Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics
Why study linguistics?
Because language is a window into the mind. Linguistics provides an understanding of the human capacity to acquire, perceive, and produce language and of language’s role in contemporary society.
Ph.D. Overview
Our Ph.D. program in Linguistics requires the student to develop a solid understanding of the core areas of the discipline in addition to an in-depth specialty in one of the many areas available through the research interests of the faculty. Areas of special strength in the graduate program include phonetics, phonology, syntax, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, first language acquisition, second language acquisition, semantics, and the study of indigenous languages.
The student will work with their academic advisor to devise a course of study that best suits the student's research interests.
The Ph.D. program usually takes five years which includes completing an M.A. degree en route to the Ph.D. All Ph.D. students receive a five-year funding package.
Admission to Graduate Studies
Admission Requirements
- All applicants must meet the requirements outlined in the Admission to Graduate Study policy.
- Bachelor’s degree: A copy of official transcripts showing proof of a bachelor's degree (and any post-bachelor’s coursework or degrees) from a regionally accredited institution, or a foreign university with equivalent bachelor's degree requirements is required.
- English proficiency: Proof of English proficiency for non-native or non-native-like English speakers is required. There are two bands of English proficiency, including Admission and Full proficiency. For applicants to online programs, Full proficiency is required.
Graduate Admission
Applicants must submit a curriculum vitae, a statement of purpose, an official copy of transcript from baccalaureate granting institution and transcripts from institutions attended post-baccalaureate, 3 letters of recommendation, and a writing sample. Non-native speakers of English must meet English proficiency requirements as described on the Graduate Admissions website. New students are admitted each fall. The deadline to apply for the Linguistics Ph.D. program is December 1.
Submit your graduate application online. For further information regarding the application process, including department-specific deadlines and required supplemental documentation, please visit the Admissions page of the department website, or contact the department's Graduate Program Coordinator, Alec Graham, alec.graham@ku.edu.
Ph.D. Degree Requirements
The Ph.D. is structured as a five year program. Students will earn an M.A. en route to the Ph.D. All doctoral students are required to complete the Linguistics MA degree requirements, selecting the Master’s Research Project option, during their first two years of study in the doctoral program. The Linguistics Graduate Student Handbook is available on the department’s website.
Course Requirements
The following courses are required for all students in the Linguistics Ph.D. after completing the M.A. degree requirements. These courses must be completed by the end of the semester of the oral comprehensive exam. Note that these are minimum requirements to be approved to move forward to the oral comprehensive exam.
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Select 4 Advanced II-Level courses or any Seminar | 12 | |
| Phonetics II | ||
| Phonology II | ||
| Second Language Acquisition II | ||
| Syntax II | ||
| Morphology | ||
| Semantics | ||
| Psycholinguistics II | ||
| First Language Acquisition II | ||
| Neurolinguistics II | ||
| Seminar in Phonetics | ||
| Seminar in Phonology | ||
| Seminar in First Language Acquisition | ||
| Seminar in Syntax | ||
| Seminar in Semantics | ||
| Seminar in Psycholinguistics | ||
| Seminar in Neurolinguistics | ||
| Seminar in Second Language Acquisition | ||
| Linguistic Seminar: _____ | ||
| Select 2 Elective courses. May include LING 850, LING 851, LING 852, LING 998. Select in conjunction with student's Linguistic advisor. | 6 | |
| Select 2 Research Seminars. LING 850, LING 851, LING 852 are repeatable for credit. | 6 | |
| Topics in Research in Experimental Linguistics: _____ | ||
| Research in Language Acquisition and Processing | ||
| Research in Field and Formal Linguistics | ||
| Total Hours | 24 | |
Research Skills & Responsible Scholarship
The University requires that every doctoral student receive training in responsible scholarship pertinent to the field of research and obtain research skills pertinent to the doctoral level of research in their field(s). These requirements must be completed by the end of the semester that the student takes the oral comprehensive exam. For students in Linguistics, LING 794 Proseminar fulfills the requirements for responsible scholarship. One of the following courses with a grade of B or above fulfills the requirements for research skills:
- A graduate-level (500 or above) course in statistics
- A graduate-level (500 or above) course in a computer programming language
- LING 720 Research Methods in Linguistics
- LING 741 Field Methods in Linguistic Description
- LING 782 Research Methods in Child Language
Research Presentation Requirement
Students must give 1 research presentation each semester beginning in their second year of the program. For students who are just beginning their independent research projects, this presentation may involve the discussion of published research relevant to the student’s research interests. This requirement may be satisfied through a presentation in one of the empirical research seminars (LING 850, LING 851, LING 852), a presentation at a local, regional, or international conference, a presentation in the Linguistics colloquy series, or a presentation at any other relevant forum as determined by the faculty adviser. Students must include the titles and dates of these presentations in their annual report each year.
