phd linguistics careers

Doctoral Program

The Ph.D. program emphasizes rigorous theoretical work that has at its base a firm empirical foundation in language data. 

Students are provided with a broad-based background in linguistics, teaching experience in the classroom and other forums, and opportunities for original and high-quality research.  Our Ph.D. students write dissertations on a wide range of topics spanning and bridging many subareas of the field.  See our Ph.D. Alumni  page for dissertation titles and job placement information.

Overview of the Program

Through the completion of advanced coursework and strong methodological and analytical training, the  Ph.D. program prepares students to make original contributions to knowledge in linguistics, to articulate the results of their work, and to demonstrate its significance to linguistics and related fields.  At every stage in the program, students are encouraged to present and publish their research and to develop active professional profiles. 

Students generally complete the program in five years

• Coursework in core areas of linguistics, chosen by each student in consultation with faculty advisors to build the foundation that best suits their interests and goals.
• Fall Quarter: Includes seminar to introduce students to the research of faculty in the department
• Winter Quarter: Includes participation in small research groups or in one-on-one apprenticeships
• Spring Quarter: Includes beginning to work on the first of 2 qualifying research papers

Years 2 and 3

• Balance shifts from coursework to development of research skills
• Students complete two qualifying papers and then selects a principal advisor and committee for their dissertation by the end of year 3.

Years 4 and 5

• Devoted to dissertation and advanced research

Teaching Experience

As they move through the Ph.D. program, students also gain teaching experience by serving as teaching assistants in their second, third, and fourth year of graduate study. They also have access to the many programs provided by Stanford's Vice Provost for  Teaching and Learning , including the varied resources of the Teaching Commons .

Offers of admission to the Linguistics P.h.D program include funding for the full five years of doctoral study, including tuition and stipend, regardless of citizenship. 

We also encourage our applicants to apply for as many external fellowships and scholarships as they are eligible for; a compilation of funding opportunities for Linguistics graduate students can be found on our  Fellowship and Funding Information page .  Applicants should note that the deadlines for these fellowships are typically in the fall of the year prior to admission.

In addition, the  Knight-Hennessy Scholars  program is designed to build a multidisciplinary community of Stanford graduate students dedicated to finding creative solutions to the world's greatest challenges. The program awards up to 100 high-achieving students every year with full funding to pursue a graduate education at Stanford, including the Ph.D. degree in Linguistics. 

Additional information is available about the student budget , Stanford graduate fellowships , and other support programs .

Outside the classroom, there are many opportunities, both formal and informal, for the discussion of linguistic issues and ongoing research, including colloquia, workshops, and reading groups.

Partnership Opportunities

Although not part of the formal doctoral program, there are numerous opportunities for research and development work at the Center for the Study of Language and Information and  off-campus at local companies.  

Admissions Information

Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, PHD

On this page:.

At a Glance: program details

• Location: Tempe campus
• Second Language Requirement: No

Program Description

Degree Awarded: PHD Linguistics and Applied Linguistics

The PhD program in linguistics and applied linguistics focuses on the scientific study of human language and the application of that study to the human condition.

Students in this program select a research specialization in formal linguistics, applied linguistics or some combination within these fields of study.

The curriculum provides professional training in linguistics and applied linguistics with focused research in several linguistic subfields, including syntax, semantics, phonetics, phonology, pragmatics, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, language contact and change, language planning, Indigenous American linguistics, language documentation and revitalization, second language acquisition, second language teaching and learning, teaching English to speakers of other languages, global Englishes and computer-assisted language learning.

The doctoral program in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics focuses on the study of human language and the application of that study to the human condition.  Students in this program will choose a research specialization which can be formal linguistics, applied linguistics, or some combination of these areas.  The curriculum will provide training in linguistics and applied linguistics with focused research in several areas such as phonetics, phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.  Second language acquisition and second language teaching and learning, TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages), language contact and change, including World Englishes, are also research possibilities in addition to sociolinguistics, language planning, discourse analysis, language and cognition.

Matthew Prior , Director

Sheila Luna , Program Manager

Faculty in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics

Doctoral Examinations

Doctoral Procedures and Timeline

Teaching Assistantships

Degree Requirements

84 credit hours, a written comprehensive exam, an oral comprehensive exam, a foreign language exam, a prospectus and a dissertation

Required Core (18 credit hours) APL 555 Disciplinary Discourses (3) APL 601 Introduction to Applied Linguistics (3) LIN 511 Phonetics and Phonology (3) LIN 514 Syntax (3) LIN 515 American English (3) or LIN 516 Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis (3) LIN 655 Advanced Disciplinary Discourses in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics (3)

Electives and Research (33 credit hours) LIN 501 Approaches to Research (3)

Specialization (21 credit hours)

Culminating Experience (12 credit hours) LIN 799 or APL 799 Dissertation (12)

Additional Curriculum Information When approved by the student's supervisory committee and the Graduate College, this program allows 30 credit hours from a previously awarded master's degree to be used for this degree. If students do not have a previously awarded master's degree, then 30 credit hours is made up of additional electives and research coursework which must include LIN 510, if they have not previously taken it or its equivalent.

