The discipline of General Linguistics deals with the universal properties of language as they manifest themselves in the language system, in the language capacity of individual language users, in the use that is made of language under varying social circumstances, and in the application of linguistic knowledge in technology. The University of Amsterdam is the home of renowned specialists in all these areas, and provides teaching in a matrix model programme offered by the Departments of Language Technology, Phonetics, Psycholinguistics and Language Pathology, Second Language Acquisition, Sign Linguistics, and Theoretical Linguistics.

The one-year MA Programme in General Linguistics provides students with seminars in a wide range of linguistics subjects, while at the same time providing them with the opportunity to specialize in various sub-disciplines in the field. All courses are taught in English, are task-oriented and require a high degree of student involvement.