Digital Linguistics

The Joint Master Programme in Digital Linguistics will train highly qualified interdisciplinar profile combining knowledge and competencies from the field of computer science, information technology (IT), linguistics and humanities.

Holders of the master’s degree in Digital Linguistics will have a broad set of applied IT skills and will be trained for programming, using and compiling language resources, using and adapting language technologies and autonomously conducting language data analyses. In addition, they will have a high level of competence in communication in at least two languages, will be able to recognise and adjust themselves to all types of written, spoken and digital texts as well as understand the principles of interlingual communication in all forms.

Holder of the master's degree in Digital Linguistics will be employable in various professional environments where technology-assisted language services are developed, offered or used.

After successfully completing his/her studies the graduate is able to:

• analyse, develop and implement techniques for processing unstructured data
• process, design and implement digital language resources such as corpora, lexica, acoustic databases etc.
• design and employ advanced applied information and communication interfaces and technologies
• use, compare and evaluate their own research techniques and problem-solving approach
• apply suitable research methods, procedures and processes
• analyse, synthesise and anticipate solutions and their consequences
• explain legal and ethical issues specific to digital media
• explain how written and spoken language works at all levels of linguistic analysis
• think critically, perform independent research and acquire new skills
• work independently in various professional environments, including interdisciplinary and multilingual teams
• perform high-level of spoken and written communication skills

Studying Digital Linguistics enables students to gain a broad spectrum of knowledge, skills and experience, allowing graduates to engage in a wide range of jobs in environments where they encounter language-related data in a digital environment.

An ideal place for the graduates are companies from the field of information technology focused on processing natural language data and obtaining information from the text, for example, Google, Seznam.cz, Red Hat, or Moravia.

Other possibilities are positions in applied and basic research, often in collaboration with experts from other disciplines. Graduates can also start their own start-up specializing in the use of digital linguistics methods in a particular area.

Practical training tasks are being solved by means of project-related courses of the curriculum. Practical training outside university is not required.

The student is expected to prove with the Master's thesis their ability to manage a meaningful project (e.g. to create a useful computer program, formulate and prove non-trivial statement) and their ability to set the thesis into the relevant context of current knowledge and present the project as a text of appropriate style. Recommended language of the thesis is English.

The required structure includes sections: Declaration of the author about the thesis being a school work, Declaration of authorship, Table of contents, Actual text of the thesis, and References.

Minimal expected length of the text is 40 standard pages (including illustrations).

After graduation, the Digital linguistics master program students can continue to relevant PhD programs (computer science, philology) at the Faculty of Informatics and Faculty of Arts MU or at other universities.