Students must demonstrate evidence of competent knowledge of a natural language other than modern English, to be selected by the student and subject to the approval of the chair of the dissertation committee. The language requirement must be completed before the student is eligible to take the doctoral examinations. This requirement may be met by any of the following:

• earning a "B" or higher (3.00 on a 4.00 scale) in a 400- or 500-level course in an appropriate (approved) language
• demonstrating comparable proficiency by taking a language examination, administered by the School of International Letters and Cultures, in a language approved by the student's supervisory committee
• demonstrating native-speaker proficiency, as determined by the School of International Letters and Cultures, in a language approved by the student's supervisory committee
• earning a "B" or higher (3.00 on a 4.00 scale) in both ENG 530 Old English and ENG 531 Old English Literature or the equivalent of each
• holding a bachelor's degree in an approved foreign language
• having fulfilled a foreign language requirement toward a previously awarded master's degree that was completed within five years of the semester for which the student was admitted to the doctoral program
• two years (four semesters) of successfully completed college-level coursework (no more than six years prior to admission to the degree program) at least at the 100 and 200 levels with a "C" or better for languages which the School of International Letters and Cultures does not offer or does not offer above the 200 level

The foreign language requirement must be in a language approved by the student's doctoral supervisory committee.

Admission Requirements

Applicants must fulfill the requirements of both the Graduate College and The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Applicants are eligible to apply to the program if they have earned a bachelor's or master's degree from a regionally accredited institution.

Applicants must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 (scale is 4.00 = "A") in the last 60 hours of their first bachelor's degree program, or a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.50 (scale is 4.00 = "A") in an applicable master's degree program.

All applicants must submit:

• graduate admission application and application fee
• official transcripts
• statement of purpose
• resume or curriculum vitae
• three letters of recommendation
• academic writing sample relevant to the field
• proof of English proficiency

Additional Application Information An applicant whose native language is not English (regardless of current residency) and has not graduated from an institution of higher learning in the United States must provide proof of English proficiency. Applications will not be processed without valid proof of English proficiency. More information about English proficiency requirements can be found the school website . Please note that official scores must be sent to ASU in order for the application to be processed.

The well-considered one- to two-page statement of purpose should explain the applicant's scholarly background and training, career goals, proposed research specialization, any secondary field of interest and why the applicant wishes to pursue a PhD in linguistics and applied linguistics at Arizona State University. Applicants applying for funding must also submit a statement of teaching philosophy.

Courses and Electives

The Doctor of Philosophy is a total of 84 hours. In general, a student with an appropriate master's degree must complete a minimum of 54 credit hours of approved graduate work, which includes 12 hours of dissertation. A student without an appropriate master's degree usually must complete 84 hours of work at ASU. At the advisor’s discretion, students may include up to 12 hours of appropriate, graduate-level course work undertaken at another university, and not previously counted towards any other degree.

Required Core Courses for the Degree

• LIN 511 Phonetics and Phonology
• LIN 514 Syntax
• LIN 515 American English or LIN 516 Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis
• APL 555 Disciplinary Discourses
• APL 601  Introduction to Applied Linguistics
• LIN 655 Disciplinary Discourses

Elective/Research Courses

• LIN 501 Approaches to Research

Research Specialization (21 hours) :  Students choose a research specialization which can be formal linguistics, applied linguistics or a combination. Students can focus their elective and research coursework, including APL/LIN 790 on a specific area. Possible specializations in Linguistics are phonology, formal syntax and semantics, historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis and pragmatics.  Possible specializations in Applied Linguistics are SLA theory and pedagogy, ESOL, second language writing, bilingualism, language policy, and issues in educational research.  Students may choose to take other 500 or equivalent and advanced (600 and above or equivalent) courses in their area of specialization.  Advanced LIN 600 level courses may be repeated for credit when topics vary. All students are encouraged to develop interdisciplinary perspectives which may be done by taking courses from other related programs or units to enhance their area of specialization. For example, students with interests in second language writing would expect to take related ENG courses in addition to LIN or APL offerings, and students interested in languages taught in  SILC (School of International Letters and Cultures) could take courses in that unit. Students must consult with an advisor when selecting additional courses for their focus area as these courses provide the depth of training needed for dissertation research.

Other Requirements

PhD Examinations :  Essay, oral exam, colloquy on the dissertation prospectus.

Dissertation : Students must take 12 credit hours of ENG 799.

