Linguistics and Social Anthropology

Linguistics and social anthropology together offer a remarkably powerful set of tools for understanding human societies and cultures. Linguistics investigates the structure, use, and diversity of human language, asking how communication works at the levels of sound, grammar, meaning, and social interaction, and what language variation tells us about identity, power, and culture. Social anthropology takes as its subject the full diversity of human societies, examining how people organise themselves, make meaning, practice religion, relate to their environments, and create the institutions that structure their collective life.

Studied together, the two disciplines offer complementary approaches to the most fundamental questions about what it means to be human.

At the School of Oriental and African Studies, this three-year, full-time degree is shaped by SOAS's distinctive orientation towards the cultures, languages, and societies of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. This means your study of language and social life is situated within a genuinely global and cross-cultural perspective rather than one centred on the European or Western experience. A foundation year is available for students who would benefit from additional preparation before entering the degree proper.

You will develop research skills in both disciplines, including fieldwork methods, textual analysis, and the ethnographic and linguistic approaches that characterise each field. A typical entry tariff of 120 points reflects the programme's accessibility alongside its intellectual ambition.

Graduates find that the combination of linguistic and anthropological training opens careers in international development, humanitarian work, diplomacy, translation and interpreting, publishing, journalism, education, cultural organisations, research, and public policy. Postgraduate study in linguistics, social anthropology, area studies, development studies, or a related field is a well-trodden route for those seeking to specialise or pursue research.