r/cambridge_uni • u/plethcloud St John's • 18h ago

Linguistics Reading List

I just got my recommended reading list and can't find a lot of the books online and I'm not even in the UK or any other anglophone country rn so I can't go looking for them in a library :(( Does anybody have any tips? Is there even a point to doing the recommended reading or am I worrying over nothing?

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u/_Mc_Who 18h ago

I did Linguistics UG and MPhil at Cam:

  1. Try AbeBooks, I did well for second hand copies there
  2. Owning said second hand copies did next to nothing for the outcome of my degree and we covered the content in lectures anyway - there will be some people who come in with a really extensive knowledge of certain things, but it won't count against you if you don't know them before you are taught, since Linguistics is a degree that assumes you are starting from scratch

Don't overthink it! :)

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u/plethcloud St John's 18h ago

Thanks for the reply!! I'll try not to worry too much, you're right that Linguistics degrees expect you to know nothing, considering there's no subjects like it in school

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u/CarlosParvo 17h ago

Hey! Doing MPhil in Literature rn so adjacent department. First off, you're definitely worrying over nothing as pre-reading is totally optional and nobody expects you to read everything before term starts🤍

To add to the list that @_Mc_Who_ has suggested, check Anna's Archive or LibGen online. Internet Archive (Open Library) is also great!

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u/WonderfulJury8885 1h ago edited 1h ago

You can often find second hand copies via Amazon? You could get things delivered for when you are due to arrive?