Language Requirement : PhD students must demonstrate evidence of a competent knowledge of a natural language other than modern English, to be selected by the student, subject to the approval of the chair of the dissertation committee. The language requirement must be completed before the student is eligible to take the doctoral exams. This requirement may be met by

• Earning a “B” (3.00) or higher in a 400- or 500-level course in an appropriate (approved) language.
• Demonstrating comparable proficiency by taking a language examination, administered by the School of International Letters and Cultures, in a language approved by the student’s supervisory committee.
• Demonstrating native-speaker proficiency, as determined by the School of International Letters and Cultures, in a language approved by the student’s supervisory committee.
• Earning a “B” (3.00) or higher in both ENG 530 Old English and ENG 531 Old English Literature or their equivalent.
• Holding a bachelor’s degree in an approved foreign language.
• Having fulfilled a foreign language requirement towards a previously awarded master’s degree that has been completed within five years of the semester for which the student has been admitted to the doctoral program. This foreign language must be in a language approved by the student’s doctoral supervisory committee.
• For languages which the School of International Letters and Cultures does not offer or does not offer above the 200 level, two years (4 semesters) of successfully completed college level coursework at least at the 100 and 200 level with a C or better would fulfill the requirement. The coursework must have been successfully completed no more than six years prior to admission to the degree program.

Miscellaneous : Students may take research (ENG 792) for the purpose of working independently in preparation for the doctoral examination. This is an alternative to be elected by the student at the discretion and with the approval of the advisor and supervisory committee and can count towards course work. Satisfactory completion of ENG 792 is indicated by the grade of "Y." Individual interim segments of ENG 792 will be graded "Z" (course in progress), and changed to "Y" (successful completion) after the dissertation defense. No conventional letter grades are awarded for ENG 792 or 799.

The Graduate College also requires that students be enrolled every semester, excluding summer sessions, until they have completed all requirements for the degree. Continuous enrollment may be satisfied by registration for one hour of ENG 799, or, in cases where dissertation or other credit hours are not needed, Continuous Registration (ENG 595 or 795). If students wish to interrupt their programs of study for one or more semesters, they may apply for a leave of absence, not to exceed one year. Failure to enroll or obtain leave status for the semesters in which they are not enrolled will result in dismissal from the program.

Doctoral Supervisory Committee

The doctoral supervisory committee consists of a minimum of three members from the  graduate faculty  selected at the time the student files a program of study. In consultation with the director of the Ph.D. program, the student will select the committee chair, who also serves as the student's advisor. Once a graduate faculty member has agreed to serve as the student's chair, the student and chair will then consult before recommending two other members to the director of the doctoral program. Ideally another member of the supervisory committee in addition to the chair should be in the area of specialization. It is the responsibility of each student to form a supervisory committee very early in the program so that the chair and members of the committee may be involved in shaping the course of study, for example, in determining such matters as the choice of foreign language(s) and in specifying courses that will be required for the student's particular area of concentration.

Important Notice to Current International Students

In order for international students to maintain good standing for their VISAs, they must take a minimum of 9 credit hours per semester (i.e., 3 classes), 6 credits (2 classes) should be face-to-face classes.

Next Steps to attend ASU

Learn about our programs, apply to a program, visit our campus, application deadlines, learning outcomes.

• Independent research expertise: Students will be able to design and carry out an original research study in their discipline and subdisciplines.
• Scholarly writing expertise: Students will demonstrate the ability to produce written scholarly work at a level expected by the profession and consistent with the degree program.
• Critical analysis expertise: Students will demonstrate the ability to explain, synthesize and critique existing scholarship in their research area.

Career Opportunities

Graduates with research expertise in linguistics and applied linguistics work in a variety of professional contexts, such as academia, government, business, health care, legal settings, publishing, the private sector and nongovernmental organizations.

Career examples include:

• computer-assisted language learning expert
• data analyst
• forensic linguist
• language policy or documentation expert
• language program director or coordinator
• language researcher
• linguistic consultant
• program and curriculum developer
• teacher trainer
• university professor

Global Opportunities

Global experience.

With over 250 programs in more than 65 countries (ranging from one week to one year), study abroad is possible for all ASU students wishing to gain global skills and knowledge in preparation for a 21st-century career. Students earn ASU credit for completed courses, while staying on track for graduation, and may apply financial aid and scholarships toward program costs. https://mystudyabroad.asu.edu

Program Contact Information

If you have questions related to admission, please click here to request information and an admission specialist will reach out to you directly. For questions regarding faculty or courses, please use the contact information below.

• [email protected]
• 480/965-3194

Graduate Program

The graduate program in Linguistics at Berkeley combines mentoring from faculty members in the department, coursework, research training, and professional development opportunities.

Faculty expertise in the department spans an unusually diverse range of endeavors. The graduate program accordingly includes a broad range of advanced seminars, along with coursework focusing on analyzing linguistic structure (e.g. syntax, semantics, phonology, phonetics), language ecologies (language variation and change, language and cognition), and methods (including field methods, archival research, experimental and corpus-based analyses, and computational modeling).

