PhD Program

Students in the PhD program in Linguistics must complete a minimum of 33 credits at the graduate-level, subject to the following requirements:

• Breadth requirement: A minimum of 9 credits from the following courses (or equivalents):
  • LING 508: Phonetic Theory and Analysis (3 credits)
  • LING 510: Phonological Theory and Analysis (3 credits)
  • LING 520: Syntactic Theory and Analysis (3 credits)
  • LING 525: Semantic Theory and Analysis (3 credits)
• Methods requirement: A minimum of 9 credits of methods courses which must include: 

• • LING 531: Field Methods in Linguistics I (3 credits)
  • The remaining six 6 credits can be completed with any of the following:
    • LING 532: Field Methods in Linguistics II (3 credits)
    • LING 518: Advanced Research Seminar (3 credits) -- This is a course in quantitative methods
    • LING 560: Managing and Preserving Linguistic Data (3 credits)
    • suitable methods-related courses in Linguistics or in a different department

• Remaining courses (a minimum of 15 credits) should be selected in support of the student’s chosen area of research and dissertation topic. This must include at least one section of LING 530, and may include any of the following:

• • LING 505A: Issues in Morphological Theory and Analysis (3 credits)
  • LING 511: Topics in Phonology (3 credits)
  • LING 513: Topics in Phonetics (3 credits)
  • LING 521: Topics in Syntax (3 credits)
  • LING 527: Topics in Semantics (3 credits)
  • LING 530: Linguistic Problems in a Special Area (3 credits; more than one section of LING 530 can be counted towards this requirement, with each three-credit section counting as one course)
  • the “fourth” breadth course (out of LING 508, 510, 520, 525) that was not used to fulfill the breadth requirement
  • suitable graduate courses in other departments.

Please note:

• First-year graduate students who do not have sufficient background for the breadth courses (this is most typically an issue for LING 525 and LING 508) are expected to take the prerequisite undergraduate courses (e.g., LING 325, LING 313) prior to registration in the graduate course.
• The student’s overall course package is subject to approval by the supervisory committee and the department’s graduate program advisor.
• The breadth courses and methods courses (except Field Methods) can be waived if equivalent courses have been, completed at another university, subject to an evaluation of the relevant syllabus by the faculty member(s) who regularly teach(es) the course in our department. Such waivers will only be approved if the course content is demonstrably equivalent. Breadth and methods courses can also be waived if the student already took the same course as an undergrad student at UBC (or its 400-level counterpart in the case of “split” undergrad/grad courses). Because the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (G+PS) does not have a credit requirement at the PhD level, courses that are waived by the department do not have to be “made up” by taking other courses instead.
• For PhD students who completed the MA program in Linguistics at UBC, any graduate LING courses completed during that program can be waived (i.e., they do not need to retake those courses in their PhD program).
• After the first two terms, students should register for the Doctoral Dissertation course (LING 649) in every term to maintain their full-time student status.

Students are advised to complete the breadth and methods requirements as early as possible in their program, ideally in the first year. The breadth courses (LING 508, 510, 520, and 525) and field methods (LING 530 and 531) are normally offered every year. The quantitative methods course (LING 518) is typically offered every other year. Depending on their background, students may have to complete prerequisite undergrad courses in areas in which they lack previous training prior to registering in the breadth courses.

Here are three sample course sequences that students usually take:

Sequence 1: 

Term 1: Breadth: LING 510, LING 520; Other: LING 503

Term 2: Breadth: LING 508, LING 525; Other: LING 511

Term 3: Other: LING 513; Methods: LING 518, LING 531

Term 4: Other: LING 530; Depth/Methods: LING 532

Sequence 2: 

Term 1: Breadth: LING 510, LING 520; Other: LING 530

Term 2: Breadth: LING 525; Other: LING 505A, LING 521

Term 3: OtherLING 527; Methods: LING 518, LING 531

Term 4: Other/Methods LING 532

Sequence 3: 

Term 1: Breadth: LING 510; Other: LING 503; Methods: 3 credits in statistics

Term 2: Breadth: LING 508, LING 525; Other: LING 511

Term 3: Other: LING 513; Methods: LING 518, LING 531

Term 4: Other: LING 530; LING 530

The QP process is an opportunity to develop, strengthen, and broaden research skills. Whether a student chooses the one-QP or two-QP option and the specific topic(s) are decisions students discuss and make in discussion with their supervisory committee (a.k.a. pre-candidacy committee), which normally has three members. Discussions of what constitutes appropriate scope should take place within the committee.

