DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS

Profile of the Department of Linguistics

The academic subject ‘Linguistics’ which studies language (s) scientifically has been introduced in the Department of Tamil in Madurai Kamaraj University in the year 1966, ever since its inception as academic programmes leading to Certificate and Diploma courses, on evening part-time basis, in the year 1968 and 1969 respectively. Realizing the importance of this subject, Madurai Kamaraj University introduced a full-time Post Graduate and Doctoral programmes in linguistics in the year 1978, besides introducing Certificate and Diploma courses in Translation. Because of the overwhelming acclamation of the academia, a full-fledged independent department exclusively for linguistics, academic programmes had been established bifurcating it from the Department of Tamil in 1981. It consequently started introducing M.Phil in Linguistics and M.Phil in Language Science programmes in 1989 and 1995 respectively along with already introduced postgraduate programme in linguistics.
The Department of linguistics, from its inception, has been teaching the linguistics subjects both Theoretical and Applied, both core and functional, and both classic and contemporary subjects of linguistics through postgraduate and M.Phil. programmes. The Department of Linguistics, included in the initial period under the Department of Tamil, has been incorporated in the School of Linguistics and Communication in the year 2013. Currently the Department of Linguistics is endowed with three faculty members.

Vision

“ To educate the students in the methods of approaching and dealing with the human languages, with scientific aptitude , by transforming their thought processes, through class room teaching and research in order to cater to the needs of the society and industry”.

Mission

“To scientifically impart various linguistic traditions-linguistics as an enquiry and linguistics as practice- to the students, in terms of theories, principles, methods, approaches to be applied for unearthing their systems of languages across the globe and to employ those knowledge in the indigenous languages of India for the purpose of teaching languages, writing grammars for languages, preparing teaching-learning apparatus, protecting and promoting languages, etc., by embracing the cutting edge technology, in collaboration with local and international academics, for the cause of social betterments through studying and doing linguistics.”

Placements

The postgraduates, M.Phil. and Ph.D holders hailing from this department have occupied and have been excelling so many excelted positions, in various academic institutions and industries both in India and Foreign countries like USA, Singapore, Mauritius and in both Central and State Government organizations. The Department of Linguistics has been paying its research heed on Dravidian languages, especially, tribal, minor and minority linguistic communities, besides English language studies. The teaching / learning and research of this department, apart from augmenting the existing knowledge level in the domain of linguistics have been disseminating them across the academia of various natures ensuring the international recoganization.

Highlights

The Department of Linguistics, so far produced around 456 certificate and diploma candidates, around 232 post graduates, 143 M.Phil 48 Ph.D candidates and one D.Litt. The Department of Linguistics has so far organized 3 Summer Institutes, 15 Workshops, 4 International Seminars, 21 National Seminars and 27 Orientation Programmes with the financial support from U.G.C., ICSSR, Madurai Kamaraj University, Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore and Central Institute of Classical Tamil, Chennai. As of now the Department of Linguistics published more than 75 books and 780 research papers and edited 55 books. For Admission Contact Dr.A.Munian - +91 9843966522.