1. See the current bulletin of the Graduate School and the Graduate School Handbook for the general requirements for the degrees. Note especially the rules governing examinations and theses. The Graduate Studies Committee conducts the graduate program in the department and serves as the liaison between the Graduate School and the graduate faculty of the department. The policies, rules, and procedures established by the Council on Research and Graduate Studies serve as the framework and set the minimum standards within which the Graduate Studies Committee (with the advice of the entire graduate faculty) formulates the policies outlined in this Handbook.
2. The Department offers an M.A. degree and Ph.D. degree in linguistics. Students applying to the program are considered for the Ph.D. ( and should check that objective on the application) and if admitted, are admitted directly into the Ph.D. program. Under special circumstances, students may apply for an M.A. as their degree objective, but the Ph.D. is the normal objective and financial support is focused on those in the Ph.D. program. The M.A. program is designed to provide students with a strong foundation in linguistics. The Ph.D. program, on the other hand, provides the opportunity for considerable specialization, the areas of which can include the history or structure of specific languages and fields bordering on such disciplines as psychology, philosophy, computer science, etc. (cf. section IV.B below). The Department is not equipped to offer courses or specializations in applied linguistics (Foreign Language Education, the Teaching of English as a Second Language, the Theory and Practice of the Teaching of Reading, etc.), though students may pursue courses in these subjects in the College of Education simultaneously with their course work in linguistics in order to broaden their future career options. Students whose primary or sole interest is in applied linguistics should inquire about appropriate programs in the College of Education. (For M.A. & Ph.D. programs in Foreign Language Education and Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL), contact Dr. Elizabeth Bernhardt-Kamil, Educational Studies; for M.A. & Ph.D. programs in Language, Literature and Reading Education, contact Dr. Frank Zidonis, Educational Theory & Practice; and for an M.A. program in Bilingual Education, contact Dr. Virginia Allen, Early and Middle Childhood Education.)
3. Besides degree programs within the Linguistics Department, graduate programs with specialization in the linguistic study of specific languages or language families are also offered by the departments of French & Italian Languages, Germanic Languages, Slavic Languages, East Asian Languages; Near Eastern Languages, and Spanish & Portuguese Languages; contact the Graduate Studies Committee Chair of the appropriate language department for information on these programs.
4. In addition to the established degree programs, Ohio State offers the opportunity for "one-of-a-kind" graduate programs which cut across traditional disciplinary boundaries. For such programs, the student must be admitted to one of the regular graduate programs and then submit to the Graduate School Curriculum Committee, within the first two years of study, his or her proposed program of study for approval. Suggested outlines of some programs of this sort are available on request.
5. An undergraduate major in linguistics is not required for entering the graduate program in linguistics. Because it is difficult to broaden one's background at the graduate level, an undergraduate major in a specific language or a field such as philosophy, psychology, anthropology, mathematics or computer science may be as appropriate as a major in linguistics for the student intending to pursue graduate study in linguistics. However, a student is ill-advised to embark upon any graduate program in linguistics without some familiarity with linguistics proper, i.e., not just with courses in foreign languages.
6. Each incoming graduate student will be assigned an initial faculty contact before entering the program. In consultation with this contact person, the student will choose courses for the first year. Students are free to change advisors at any time and are encouraged to seek out the best match for their interests. There are certain stages in each student's graduate career at which advisors must be selected (see section B below). A form, to be signed by the selected advisor, is available from the departmental office to record the choice of advisor. Note that each faculty member may place a limit on the number of advisees he or she will accept.
7. Students employed as Graduate Associates normally hold a 50% or greater appointment and must register for at least nine credit hours each quarter, except during the summer quarter, when the minimum is seven. If a student holds a 25% appointment, s/he must register for seven credit hours each quarter. Doctoral students who have passed the Candidacy Examination must register for at least twelve credit hours each quarter a 50% or greater appointment is held, including summer quarter. Graduate Fellows must register for a minimum of 15 credit hours each quarter.
Since students who have completed their course work for a degree and are finishing a thesis or dissertation away from campus periodically require the advice and consultation of their advisors and reading committees, such students are required to enroll for six credit hours of Linguistics 999 each autumn quarter until the thesis or dissertation is completed. However, with prior approval of the student's examining committee and the Graduate Studies Chair, a student may withdraw temporarily but completely from the graduate program in linguistics for a period of up to one year. The student will not be required to enroll for any credit hours of 999 during this absence, but it is understood that the student does not plan to work on the thesis or dissertation during such a period and therefore will not make use of faculty consultation about academic matters. Students who do not obtain approval before withdrawing from the program, or who remain away from it for more than one year, must reapply to the Graduate Committee for admission in order to return to the program.