Graduate students have published their research in numerous journals, including Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Glossa , Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America , Language Documentation & Conservation , Linguistic Inquiry , and Phonology ; and regularly present their work at conferences, including the Annual Meeting on Phonology , the Manchester Phonology Meeting , New Ways of Analyzing Variation , the Cognitive Science Society Conference , the CUNY Conference on Sentence Processing , LabPhon , the Acoustical Society of America Meeting , the Linguistics Society of America ,  NELS , Sinn und Bedeutung , the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas , among others.

Graduate students actively participate in working groups, reading groups, and other activities, including Fieldwork Forum, Phorum, Syntax & Semantics Circle, and TABLE .  These groups contribute to the strength of the program as hubs of intellectual exchange, professional networking, and community building.

Graduate students in the Linguistics department are eligible to apply to two Graduate Designated Emphases : the Designated Emphasis in Indigenous Language Revitalization , and the  Designated Emphasis in Cognitive Science .

Our graduates build exciting careers in research labs, for-profit businesses, non-profits, government agencies, and higher education, among others.

Detailed description

The particulars of this program, describing the exact course requirements, details about the exams and required research papers are available in the  Linguistics Graduate Program description  (updated 2023). This document changes from time to time. Get previous versions of the program description for 2022 ,  2020 ,  2019 ,  2018 , and 2017 .

Linguistics

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You will experience a unique range and depth of Harvard’s offerings in related fields, especially ancient and modern languages and the growing Mind Brain Behavior Initiative.

You will have the flexibility to customize your program to prepare you for post-graduate success in an academic or non-academic role. You can access a wide range of Harvard resources including the Widener Library, which contains a matchless linguistic and philological collection supplemented by a special non-circulating collection accessible only to linguistics students and faculty.

Examples of theses and dissertations by graduates include “An Experimental Pragmatic Investigation of Depictive Co-Speech Gestures,” “Interpreting Questions with Non-Exhaustive Answers,” “Nominal Arguments and Language Variation,” and “Phrasing is Key: The Syntax and Prosody of Focus in Georgian.”

Graduates of the program have secured academic positions at Rutgers University; University of California, Berkeley; University of Vienna; and the University of Hawaii. Others hold jobs with companies such as Amazon, Google, and Grammarly.

Additional information on the graduate program is available from the Department of Linguistics and requirements for the degree are detailed in Policies .

Areas of Study

Historical Linguistics | Linguistic Theory | Unspecified

Admissions Requirements

Please review admissions requirements and other information before applying. You can find degree program-specific admissions requirements below and access additional guidance on applying from the Department of Linguistics .

Academic Background

Applicants typically have a previous background in linguistics, a mature interest in the field, and a strong language background.

Writing Sample

A writing sample is required as part of the application and should be no more than 100 pages.

Standardized Tests

GRE General: Optional

Theses & Dissertations

Theses & Dissertations for Linguistics

See list of Linguistics faculty

APPLICATION DEADLINE

Questions about the program.

• Department of Linguistics >
• Graduate >

PhD in Linguistics

Dawei Jin, presenting a conference paper (now an Assistant Professor Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China)

The mission of the department’s PhD program is to train students to do research in linguistics and produce research that reflects the values and the mission of the department as a whole, to prepare them for academic jobs at teaching universities, liberal arts colleges, or major research universities and for jobs outside of academia. Our goal is to ensure that all of our students have at the end of their study an academic or industry position that requires a PhD in Linguistics. Our doctoral degree track focuses on breadth and empirical/experimental methodologies. Students receive training in traditional disciplines such as syntax, semantics, pragmatics, phonetics and phonology, and they may also receive substantial training in other areas, such as language typology, psycholinguistics, computational linguistics, and historical and contact linguistics. All of our students are required to take at least two semesters of Methods classes, which include courses in Field Methods, Quantitative Methods and Statistics, Corpus Linguistics and Computational Linguistics. Our students are also encouraged to explore interdisciplinary research within the UB Center for Cognitive Science , and many of our students receive extensive training in Cognitive Science through collaborations with the Psychology or Computer Science departments. 

PhD Funding

Join a community of scholars and researchers working together to solve pressing global problems. 

We are committed to recruiting the very best PhD students and preparing doctoral students for career success. UB features:

• World-class faculty experts  mentor PhD students in a dynamic research and learning environment. Students can focus on their research and scholarship alongside renowned faculty while preparing for the careers and professions that await them after graduation.
• A city on the rise.  Buffalo, N.Y. offers affordable housing, arts, culture and community. Learn more about Buffalo .

PhD Funding Opportunities

• Academic year stipends of $23,000  for all full-time, funded PhD students on 10-month academic teaching assistant, research assistant or graduate assistant appointments.
• UB’s stipend levels are competitive among public Association of American Universities (AAU) member institutions.
• Arthur A. Schomburg Fellowship Program : To be eligible for a Schomburg Fellowship, candidates must contribute to the diversity of the student body, and can demonstrate that they have overcome a disadvantage or other impediment to success in higher education. Only U.S. citizens and permanent residents are eligible to receive Schomburg Fellowships.
• Presidential Fellowships :  To be eligible for Presidential Fellowships, candidates must meet the criteria listed on the Presidential Fellowship page. Both domestic and international students are eligible, if they meet these criteria. For any questions regarding funding for academic year 2024–2025, contact the director of graduate studies or department chair.