Two-QP option (default): Students who select to write two QPs are acknowledging that they would benefit from the experience of engaging in two separate research topics under the guidance of their committee. Each QP will have two readers, who normally are members of the student’s pre-candidacy committee. The readers for the two QPs may be the same or overlap or be distinct. Usually at least one member of the pre-candidacy committee will be a reader for both QPs (typically the student’s supervisor). The length of these QPs is to be the scope of a discipline-specific conference proceedings paper.

One-QP option: Students who select to write one QP are eager to engage more deeply with a single topic and set of research methods. Under this option, all three members of the student’s pre-candidacy committee act as readers for the QP. The scope of this QP is to be appropriate for a journal manuscript, which is discipline specific. 

While QPs may feed into dissertation projects, there is no established expectation that they will or will not.

No defences, but QP presentations. Under neither of these options will students be required to formally defend their QPs. But, developing presentation skills is important to a scholar’s development. Students are required to present each QP. Such a presentation is a presentation and not a defence. The evaluation of a presentation is thus formative, and not summative. A QP does not need to be presented upon completion, but rather it is up to the committee to decide the presentation timing that is appropriate for a student. To facilitate this, there will be a Graduate Student Research Day at the end of every term, and all students will be invited to present.

The QP Proposal. As part of the Qualifying Paper process, and before beginning work on the paper, a student must have a short proposal for each paper approved by the readers for that QP. The proposal must establish the specific area and problem(s) to be addressed and cite a few key references from the literature which will be surveyed. The committee will normally respond to the proposal within 2 weeks of its submission. The Qualifying Paper proposal should follow the formatting guidelines of an abstract for the Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association, with the following addition: without exceeding the one-page length limit, the proposal should include a short budget (if there will be costs associated with completing the Qualifying Paper), budget justification and funding source (faculty member’s grant, outside grant, private funds, etc.). Also note that the content for a proposal will normally be more speculative than a conference abstract. Once approved, the Qualifying Paper proposal should be electronically filed in their student progress tracking account and circulated electronically to the Department.

The final paper will be submitted to UBC Working Papers in Linguistics and must follow the UBCWPL style guidelines for length and formatting.

The dissertation marks the culmination of the PhD program. A dissertation should be an original and independent research project which makes some contribution to knowledge in the special area elected by the student.

Students write their dissertation under the guidance of a dissertation committee. Usually the dissertation committee consists of three faculty members in the department, but it’s possible to have a member of the committee from outside the department and/or to have a fourth member on the committee. The chair of the dissertation committee is the student’s supervisor. The dissertation committee may or may not be identical to the pre-candidacy committee or may partially overlap.  

By the end of a student’s third year, the student must submit to the Graduate Advisor a dissertation prospectus, along with the appropriate approval form signed by the members of the dissertation committee, and circulate the prospectus electronically to the Department. The content of a dissertation prospectus should be along the lines of an NSERC Discovery Grant or a SSHRC Insight Grant; it should have the following components:

• Summary (1 page maximum)
• Detailed description (6 pages maximum)
• Bibliography
• Budget (if there will be costs associated with completing the dissertation research)
• Budget justification (as appropriate)

Dissertations should be prepared in accordance with the thesis formatting regulations required by Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. Dissertations which do not meet the standards specified may be rejected. Documentation should follow the style guide of the Canadian Journal of Linguistics, Language, or the American Psychological Association.

The completed dissertation will be read by a specialist from outside the University, arranged by the Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at least three months before the candidate expects to take the final oral examination. The student’s research supervisor and the Graduate Advisor will forward a list of names of specialists who might serve as External Examiner using the Doctoral Dissertation Form. When the dissertation has been approved for submission to the External Examiner, the candidate will take the final oral defence. This is a formal, public examination, chaired by an appointee of the Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, and attended by the members of the examining committee and other interested persons.