8. During the quarter of their graduation, students must submit all course work before the end of the quarter, usually in the ninth week.
1. The graduate program in linguistics is dedicated to producing Ph.D. graduates in linguistics who demonstrate expertise in one or more areas within the field and who have proven themselves to be effective and creative researchers. To that end, requirements include both core courses and focused course work in a coherent set of courses in one sub-area within linguistics (referred to below as a "track"), a calloquium presentation, two major research papers (Pre-Candidacy Examination papers), an examination (the "Candidacy Examination", covering a major and possibly a minor field), and the dissertation; in addition, there are some language requirements. All of these requirements are detailed below.
The basic guiding principle governing these requirements is a set of guidelines known as "milestones". These milestones define normal progress through the program, with sanctions in place for any failure to meet the deadlines in any of the milestones; details about these sanctions, which focus primarily on financial aid decisions (inasmuch as a prerequisite for financial aid is satisfactory progress towards the degree), are available in the department office. The milestones are as follows; details about each are provided afterward:
By the end of the first year: completing first-year courses satisfactorily; choosing a track; choosing an appropriate second-year advisor.
By the end of the second year: completion of core courses; admission to a track within the Ph.D. program. Track admission will be based on the student's performance in core courses and track prerequisite courses and on a portfolio of work from those courses, as well as on a colloquium presentation of work in progress at a departmental mini-conference.
Normally the work in progress presented in the colloquium will be within the track to which the student is applying, though it may be in any subject acceptable to the track advisors. (For example, in some cases, presentation of work in phonetics or sociolinguistics may be adequate for admission to the pragmatics track, or of work in phonology for admission to the historical linguistics track.) Students and their advisors may wish to view the work in progress as the foundation for the first Pre-Candidacy paper, though this isn't necessary.
By the end of the Winter Quarter of the third year: completing the first Pre-Candidacy Paper, with the approval of a 3-member reading committee; presenting the paper in a departmental colloquium.
By the end of Spring Quarter of the third year: completing the required course work in the chosen track.
By the end of the Autumn Quarter of the fourth year: completing the second Pre-Candidacy Paper, with the approval of a 3-member reading committee; presenting the paper in a departmental colloquium.
By the end of Spring Quarter of the fourth year: submitting a draft of the dissertation proposal and completing one written examination, to be followed by a closed defense of the written examination and draft proposal (the areas to be covered in the examination will be relevant to the proposed field of research for the dissertation and these, as well as associated readings, will be agreed upon in consultation between the student and the advisor, with the concurrence of the other committee members); forming a dissertation committee and submitting, for the approval of the faculty, a final dissertation proposal that is acceptable to the members of the committee (whose names are to be indicated on the proposal).
By the end of the Spring Quarter of the fifth year: completing the dissertation and defending it in a public defense.
In the sections that follow, some further explication of the content of these milestones is given:
2. Core Courses: The following courses constitute the basic "core" for all students and are thus to be taken by all students (though see section VI.B.9 below for procedures for "testing out" of these requirements):
In addition, all students must take either:
and either:
3. The Tracks: The following tracks have been approved by the Linguistics Department:
Detailed descriptions of each track are available in the department office and are made available to students when they matriculate in the graduate program. Some of the tracks require certain choices in the core courses, and some require further courses to be taken as prerequisites to admission to the track. Moreover, some have the requirement of a secondary specialization (a coherent subset of courses within the general rubric of a given track). The option to create one's own track is available, subject to departmental approval, to students whose interests in linguistics do not fit into one of the above tracks; guidelines for such an individualized track are available in the department office.
4. The Pre-Candidacy papers: These papers (a) must be research papers, (b) must exhibit originality in data, analysis, or theory, (c) must be of sufficient quality for publication in OSU Working Papers in Linguistics (though not necessarily published there), and (d) must be such as to enlighten and inform some professional linguist. Some tracks might require students to submit one Pre-Candidacy paper in a secondary or related specialty.
5. The Candidacy Examination: The Candidacy Examination consists of a single written examination and an oral defense of the written examination combined with the defense of the draft dissertation proposal. The written examination will be linked as closely as possible to the dissertation proposal, though the two are technically distinct. For instance, the exam may take the form of a review of appropriate literature, or up to three essays in relevant areas.