Application Deadlines

December 15:  All PhD applicants wishing to be considered for financial support

March 1:  All other international PhD applicants

April 1:  All other domestic PhD applicants

Online Application

Degree requirements.

For most students with no transfer credits from other institutions, the categories in the table above should account for 48 of the 72 credits required for the Ph.D. The remaining 24 credits can be Independent Study, thesis/dissertation guidance or up to 12 credits from other UB departments. (Students in the Cognitive Science track and those earning a concurrent M.S. in Computational Linguistics may be permitted to take additional courses in other departments in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies.)

*Students should consult the Director of Graduate Studies to determine which Methods courses are more appropriate given their intended specializations.

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. 

*Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics are highly interdisciplinary and may involve substantial work in other departments.

Qualifying Paper

The qualifying paper (QP) is required of students who have been admitted to the Doctoral program in the Department of Linguistics. It must be completed before the student can pass on to Phase 2 of the program (i.e., the phase during which students conduct their PhD thesis research). The QP is intended to give the student experience in carrying out a research project that goes beyond what is normally required of a course paper; however the project certainly can evolve out of a course paper. The paper should have the format of a journal submission, and be between 9,000 and 12,000 words in length.

Early in their second year of graduate study, the student should choose a faculty member who will advise the student while he or she is working on the QP. (The faculty member may be, but does not have to be, the same faculty who will direct the student’s dissertation.) The role of the advisor is to guide the student as he or she is carrying out the research and the writing. The student, together with the advisor, select a second committee member (or “reader”), who will read and comment on the QP.

Once the QP has been approved by the advisor, the Director of Graduate Studies will assign a third committee member (or “reader”), and the other members of the QP committee will then read the QP and provide feedback or simply approve the paper if no additional revisions are necessary. When the committee has approved the QP, the three faculty sign the approval form. Students return the form to the Director of Graduate Study after all three faculty have signed the form, and (s)he will also sign it. Finally, the form is sent to the graduate secretary, so that (s)he can enter the information into our student database and file the form in the student’s file.

Students are required to make an oral presentation of their QP research at the end of their fifth semester (at the latest), and to finish their QP by the end of the sixth semester (at the latest). Upon completion of a student’s QP, the faculty as a whole will either determine whether (s)he should passed onto Phase 2 of the PhD program. In the event a student is not passed onto the P.D phase of the program, (s)he will earn a terminal MA and will leave the program.

Dissertation Proposal

The dissertation proposal is not intended to be a paper in the same sense as the QP. Rather, the dissertation proposal should be viewed as a very long abstract. It should include a statement of the topic (or hypothesis/claim); the context for the research (Why should other linguists be interested in the research? How does it fit into previous research?); the methodology and nature of the data or evidence that the student hopes to collect or find; and, perhaps, a preview of the conclusions the student hopes to present or the contribution the dissertation will make. Generally, the proposal should not be any longer than 20 pages; however the dissertation advisor ultimately determines the form of the proposal.

Dissertation Proposal Defense

The proposal defense is simply a meeting of the committee members and the student to ensure that everyone is clear about the nature of the topic, the scope of the research, and the methodology. Typically, no one “fails” a proposal defense, since the primary goal is to clarify and comment on the research before the research begins. The student should be aware, however, that the proposal defense may result in significant changes in the research plan.

Once the proposal defense has taken place, the committee members sign the form, the form is returned to the Director of Graduate Studies to sign, and finally the form is sent to the Assistant to the Chair.

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Phone: (716) 645-0113

[email protected]

The UCLA Linguistics Department’s normal business hours are M-F 8am-12pm, 1-4pm. Office schedule and availability may change based on UCLA protocol ( www.covid-19.ucla.edu). Masks are optional but strongly recommended indoors. All UCLA affiliates and visitors must self-screen for symptoms before coming to campus.

The Department of Linguistics

• The Graduate Program

Graduate Student Support

Courses and degree requirements.

• Getting in touch with us

UCLA’s Linguistics Department began as an interdepartmental graduate M.A. program in 1960; a Ph.D. program was introduced in 1962, and a B.A. program in 1965. The department was established in 1966, and has flourished ever since.

At the undergraduate level , the department currently administers twelve majors: Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Linguistics and Anthropology, Linguistics and Asian Languages and Cultures, Linguistics and Computer Science, Linguistics and English, Linguistics and French, Linguistics and Italian, Linguistics and Philosophy, Linguistics and Psychology, Linguistics and Scandinavian Languages, and Linguistics and Spanish. The department also offers a linguistics minor and a Specialization in Computing.