Qualifying Papers
The student needs to write 2 qualifying papers -- a major paper in the area of specialization and a minor paper in a different area. Both papers should represent original work and both papers must have different advisers. The major paper may be an expanded version of the M.A. research project and should be of publishable quality. The minimum lengths of the major and minor papers are 25 pages and 15 pages, respectively.
The major and minor papers are developed in close consultation with an Advisory Committee (3 faculty members) and the 2 papers should be supervised by different faculty members. The adequacy of the papers is evaluated on the quality of the literature review, theoretical contribution, and research integration as well as the basis of their logical coherence and organization. The student does not need to orally defend the qualifying papers.
Dissertation Proposal and the Oral Comprehensive Exam
When the major and minor qualifying papers have been approved by the Advisory Committee, the student may form a Ph.D. committee (4 Department of Linguistics Graduate Faculty members, 1 Graduate Studies Representative member), which helps the student work on the dissertation, starting from the dissertation proposal. The proposal should clearly identify the research questions that the dissertation will address, include a comprehensive literature review, lay out the methodology for the research, discuss preliminary data and results, if any, and present a timetable for the dissertation research. The minimum length for the dissertation proposal is 10 pages.
The Oral Comprehensive Exam is the official exam required by Graduate Studies and consists of an oral defense of the dissertation proposal and the answering of any other questions related to the fields of study of the dissertation research. It must be completed the spring semester of the 4th year (at the latest). The oral examination will typically last 2 to 3 hours. A student who fails the Oral Comprehensive exam will take it again at a time determined by the Ph.D. committee, in consultation with the student. A student will not be permitted to take the Oral Comprehensive exam more than three times.
Post Comprehensive Exam Requirements
Upon passing the comprehensive examination, the student becomes a candidate for the Ph.D. degree and is approved to proceed with their dissertation research and project. Starting the semester following successful completion of the oral comprehensive exam, students must enroll in accordance with the Office of Graduate Studies’ Doctoral Candidacy Policy. This enrollment includes, but is not limited to, at least 1 dissertation hour every semester until graduation. See the Doctoral Candidacy policy for more information about this University level requirement.
Dissertation and Dissertation Defense
The dissertation must be an original work of research that advances the field of linguistics and complies with the Office of Graduate Studies’ Doctoral Dissertation policy. The dissertation is developed in consultation with the Ph.D. committee.
Upon approval by the students committee that the student’s dissertation research and written document is complete, the student must defend the dissertation before all committee members in the “final oral examination,” or dissertation defense. The student will be asked first to summarize his/her dissertation and evidence, and then will be questioned by the committee. The dissertation defense will typically last 1 to 2 hours. After posing questions to the student about the dissertation work, committee members deliberate and vote on a grade of Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory. A grade of Satisfactory requires a majority vote, and may be contingent on the completion of specific revisions by a designated due date. The committee may also recommend that a student earning a satisfactory grade be considered for Honors by the Department. Honors are conferred at graduation by the Department, reflecting outstanding work in all aspects of the doctoral program.
