Master of Arts
Doctor of Philosophy

For More Information

Campus address: Sherri and Robert L. Patton, Jr. Hall (RLP) 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 laboratories for research in experimental phonetics and laboratory phonology, descriptive and documentary linguistics, psycho- and neurolinguistics, and signed language linguistics. The facilities of Information Technology Services and Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services (LAITS) 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 that sponsor colloquia, conferences, and/or reading groups. The department also hosts a general linguistics colloquium with outside and on-campus speakers. Conferences include the biennial Conference on Indigenous Languages of Latin America and an annual student-run conference, the Texas Linguistics Society conference.

The Department of Linguistics has close links, including cross-listed faculty members and courses, to such adjacent departments as Anthropology; Computer Science; Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences; Philosophy; Psychology; Slavic and Eurasian Studies; English; Germanic Studies; Middle Eastern Studies; Mexican-American and Latina/o Studies; French and Italian; Spanish and Portuguese, as well as area studies centers such as the South Asia Institute and the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies.

Areas of Study

Through its core courses, the Department of Linguistics provides every doctoral student a thorough foundation in phonetics, phonology, syntax, semantics, and linguistic field methods. The department has five primary research areas: computational linguistics, phonetics and phonology, syntax and semantics, documentary and descriptive linguistics (especially of Latin American languages), and signed language linguistics. The department also offers strong training in historical linguistics and psycho- and neurolinguistics. The faculty seek 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 speech, language, and hearing sciences.

Graduate Studies Committee

The following faculty members served on the Graduate Studies Committee (GSC) in the spring 2023 semester.

David I Beaver John T Beavers Megan J Crowhurst Ashwini S Deo Patience L Epps Katrin E Erk Johan A Kamp Daniel A Law Jessy Li

Fernando Llanos Lucas Kyle Mahowald Richard P Meier Scott P Myers David G Quinto-Pozos Rajka Smiljanic 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.