Linguistic Data Sciences, Master of Arts

Knowledge on language use and linguistic data is not only essential in various scientific disciplines but in all areas of today’s digitalized society. It is widely recognized that society needs people who understand language as data and who can analyze linguistic data systematically. The Master’s Degree Programme in Linguistic Data Sciences focuses on the interfaces between languages and digitalization in today’s world.

This programme, taught entirely in English, provides an opportunity to study digital linguistics from a variety of perspectives, especially sociolinguistics, language technology, and translation. The core of the programme consists of a set of courses in empirical linguistics (syntax, phonetics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, contact linguistics, translation studies, language technology) that offer various areas of specialization for the students. Several courses focus on text and speech data mining and big data analytics.

In addition, we cross disciplinary boundaries and collaborate with clinical linguistics, computer science as well as data sciences and statistics, which makes it possible to choose from optional modules and tailor one’s studies to suit specific interests and build an individual career path. Students are encouraged to develop a research-oriented Master's project and graduate with a publishable thesis.

Key questions that students encounter in this programme include:

• How does digitalization change languages?
• What types of digital tools are used to study languages?
• What kinds of text and speech data mining tools are available today?
• How are these digital tools and resources used?
• What types of everyday applications and assistive technologies for special needs (i.e. synthetic speech, augmented translation) built on these tools exist?
• How can they benefit our daily life?
• How is language and its variation modelled quantitatively?
• How can variability in language use be modelled (e.g. with the help of geospatial modelling or multivariate analysis)?
• What technological solutions are used in translation and multilingual communication today and what is their role in the future?

Lähde: Opintopolku