, Semester I
This course familiarises students with phonetic and phological analyses of language, and focuses on minority languages and dialects, especially in the Cambodian context. Students learn to analyse various writing systems recently developed to write down the oral literature of Cambodian minority dialects, and learn how to describe both Khmer and minority languages. They do this by following two approaches, a practical approach which uses phonetics to describe non-Khmer languages, and a more theoretical approach which utilizes recent developments in phonetical and phonological theories. Students examine how sounds are produced and transmitted, and learn to describe sounds in formal language environments.
Dr. Sylvain Vogel
Year I, Semester II
This course serves as an introduction to Mon-Khmer languages, and the ancient languages from which they derive. In this course, students focus specifically on word classes in Khmer and Phuong, an ethnic language spoken in Moldulkiri. Students learn about classifier and quantifier sentences in these languages, and are introduced to Sanskrit and Pali.
Dr. Chan Somnoble, Dr. Denis Paillard
Year I, Semester II
The field of formal structural linguistics excludes the speaker from the framework of linguistic studies. Since the 1960s, however, researchers have been reintroducing the speaker as a subject of linguistic inquiry. This class introduces students to those aspects of language research which pay attention to the role of the speaker in language, including pragmatics, elocution, presuppositions, speech connectors, conversational rules, communication and conversational analysis, and semantics. Students also focus on enunciation, including enunciation of pronouns and deixis, the functioning of utterances, sentences and statements, markers and operations, semantics and variations of linguistic units, and assertions, questions, interjections and exclamations.
Dr. Jean-Michel Filippi
Year I, Semester II
This course introduces students to the concept of linguistic variation, and applies it to the study of Cambodian languages. The term ‘variation’ refers to variations in dialects and sociolinguistic variations. Students become familiar with both approaches, enabling them to take part in current research, particularly on the ‘Linguistic Atlas of Cambodia’. As part of this, students learn about the differences between languages and dialects, linguistic variations and linguistic changes, and are introduced to Cambodian ecolinguistics.
Dr. Ang Chouléang
Year I, Semester II
This course introduces students to the ‘Ethno-historical approach’ of linguistic research. This is an ethnological view that integrates knowledge drawn from other branches of human sciences, including linguistics, ethnology and epigraphy. This approach works particularly well in studying Khmer culture, which holds a rich set of texts and other documents which enable us to cast a diachronic view on cultural facts. Topics covered include the supernatural and eschatological world, including the concept of ‘divinity’ as an abstraction, supernatural beings and Indian deities including Buddha; the representation of death including the concept of cyclic time, death and rebirth, and allegorical representations of death in ancient and modern Khmer art; and other topics including the cult of the ‘Holy Bull’, gender and witchcraft, the Festival of the Dead as a Brahmanic ritual, and the cultures of Mon-Khmer and Austronesian minorities in Cambodia, including the Phuong and Stieng of Mondulkiri, the Kreung, the Tampuon, the Jorai and the Brou of Ratanakiri.
Dr. Tach Deth
Year I, Semester II
Firstly, students define the field of linguistic investigation and examine the sociolinguistic background on which the study of the Khmer language has been based since national independence. Students then examine the definition of linguistics as a study of language through variations in natural languages; explore various fields in the study of human language; examine grammar and lexicography as a means of linguistic normalization in Cambodia; learn how to collect data; how to pose a theoretical problem on the basis of data; how to analyze data, including through distributional analysis; the differences between sentences and utterances; contexts; and finally, what is a ‘marker’.
Dr. Mao Sokan
Year I, Semester II
This class serves as an introduction to general linguistics. Students learn abut general and basic problems in the study of language, including the differences between linguistic theory and normative grammar; the general principles of Sausserian linguistics; and examine various hypotheses on the links between language and culture.
Dr. Chan Somnoble, Dr. Im Francois
Year I, Semester II
As part of their Masters program, students learn either English or French as a foreign language. They develop their abilities in speaking, reading and writing, and focus on learning general and technical linguistics terms and jargon. As well as studying either English or French intensively, students can choose to learn aspects of other foreign languages, including Thai and Japanese.
Dr. Chan Somnoble
Year II, Semester I
This course familiarizes students with the problems of linguistic specificity and translation. Students ask questions including, what is meant by translation? How can texts written in different languages be translated if we accept the idea that each language is unique, and has its own peculiarities? To come to an understanding of these problems, students analyze the semantics of the phrases “bak prae”, “traduire” and “translate”. Students then attempt to translate various texts, analyzing their semantics and isolating the specific problems they encounter while translating these texts.
Dr. Denis Paillard
Year II, Semester I
Traditionally, the analysis of speech has been left out of the scope of linguistic investigations. The acceptance that speech can be a subject of linguistic inquiry has resulted in a great deal of research and new theoretical approaches. This course serves as an introduction to the various views currently dominant in the field of speech analysis. Topics covered include the discursive cohesion of texts, anaphor, tense and subject, discursive connectors, the typology of speech and the problem of defining types of speech.
Dr. Chhim Bunthoen
Year II, Semester I
This course provides students with those computer skills they will require to research and write up their theses. Students are introduced to the Microsoft Office suite, including Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, to help with their research, writing and presentation skills.
Dr. Long Seam
Year II, Semester I
This course acts as an introduction to epigraphy within the Cambodian context.
Dr. Sylvain Vogel
Year II, Semester I
In this course, students explore those aspects of linguistics which are applied to the process of translation. After a short introduction to the history of translation, students focus on the problems of language and reference, and linguistic signs and reference.
Dr. Chan Somnoble
Year II, Semester I
As part of their Masters program, students learn either English or French as a foreign language. They develop their abilities in speaking, reading and writing, and focus on learning general and technical linguistics terms and jargon. As well as studying either English or French intensively, students can choose to learn aspects of other foreign languages, including Thai and Japanese.
Dr. Hean Sokhum
Year II, Semester II
In this course, students examine the history of the Khmer language, and of other world languages. Students also survey the history of research into the use of language. As part of this, they review and examine the theoretical thought of major figures in the history of the linguistic field.
Dr. Hean Sokhum
Year II, Semester II
In this course, students examine the great amount of diversity and difference which exists between languages from different areas of the world.
Dr. Prum Moal
Year II, Semester II
Students examine the extent to which linguistic research on a particular language can be applied to other languages, focusing specifically on the Khmer language. As part of this, students explore the extent to which language phenomena can be transferred to other languages, and examine the possibility of universal theory of language.
Dr. Sylvain Vogel
Year II, Semester II
In this course, students explore the problems of defining a noun phrase from the point of view of general syntax. Students also learn to analyze noun phrases in Khmer and Phoung, taking account of nouns, classifiers, quantifiers, and the distribution of constituents.
Dr. Chan Somnoble
Year II, Semester II
In this subject, students compare French and Khmer grammar, exploring and analyzing the differences and similarities between the two very different languages.
Individual Supervisors
Year II, Semester II
To fulfill the requirements of the Master of Arts in Linguistics degree, students can choose to complete a thesis instead of taking the elective courses taught in the final semester. The thesis is worth 15 credit points, and consists of original research conducted into a topic in the field of linguistics. Students are guided through the process of research and writing by a member of academic staff, who advises and supervises their progress in researching their thesis.
Activities
Assessment
Students are assessed based on presentations, written assignments and/or reports, and examinations. Some courses require students to do fieldwork; in this case, students are expected to present a field research report to class as a partial assessment.
Khmer Language Short Course for Foreigners
The Khmer Language short course is a non-degree private course which provides foreigners with Khmer macro skills, such as reading, writing, speaking, and listening.