At the graduate level , the department offers M.A. and Ph.D. degree programs in Linguistics, and its faculty participate in interdepartmental Ph.D. programs in  Biomedical Engineering , American Indian Studies , Asia Insititute and African Studies . Our faculty and graduate program are internationally acclaimed, and we attract some of the best and brightest graduate students from this country and abroad, with a current graduate student population of between 40 students from ten countries.

The goal of the UCLA Linguistics Department’s program is to provide a basic education in the nature of human language and linguistic theory for undergraduates, and to train graduate students as university teachers and as researchers in the major areas of linguistics.

Theoretical Orientation

The department has a strong theoretical orientation committed to research in formal linguistic theory, addressing questions in the fields of phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics, and at the interfaces of these fields with the fields of psycholinguistics, computational linguistics, mathematical linguistics, historical linguistics, and the linguistic study of particular language areas (especially African languages and American Indian languages). A number of factors distinguish the UCLA linguistics department from other departments with similar emphases.

Linguistics as an empirical science uses cross-linguistic evidence to develop and test theories of human language. In keeping with this goal, the UCLA program is committed to training its graduate students to analyze primary data in the Field Methods sequence, in which the students work with a native speaker consultant of a little-studied language. Substantial opportunities to develop fieldwork skills and to test theoretical ideas against novel data are provided, along with department funding for native speaker consultants. Several of the faculty have long experience in fieldwork and provide practical guidance to students embarking on their own field study. Los Angeles is probably the most linguistically diverse city in the United States, thus providing a living laboratory for field work research.

Graduate Student Career Development

The UCLA Linguistics Department emphasizes the development of professional skills among its graduate students, particularly in presenting their own research at conferences and for publication. The present department budget offers travel funding for students to present papers whose work has been accepted for presentation at regional, national, and international conferences. The department also offers some funding to its graduate students to pay for native speaker consultants, experimental subjects, and other research expenses.

The Linguistics Department undertakes to provide support packages for all the students that it admits, with a support commitment five years, subject to maintenance of satisfactory academic standing. All support packages include the cost of tuition, fees, and a salary or living stipend; consult the department for current stipend levels. Almost all support packages involve a mixture of fellowship, Research Apprenticeship (RA), and Teaching Apprenticeship (TA) positions, spread out over the five year period.

We admit only as many students as can be supported. Prospective applicants should apply for an extramural fellowship (such as a Mellon Fellowship , Jacob K. Javits Fellowship , or National Science Foundation Fellowships (NSF) ; or an equivalent type of fellowship from another country, such as the Canadian SSHRC  fellowship) where possible. Prospective applicants who have been granted such fellowships generally have an excellent chance of admission.

Available financial awards vary from year to year. The following outlines the principal sources:

Fellowships

UCLA Fellowships – Pauley Fellowships, Cota-Robles Fellowships, and Departmental Fellowships are combined with a mixture of TA and RA appointments to make up the full support package. All students who have been advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D. are also eligible to apply for Dissertation-year Fellowships for their fifth year; these are awarded on a competitive (university-wide) basis. In recent years UCLA Linguistics graduate students have had considerable success in winning these fellowships.

National Resource Fellowships (Title VI) –for language and area studies: e.g. Africa, the Near East, Latin America, East Asia. Applications are selected by the relevant area studies centers and the department. (For information see the admissions packet.) Title VI fellowships require students to enroll for one 4-unit course per quarter in the relevant language area and include a stipend which is supplemented by additional departmental support (RAship, TAship, etc.) to bring them up to the general annual support level.

Teaching Apprenticeships

These are awarded to students on the basis of admissions fellowship commitments, timely progress in graduate work, student specialization, and need. They are normally available only to students in the second year of graduate study and beyond.

Upper Division Undergraduate Courses , some of which may be taken by students to make up deficiencies, include courses in phonetics, phonology, syntax, semantics, syntactic typology and universals, language change, child language acquisition, psycholinguistics, and language disorders.

Graduate Courses   cover every major area of linguistics, including phonetics, phonology, syntax, semantics, morphology, psycholinguistics, computational linguistics, field methods, historical linguistics, and language areas and language structures.

Proseminars  are advanced graduate special-topics courses in the areas mentioned above. Most faculty offer proseminar courses in their area approximately once per year, often on the topic of their current research.

Area Seminars are informal talk series, meeting once per week, in which faculty and students present their current research to colleagues for comment and discussion. Currently, there are active area seminars in phonetics, phonology, syntax, semantics, psycholinguistics, and Native American languages.

Additional courses in various topics, including thesis preparation, college teaching practicum and practical phonetics, are also regularly offered.

Degree Requirements

Although the department offers both the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees, each with its own set of requirements, completion of the M.A. degree is normally just a milestone towards the completion of the Ph.D. requirements. We normally admit students to the graduate program only if they have the Ph.D. as their ultimate degree objective, and new graduate students are normally admitted directly into the Ph.D. program, regardless of whether they have already completed an M.A. elsewhere.

