This is an archived copy of the 2017-18 catalog. To access the most recent version of the catalog, please visit http://catalog.utexas.edu/.

Linguistics

Master of Arts
Doctor of Philosophy

For More Information

Campus address: College of Liberal Arts Building (CLA) 4.304, phone (512) 471-1701, fax (512) 471-4340; campus mail code: B5100

Mailing address: The University of Texas at Austin, Graduate Program, Department of Linguistics, 305 East 23rd Street Stop B5100, Austin TX 78712

URL: http://liberalarts.utexas.edu/linguistics/

Facilities for Graduate Work

The University Libraries have extensive collections in linguistics and related fields, in major world and regional languages, and in minority and indigenous languages. The Benson Latin American Collection houses a major archive of materials on or in indigenous and colonial languages of Latin America. The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (AILLA) is a digital archive of original sound recordings and related documentary resources on indigenous languages of Latin America that is curated on campus.

Members of the department maintain cutting-edge laboratories for research in phonetics, computational linguistics, language acquisition, descriptive and documentary linguistics, and signed language linguistics. The facilities of Information Technology Services are among the most comprehensive at American universities.

The principal areas of study within the department (phonology and phonetics, syntax and semantics, descriptive and documentary linguistics, linguistics of signed languages, and computational linguistics) maintain active student-faculty research groups which sponsor colloquia, conferences, or reading groups. The department also sponsors a general linguistics colloquium with outside and on-campus speakers. Conferences include the biennial Conference on Indigenous Languages of Latin America and two annual student-run conferences, the Texas Linguistics Society conference and the Symposium about Language and Society—Austin (SALSA).

The Department of Linguistics has close links, including cross-listed faculty members and courses, to such adjacent fields as anthropology, computer science, communication sciences and disorders, philosophy, psychology, Slavic and Eurasian studies, English, Germanic studies, Middle Eastern studies, French and Italian, and Spanish and Portuguese, as well as area studies such as Asian studies and Latin American studies.

Areas of Study

The Department of Linguistics offers a thorough foundation in phonetics, phonology, syntax, and semantics; it also offers strong grounding in computational linguistics, documentary and descriptive linguistics and endangered languages, language acquisition, and signed language linguistics. The faculty aims to give students broad training in linguistics alongside their eventual specialization in one or more subfields.

A student’s Program of Work in linguistics may be combined with supporting work in other areas such as specific languages, anthropology, computer science, philosophy, psychology, statistics, or communication sciences and disorders.

Graduate Studies Committee

The following faculty members served on the Graduate Studies Committee in the spring semester 2017.

David I Beaver
John T Beavers
Megan J Crowhurst
Nora C England
Patience L Epps
Katrin E Erk
Ian F Hancock
Daniel A Law
Richard P Meier
Scott P Myers
David G Quinto-Pozos
Rajka Smiljanic
Harvey M Sussman
Stephen M Wechsler
Anthony C Woodbury

Admission Requirements

Admission to graduate work is not necessarily restricted to those who have a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in linguistics, although this background is recommended. A number of other fields can also provide valuable preparation.