Personal Statement

When I was a child, I liked to study interesting phenomena in language. I once wondered, why the
dog bark “woof woof” in English and “wang wang” in Chinese. This childlike passion for linguistics
grew into a flame when I enrolled in Shandong University. Through Comparison of English and
Chinese and English Linguistics, I was surprised to find that the questions hovering above my
childhood were actually of linguistic categories.

Linguistic courses have provided me with an insight into basic theoretical knowledge including
phonology, morphology, syntax, typology and pragmatics. In addition to general linguistics, I have
also investigated the linguistics of English and Chinese. These courses, specifically Comparison of
English and Chinese, while theoretical in nature have implications for the way I interact with
language. Undergraduate studies have made me a more conscious language learner, making me a
better translator and second language user.

Since learning linguistics, I have become more sensitive to the use of language in my life,
particularly the intersection of linguistics and social issues. The first thing that has grabbed my
attention is the hot topic of “female drivers”. When I looked through reports of car accidents on
social media, I noticed that if the driver was a woman, the gender was always specifically indicated.
Furthermore, as I probed into those reports, I found that those mentioning female drivers
outnumbered those referring to male drivers. However, according to the data I collected, female
drivers turned out to have lower rates of traffic accidents. In other words, the gender marker
“female” was disproportionally used by social media to associate a gender with drivers’
incompetence. That social media tends to overrepresent and denigrate this feminine marker reflects
deep-rooted patriarchal norms; and, by collocating the word “female” with certain job titles,
especially those previously dominated by men, such as “doctor” and “CEO”, it facilitates the
semantic shift from neutral or even positive to contemptuous. It can be attested by the social media
search engine, where this mode of semantic collocation is usually followed by negative reports. This
experience awakened me to the fact that we are witnesses to linguistic sexism, a pervasive and subtle
problem that may further reinforce the readers’ stereotype against females as a result of the sex-
specific language treatment.

Based on my academic background and personal interests, I want to further study sociolinguistics
and become involved in English curriculum development in the future. In order to achieve that goal,
I am applying for the MSc Linguistics programme at the University of Edinburgh to enrich my
knowledge in linguistics. Your courses, such as Introduction to Phonology, Introduction to Syntax
and Pragmatics, will strengthen my comprehension in linguistics. I am also interested in
Introduction to Language Research and Statistics and Experimental Design, which will help me
comprehensively understand the basic principles of research in theoretical and descriptive linguistics
and develop my analytical skills in an interdisciplinary context. Moreover, studying these courses
will provide me with transferable skills for further study of sociolinguistics or relevant courses in the
future. I believe studying at your university will endow me with the abilities to be an excellent
language or linguistic researcher.