Furthermore, all students, including those who already have an M.A. degree, are normally expected to complete all of the M.A. degree requirements at UCLA, as part of the normal progress toward the Ph.D. The M.A. requirements include six obligatory core courses, three additional courses selected by the student from a list of survey courses covering various areas of the field, and completion of an M.A. thesis or M.A. paper (an original work of research of approximately 50 double-spaced pages). Students who choose to withdraw from the program and who wish to receive a terminal M.A. degree may elect to undergo a comprehensive oral exam instead of completing an M.A. paper.

The Ph.D. requirements involve taking a few additional courses, including our two-quarter sequence in Field Methods and various seminar and proseminar courses selected by the student. Other requirements include delivering a department colloquium , and completion of the Ph.D. dissertation.

Typical Progress

Most of our students take about five years to complete the full graduate program. Of course, students’ backgrounds and work patterns are diverse; some take less time and others take more.

Since the normal course load for graduate students is three courses per quarter, it is usually possible for students to complete all or most of the M.A. course requirements within the first year of the program. Students who enter the program with deficiencies in certain areas may need to take longer to satisfy the M.A. course requirements, since they may have to enroll in certain upper-division undergraduate courses during their first year.

All students must have completed the M.A. paper and all other M.A. requirements by the end of the spring quarter of the second year. Third-year students are encouraged to explore the field, take advanced seminars, prepare original research for publication or presentation at conferences, etc.

By the end of the third year, students should have a good idea of the area they plan to concentrate on for their dissertation, and they should have a Ph.D. committee assembled before the end of the spring quarter. Fourth years students should be advanced to candidacy before the end of the fall quarter; this entails the completion of all Ph.D. requirements other than the dissertation, including defense of a prospectus of their dissertation in an oral exam conducted by their committee.

The last two quarters of the fourth year, as well as the entire fifth year, is devoted to the completion of the dissertation and job-market activities.

More details about the graduate sequence can be found here .

Click on the links below for descriptions of department research facilities.

• Language Acquisition Lab
• Language Processing Laboratory
• Phonetics Laboratory
• Psycholinguistics Lab

We have a conference room on the second floor (2122) and a lounge on the third floor (3103C). Each floor has its own seminar room (the Syntax/Semantics Seminar Room in 3103D, the Phonetics Lab in 2101K).

Other resources

The strong research culture of the UCLA Linguistics Department is supported in many tangible ways by the department and by the university:

• Free statistics consulting on campus
• Free poster printer
• Experimental subject pool
• Phonetics Lab staff engineer
• Weekly research group seminar meetings
• Access to undergraduate RAs
• Access to laboratory facilities
• Staff assistance with IRB applications

and specifically for grad students:

• Funding for subjects/consultants
• Ladefoged Scholarship (research support for grad students)
• Funding for conference travel
• Experimental methods courses offered in both phonetics and psycholinguistics
• A Professional Development course (Ling. 444)

In addition, the Linguistics Department maintains a  department library , and provides office space to its graduate students.

The library system at UCLA, with over nine million volumes and extensive online offerings, is ranked in the top ten university libraries in the United States, and has strong collections in linguistics and language description.

Getting In Touch With Us

For information about applying to our graduate program, please visit our Graduate Admissions Information page.

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Linguistics

Your linguistics degree sets you up for careers ranging from marketing and publishing to speech and language therapy

Job options

Jobs directly related to your degree include:

• English as a foreign language teacher
• Lexicographer
• Marketing executive
• Public relations officer
• Publishing copy-editor/proofreader
• Secondary school teacher
• Speech and language therapist
• Talent agent
• Teaching assistant

Jobs where your degree would be useful include:

• Academic researcher
• Advertising copywriter
• Civil Service fast streamer
• Digital copywriter
• Editorial assistant
• Information officer
• Magazine journalist
• Public librarian
• Social researcher

Remember that many employers accept applications from graduates with any degree subject, so don't restrict your thinking to the jobs listed here.

Work experience

Look for work experience opportunities with organisations and businesses that you're interested in or that will help you develop the skills relevant to your career interests.

Some universities provide opportunities to take a work placement during your course, either in the UK or abroad, or to learn an additional language.

If you're interested in training to become a speech and language therapist, it's essential that you get some work experience. Try and arrange an observation session at your local speech and language therapy service and get some experience working with children and adults with a learning disability or the elderly and disabled people. You could contact local nursing or residential care homes, schools, nurseries or stroke groups to ask for opportunities.

Experience of working with children in a classroom setting is essential if you want to become a teacher. If you would like to teach English as a foreign language it could be helpful to get work as a language assistant in a summer school or voluntary work abroad.

Examples of other areas of work experience that may be of interest to linguistics students include:

• opportunities provided by BookCareers and The Society of Young Publishers (SYP)
• work on university publications as proofreaders or editors
• work in a bookshop or library.

