Program Statistics
Visit PhD Program Statistics for statistics such as program admissions, enrollment, student demographics and more.
Linguistics
Degree Types: PhD
The Department of Linguistics offers a PhD program, providing students with a solid background in linguistic theory with an emphasis on empirical and experimental methodologies.
After receiving training in basic linguistic theory, students have considerable flexibility in designing their own courses of study. We encourage students to pursue research topics that span more than one subfield of linguistics.
The active involvement of over 20 affiliated faculty in other departments and schools provides a wide range of interdisciplinary opportunities including courses, colloquia, and research involvement.
Additional resources:
Program Contact
Contact Talant Abdykairov
Graduate and Undergraduate Program Assistant
847-491-7020
Degree Requirements
The following requirements are in addition to, or further elaborate upon, those requirements outlined in The Graduate School Policy Guide.
PhD
Total Units Required: 10
| Course | Title |
|---|---|
| Fundamental Properties of Language (4 quarters) | |
| LING 400-0 | Seminar in Linguistics (Pragmatic Theory) |
| LING 420-0 | Sociolinguistic Theory and Analysis |
| LING 450-1 | Laboratory Phonology I |
| LING 460-1 | Syntactic Analysis I |
| Advanced Competency (4 quarters) | |
| Any 4 400-level LING courses, excepting independent study and other required courses. | |
| Computational Analysis (1 quarter) | |
| One of the following courses | |
| LING 300-0 | Topics in Linguistics (Introduction to Programming and Text Processing for Linguists) |
| LING 334-0 | Introduction to Computational Linguistics |
| Statistics (1 quarter) | |
| STAT 330-1 | Applied Statistics for Research 1 |
Additional Degree Requirements
- Research/Projects: successful completion of one research paper, by the end of eighth quarter, for admission to candidacy; acceptable master's thesis in the department may be offered to satisfy the requirement
- PhD Dissertation: in addition to PhD degree requirements outlined in the Graduate Study at Northwestern University section of this Web site, completion of a prospectus by the end of the twelfth quarter, for admission to candidacy
- Final Evaluations: none specified beyond the PhD degree requirements outlined in the Graduate Study at Northwestern University section of this Web site
- Other: demonstration of advanced competence in a second natural language. (For non-native English speakers, advanced competence in English satisfies this requirement.)
Master's
Total Units Required: 9
* The Qualifying Paper and course work can be used by PhD students to satisfy requirements for MA degree.
| Course | Title |
|---|---|
| Fundamental Properties of Language (4 quarters) | |
| LING 400-0 | Seminar in Linguistics (Pragmatic Theory) |
| LING 420-0 | Sociolinguistic Theory and Analysis |
| LING 450-1 | Laboratory Phonology I |
| LING 460-1 | Syntactic Analysis I |
| Computational Analysis (1 quarter) | |
| One of the following courses | |
| LING 300-0 | Topics in Linguistics (Introduction to Programming and Text Processing for Linguists) |
| LING 334-0 | Introduction to Computational Linguistics |
| Statistics (1 quarter) | |
| STAT 330-1 | Applied Statistics for Research 1 |
| Electives (3 quarters) | |
| Any 3 LING courses offered for graduate credit. | |
Other MA Degree Requirements
- Examinations: none specified
- Research/Projects: none specified
- Master's Thesis: required
- Other: demonstration of advanced proficiency in one non-English language (department assumes native or near-native proficiency in English)