Areas of Specialization
PhD students are required to take four courses in their main specialty (including relevant core and methods courses), and are expected to choose their two methods courses in accordance with their specialization. Students need not choose their area of specialization early in their graduate career; faculty only expect that students take these four courses by the time they finish their course work (i.e., complete their 72 credit hours).
Students admitted to the PhD track who decide, during the first or second year, that they no longer wish to pursue a PhD, may instead complete the course requirements for the MA specialization and take the MA exam.
SPECIALIZATIONS AND APPLICABLE COURSES
This list of courses is intended only as a guideline, and additional classes may be added to these lists upon approval by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS). Please also note that some courses are more frequently taught than others. Students should contact the DGS to inquire about future course scheduling.
Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs)
1) Students will evaluate models and theories used to analyze sound and use those models and theories to analyze sound patterns in specific languages.
2) Students will evaluate the models and theories used to analyze words and sentences as well as use those models and theories to analyze morphological and syntactic patterns in specific languages.
3) Students will evaluate the models and theories used to analyze meaning and language in use as well as use those models and theories to analyze semantic and pragmatic patterns in specific languages.
4) Students will demonstrate an understanding of linguistic research methods associated with language documentation and field work and apply those methods to the analysis of data collected from at least one user of a language that they had not previously studied. Or, students will demonstrate an understanding of quantitative and computational linguistic research methods and apply those methods to the analysis of linguistic data.
5) Qualifying paper: Students will (i) design a substantial linguistic research project, including the selection of a live research question and design a project that can produce an answer to that research question and (ii) write an article-length paper that describes the study that they undertook that clearly discusses the research question considered, background literature relevant to the question, the methods chosen to answer the question, the data collected, the analyses made of the collected data, and the findings that can be determined on the basis of the collected data and analyses.
6) Dissertation: Students will design a research project that contributes substantially to the discipline of linguistics.
- In Person (100 percent of courses offered in person)
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