6. The Dissertation Proposal: The candidate must propose a dissertation which is a significant original contribution to linguistic knowledge. The student must have a dissertation proposal approved by the faculty as a whole.
7. The Dissertation: As stated in (6), the dissertation is expected to be a significant original contribution to linguistic knowledge. The dissertation is to be written under the direction of an advisor, and in consultation with other (minimally two) members of the Dissertation Committee. After the approval of the dissertation by the Dissertation Committee, a final oral examination is held. The Final Oral Examining Committee consists of the members of the Dissertation Committee plus a representative from the Graduate School. This examination will be open to all interested persons, though only the members of the Examining Committee may pose questions. The department permits a student to pass this examination with one negative vote from a committee member.
8. Language Requirements: The only language requirement for the Ph.D. degree is a requirement involving a language other than their native (or dominant, in the case of bilinguals) language: students must demonstrate a linguistically oriented knowledge of such a language. This requirement may be fulfilled by taking 10 hours of linguistically oriented course work on an appropriate language (such as Linguistics 650, Linguistics 672, Sanskrit 621/622, courses in the history and/or structure of a language offered in another department) or by writing a substantive paper that incorporates, to the satisfaction of the student's committee, substantial primary data from the chosen language; this paper should be such as would be written as a term paper in a seminar and need not be an independent piece (i.e. it may be a Pre-Candidacy Paper, though it need not be).
9. Like all new students, those students intending to enter the Ph.D. program with an M.A. degree in linguistics from some other institution or with substantial preparation in linguistics must demonstrate an appropriate level of competence in the core courses (see section VI.B.2) and in the courses relevant to their chosen track. For many students, this may entail taking the core courses during their first year at Ohio State, but any student may attempt to "test out" of one or more of the core courses. The means of testing out will be specific to individual areas and might consist of one or more of the following, in order to determine that the student has knowledge and skills comparable to those developed in the relevant core course:
The faculty in the relevant area(s) will determine and approve the testing out, based on their evaluation of the student's work previously done in that area.
Such students will be subject to the same standards (see section VI.B.1) as other students: appropriate level of performance in the core courses (or their equivalents), performance in the other courses, and the acceptability of the colloquium presentation (see section VI.B.1). The Colloquium presentation and/or portfolio which is submitted may be based on a previously written M.A. thesis or term paper from a course taken elsewhere, though even in such cases, some revising might be necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with faculty concerning the possible acceptability of such papers or theses.
10. The Linguistics Department's graduate curriculum is designed for students to enter in the autumn quarter of each year. Though students may enter in any of the other three quarters as well, this may be inadvisable in many cases, and students are urged to correspond with the Graduate Studies Committee Chair about their individual situations before planning to enter the program in the winter, spring, or summer quarters.
1. As described in section VI.A and VI.B, linguistics graduate students enter the Ph.D program directly upon matriculation at OSU. The department views the Ph.D. as the primary degree objective for our students, but though primarily a doctoral program, we recognize that there are certain circumstances in which a student might wish to earn an M.A. degree. Accordingly, the M.A. program is designed to serve those students who, for whatever reason, want an M.A degree.
2. Students are expected to have taken a general introductory course in linguistics comparable to our 601 course or else to take 601 during their first quarter of study.
3. The requirements for the M.A. program are as follows: students must take the four core courses as described in section IV.B.2., and
4. M.A. students who wish to write a thesis but later be considered for the Ph.D. program may do so, but may be subject to reevaluation of their admission credentials; and the thesis may be used for the colloquium presentation described in VI.B.1 under Milestone 2.
5. Students who do not take the Master's Examination described in section IV.C.3b and are admitted to the Ph.D. program will be awarded an M.A. degree, if they wish, upon completion of their Ph.D. Candidacy Examination (see section VI.5).
6. Students are encouraged to develop a continuing interest in a language or language family at the earliest possible point in their studies. This can be accomplished by formal language courses (see the bulletin of course offerings at Ohio State), including those treating earlier stages of languages, though informal study may suffice. Students are also encouraged to examine descriptions, histories, and other studies (the faculty will be happy to provide suggestions), and to treat aspects of their languages(s) in papers or projects for various courses. See also section VI.B.8 regarding the Ph.D. Language Requirement.
7. Students are also encouraged to gain experience in elicitation procedures and the use of descriptive techniques on unfamiliar languages. Taking Linguistics 650 is the usual way of obtaining this experience, but on occasion Linguistics 672 or personal field work may also serve