University Requirements
Throughout the course of doctoral study, the student must fulfill all relevant College and University policies, such as those concerning doctoral residency, time constraints, continuous post-comprehensive enrollment, human subjects review, electronic filing, and graduation.
Electives
Electives should be chosen in consultation with the student’s advisor. Any course taken outside of the Linguistics Department needs to be approved by the student's faculty advisor to count towards program requirements.
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| LING 707 | Phonetics II | 3 |
| LING 709 | First Language Acquisition I | 3 |
| LING 714 | Phonology II | 3 |
| LING 715 | Second Language Acquisition I | 3 |
| LING 716 | Second Language Acquisition II | 3 |
| LING 720 | Research Methods in Linguistics | 3 |
| LING 721 | Regression and mixed-effects modeling for language science | 3 |
| LING 726 | Syntax II | 3 |
| LING 727 | Morphology | 3 |
| LING 731 | Semantics | 3 |
| LING 735 | Psycholinguistics I | 3 |
| LING 737 | Psycholinguistics II | 3 |
| LING 738 | Neurolinguistics I | 3 |
| LING 741 | Field Methods in Linguistic Description | 3 |
| LING 742 | Neurolinguistics II | 3 |
| LING 743 | Language Variation and Change | 3 |
| LING 747 | North American Indian Languages | 3 |
| LING 782 | Research Methods in Child Language | 3 |
| LING 799 | Proseminar in Child Language | 2 |
| LING 807 | Seminar in Phonetics | 3 |
| LING 814 | Seminar in Phonology | 3 |
| LING 822 | Seminar in First Language Acquisition | 3 |
| LING 826 | Seminar in Syntax | 3 |
| LING 831 | Seminar in Semantics | 3 |
| LING 837 | Seminar in Psycholinguistics | 3 |
| LING 842 | Seminar in Neurolinguistics | 3 |
| LING 850 | Topics in Research in Experimental Linguistics: _____ | 1-9 |
| LING 851 | Research in Language Acquisition and Processing | 1-9 |
| LING 852 | Research in Field and Formal Linguistics | 1-9 |
| LING 910 | Linguistic Seminar: _____ | 1-3 |
| LING 739 | First Language Acquisition II | 3 |
| AAAS 502 | Directed Language Study: _____ | 5 |
| AAAS 503 | Directed Language Study: _____ | 3 |
| AAAS 504 | Directed Language Study I: _____ | 3 |
| CLDP 880 | Seminar in Child Language: Research Methods | 1-3 |
| EALC 701 | Practicum in Teaching Chinese | 1 |
| EALC 702 | Practicum in Teaching Japanese | 1 |
| EALC 703 | Practicum in Teaching Korean | 1 |
| EPSY 710 | Introduction to Statistical Analysis | 3 |
| EPSY 711 | Lab for Introduction to Statistical Analysis | 1 |
| EPSY 803 | Using R for Data Analysis | 3 |
| EPSY 810 | Regression and ANOVA: General Linear Models | 3 |
| EPSY 896 | Seminar in: _____ | 1-3 |
| JPN 762 | Modern Japanese Texts I | 3 |
| JPN 764 | Modern Japanese Texts II | 3 |
| JPN 801 | Directed Readings and Research in Japanese | 1-4 |
| LA&S 720 | Introduction to Language Teaching Research | 3 |
| LAC 602 | Topics in Latin American Studies: _____ | 1-3 |
| PSYC 790 | Statistical Methods in Psychology I | 3 |
| PSYC 791 | Statistical Methods in Psychology II | 3 |
| SLAV 679 | Topics in: _____ | 1-6 |
| SPAN 801 | Teaching Spanish in Institutions of Higher Learning | 3 |
| SPLH 716 | Speech Perception | 2 |
At the completion of this program, students will be able to:
- demonstrate an ability to reason analytically about language.
- conduct a novel study that critically evaluates a hypothesis about language and would generate new ideas about language.
- communicate clearly and effectively orally and in writing about language.
- demonstrate integrity and responsibility in the conduct of linguistics research.