Linguistics Concentration

The Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures is proud to offer an M.A. with a specialization in Linguistics.

Requirements

• Reading List
• Checklist

• Course Listing and Sample Syllabi

Requirements

Language Proficiency

You must show proper language proficiency by
a. completing Russian 610 or equivalent (determined by a diagnostic examination).

b. Passing the Reading, Grammar, and Speaking/Oral Comprehension portions of the departmental Russian Proficiency Exam

Course Load

A minimum of 45 graduate credit hours

• Russian 640, Structure of Russian
• Russian 720, History of Russian
• Linguistics 601, Introduction to Linguistics
• one of the following courses in Literature
• Russian 650 (Dostoevsky)
• Russian 651 (Tolstoy)
• Russian 656 (Russian Women Writers)
• Russian 750 (Pushkin and his time)
• Russian 751 (Gogol' and 19th Century Russian Satire)
• Russian 752 (Turgenev, Chekhov, and Aspects of Russian Realism)
• Russian 754
• 3 electives in fields related to Linguistics (chosen with approval from your advisor)
• 5 hours of thesis research (Slavic 999) (For students taking Plan-B another course in field of linguistics is required)

*Note, no single course may fulfill more than one requirement in the Department's programs. Courses used to satisfy the M.A. requirements may not be used to fulfill the Ph.D. requirements.

Residency

At least 2 quarters of residency

Thesis (Plan A) or Professional Paper (Plan B)

Students must also fulfill one of the following requirements:

Successful completion of an M.A. Thesis.

OR:

The Professional Paper Plan

Students who do not take the thesis option or who are unable to complete its requirements by the Graduate School deadlines may, with the written permission of their advisor and the Graduate Studies Chair, be admitted to the Ph.D. program on a probationary basis if they receive a grade of High Pass on the M.A. examination and are in general good standing in the program. To obtain this permission, the students must submit a petition with their advisor's endorsement to Graduate Studies Committee chair prior to registering for the next quarter in which they intend to enroll after receipt of the M.A. degree. (Students who do not submit this petition will not be given their PAC number and may not register for classes.)

In general, the faculty recommend that students take the Plan-A (thesis) option rather than the Plan-B (first professional paper) option, for two reasons. First, provisional admission to the Ph.D. program depends on the permission of the student's advisor and the Graduate Studies Committee Chair and cannot be taken for granted. Second, students provisionally admitted to the Ph.D. program have a grace period of one quarter of enrollment after their receipt of the M.A. degree to submit and defend a "first professional paper." The deadlines for defending and filing the first professional paper are firm and cannot be extended. Hence students who are provisionally admitted to the Ph.D. program under Plan B face dismissal if they are unable to complete their requirements within their first quarter of enrollment after the M.A. degree.

Click here for more information on the Professional Paper.

M.A. Examination

All students, in order to get the M.A. in Linguistics must also pass the M.A. Examination.

In order to be in good standing in the Department, students must take the M.A. examination no later than the end of their sixth quarter of enrollment in the program; three additional quarters are permitted to students working on joint M.A. degrees with the Slavic Center or elsewhere.