Search for placements and find out more about work experience and internships .

Typical employers

A degree in linguistics is useful for careers in:

• communications and media
• government administration
• public relations
• publishing.

It's also possible to go into jobs where you can use your knowledge of linguistics directly, such as working for dictionary compilers or as proofreaders and editors.

Other possibilities include training as a speech and language therapist or teacher, or finding work teaching English as a foreign or second language. There are also opportunities in computer programming and information technology, specifically within areas such as voice recognition and language software development.

Typical employers include:

• media organisations
• publishing companies
• marketing, advertising and PR companies
• primary and secondary schools
• language schools both in the UK and abroad
• Civil Service, especially on the Fast Stream
• law and accountancy firms
• IT and telecommunications firms
• the NHS and private hospitals.

Find information on employers in marketing, advertising and PR , media and internet , teacher training and education and other job sectors .

Skills for your CV

Studying linguistics teaches you about the science and function of language and how it evolves. You develop skills in analysing language, looking at syntax and semantics as well as words and sounds. You also study and critique theories and ideas and learn how to present linguistic data in various formats.

You also develop other important skills, including:

• research skills, including knowledge of research methodology and quantitative methods
• a range of analysis and statistical analysis techniques
• the ability to accurately collect, interpret and manage data
• written and verbal communication skills
• critical thinking and problem solving
• the ability to work well in a team and independently
• project management skills
• self-management
• time management and organisation skills.

Further study

You may decide to go on to study at Masters level to specialise in an area of linguistics of particular interest to you, such as:

• applied linguistics
• forensic linguistics
• language sciences

or a related area such as:

• English language
• philosophy of language
• creative writing
• philosophy.

Various postgraduate courses are also available that allow you to enter particular careers such as speech and language therapy or teaching. There are also opportunities to take a qualification in teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL).

Although it's not essential to do a postgraduate qualification for careers in areas such as marketing, PR, journalism, IT and social research, further vocational study may enhance your chances of employment, particularly when combined with relevant work experience.

For more information on further study and to find a course that interests you, see Masters degrees and search postgraduate courses in linguistics .

What do linguistics graduates do?

Seven of the top ten jobs held by linguistics graduates include sales, marketing and related associate professionals (10%), teaching professionals (8%), teaching and childcare support occupations (7%), artistic, literary and media occupations (4%), HR (4%), business, research and administrative professionals (4%) and media professionals (3%).

Find out what other graduates are doing after finishing their degrees in What do graduates do?

Graduate Outcomes survey data from HESA.

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PhD Linguistics / Careers

Year of entry: 2024

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Careers in Linguistics

What can i do with a degree in linguistics.

The field of linguistics is extremely diverse, intersecting with many areas such as anthropology, computer science, engineering, foreign language study, neurology, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and speech & hearing science, among others. As a result, a degree in linguistics can provide the foundation for a wide range of jobs and careers (see below for some examples). Studying linguistics helps you develop many important skills such as analytical and critical thinking, problem solving, argumentation, data collection and analysis, and written and oral expression. As a student of linguistics, you will become familiar with many different languages and cultures and, as a result, also develop cross-cultural skills. Each of these skills are useful in many careers that may not otherwise seem related to linguistics. Below you will find a list of some of the career paths that graduates with a BA in linguistics have followed as well as some references that may prove useful.

Current postings of linguistics jobs are available from the Linguistics Society of America and ZipRecruiter .

Learn about non academic careers in Linguistics .

See what former Linguistics Majors are doing now!

Click on any person below to find out where each is working.

Language teaching

• foreign language teaching
• teaching English as a second language
• teaching English as a foreign language
• teaching English as a first language
• teaching in literacy programs

Information technology

• natural language processing
• speech recognition, speech synthesis
• language data analyst
• editor (for a publishing house, working with government or educational documents)
• lexicographer (e.g. working for Merriam-Webster)
• technical writer

Language Services Industry

• translator/editor
• interpreter (in-person or remote)

Professions

• speech pathologist/therapist
• accent coach
• audiologist
• college/university professor (combining research, teaching and service)

Miscellaneous

• librarian civil service employee
• foreign relief worker
• computer programmer
• writer/editor
• marketing specialist
• missionary, e.g. working for SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics www.sil.org ), Wycliffe Bible Translators

Some resources:

• Jobs for linguists  from ZipRecruiter
• Careers in linguistics from The Linguistics Society of America
• Monster.com : jobs for linguists
• Career Planning from the University of New Hampshire.

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Exploring Careers as a PhD

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Are you thinking of pursuing a PhD, or are you currently in the middle of a program? Ever wonder what life can look like on the other side of defending your dissertation? Well, the path is not all too linear, and your first job may not be your last job; however, it may be a door to a world of opportunities. Check out this alumni profile from the graduate school to spark innovation within your own exploration: Alumni Profiles Series: Jeannie Karl | The Graduate School (duke.edu)