Students nearing the final stages of thesis writing should familiarize themselves with the timeline to the oral dissertation defense. During the weeks prior to the oral examination, students are strongly encouraged to give a practice oral presentation, ideally during a departmental research seminar slot. Practice orals should follow the Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies format, allowing 30 minutes for a presentation, and a longer period for questions. While examining committee members are not prohibited from attending, practice orals should not be viewed as an opportunity to prepare students for specific questions that students will be asked by committee members at the official defence.

The candidate submits an electronic copy of the final dissertation to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. The electronic copy will be deposited in the cIRcle on-line repository, and linked from the department website. The final oral exam may be held at any time of the year (except from mid-December to mid-January) provided that the examining committee can be assembled.

Until their PhD thesis prospectus has been approved, all PhD students are expected to maintain a regular, active, physical presence in the Department. This can include participation in lab/project/reading groups, attending colloquia, research seminars or other ad hoc departmental events, meetings with their supervisor, committee members or other researchers in relevant areas. Certain circumstances may necessitate a student’s absence during some of this period (e.g. for field work); such absences should be discussed with the supervisory committee.

At all stages of the program, a student and their supervisor should be in regular contact and communication. At the thesis/dissertation stage, such contact should happen at least once a month (again, barring extenuating circumstances), either through in-person meetings, videoconferencing, or communication/reporting over email.

An interim supervisory committee (a.k.a. first-year committee) is appointed for a student by the Graduate Advisor before the beginning of their first year in the program. This committee consist of three faculty members from the Department of Linguistics, and includes the student’s interim supervisor, who is the chair of the committee.

During the first year (no later than the end of term2), the interim first-year committee is dissolved and a new supervisory committee is established. This committee consists minimally of a research supervisor and two additional members. The pre-candidacy committee may be identical to, or overlap with, the interim first-year committee, or it may be entirely different. The role of the pre-candidacy committee is to guide the students in all aspects of their program (including course selection, developing a research direction, and the writing of the QP(s)) until advancement to doctoral candidacy. Normally the members of the pre-candidacy committee are from the Department of Linguistics; if the students committee includes members from outside the Department of Linguistics, a majority must be departmental members. Establishing the pre-candidacy committee is the joint responsibility of the student and the Graduate Advisor.

When a PhD student has completed (or is close to completing) all required coursework and the QP(s), they start with the dissertation phase of the program. For this they form a dissertation committee, including a research supervisor who is the chair of the committee. The dissertation committee replaces the pre-candidacy committee (the two committees may or may not be identical or may partially overlap). The membership of the dissertation committee has to be approved by the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. The dissertation committee supervises the writing of the dissertation prospectus. Once the prospectus has been approved by the dissertation committee, and the student has met all other requirements for the PhD, they can formally advance to doctoral candidacy. 

Each year, both new and continuing PhD students will have a meeting with their committee during the last week of August or in early September. At this meeting students can discuss their course work and other aspects of their program. Incoming students are requested to bring with them copies of the calendars of course offerings from the institutions they previously attended (other than UBC). At the end of April or the beginning of May, all students will meet with their committee to discuss the year’s progress and to plan further work. Any changes in a graduate student’s program must be approved by their committee.

The Graduate Advisor, in advising students, makes every effort to ensure that they have satisfied all the requirements for the degree — course work, QPs etc. However, it is ultimately every student’s responsibility to ensure that at the time they apply for the degree they have met all the requirements. Separate records of a student’s program and progress are kept by the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies; these records are obtained from information provided by the Graduate Advisor and are used to determine a student’s ultimate eligibility for graduation.

The Faculty will meet in April or May each year to discuss the progress of each student in the PhD program. The student’s supervisor will inform them of the results of the evaluation. If a student is not making satisfactory progress, they will either be required to withdraw from the program immediately or will be placed on probation and told what conditions must be fulfilled to obtain a satisfactory standing. If a student on probation has not fulfilled these conditions by the end of the following semester, they will then normally be required to withdraw from the program.