linguistics phd georgetown

Linguistics

About the program.

The Department of Linguistics offers programs of study leading to the:

• Master of Arts in Linguistics (M.A.)
• Master of Science (M.S.)
• Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

The M.A. degree program offers a concentration in language and communication. The M.S. and Ph.D. programs each offer concentrations in applied linguistics, computational linguistics, sociolinguistics and theoretical linguistics. Concentration in Cognitive Science Furthermore, Ph.D. applicants can choose to apply for a secondary concentration in Cognitive Science in addition to one of the aforementioned concentrations. For more information, please see the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Concentration in Cognitive Science (ICCS) webpage.

Connect with Us

Program Contact: Erin Pereira – [email protected]

Begin your application today!

Degrees Offered

Accelerated program (Georgetown students only)

Admissions Requirements

For general graduate admissions requirements, visit the Office of Graduate Admission’s Application Information  page. Review the program’s website for additional information on program application requirements. Application Materials required:

• Application Form
• Non-Refundable Application Fee
• Academic Statement of Purpose
• Optional: Statement on Diversity, Personal Background & Contributions
• Writing Sample
• Letters of Recommendation (3)
• Transcripts – Applicants are required to upload to the application system copies of official transcripts from all undergraduate and graduate institutions attended. Visit the Office of Graduate Admission’s Application Information  page for additional details and FAQs.
• WES Evaluation – recommended (if applicable)
• GRE (optional for M.S. and Ph.D., not required for M.A.)
• TOEFL = 100 minimum
• IELTS = 7.5 minimum

Application Deadlines

• Fall: January 15
• Fall:  December 1

Degree Requirements

Master’s programs, master of arts in linguistics with a concentration in language and communication.

• 24 credit hours and a Master’s thesis or 30 credit hours without a Master’s thesis
• A 3.0 grade point average

Master of Science in Linguistics

• 36 credit hours for the Applied Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Theoretical Linguistics degrees; 30 credit hours without a master’s thesis or 24 credit hours and a Master’s thesis for the Computational Linguistics degree.
• Master’s research paper
• Proficiency in one foreign language

Ph.D. Program

• Proficiency in a foreign language
• Successful completion of the qualifying review
• Submission of a second qualifying paper
• Oral examination
• Doctoral dissertation

Graduate Programs

The following LCL departments offer graduate programs (Master’s, Ph.D., and/or accelerated Master’s).

• Arabic and Islamic Studies (M.A., Ph.D.)
• German (M.A., Ph.D., accelerated M.A.)
• Italian (M.A., accelerated M.A.)
• Spanish (M.S., Ph.D., accelerated M.S.)

Please visit the individual department website for more information or the Graduate School’s list of programs for information on how to apply.

Degree Programs

The Faculty of Languages and Linguistics offers numerous undergraduate and graduate degree options, as well as minors and certificates , and, beginning in fall 2022, a joint degree with the McDonough School of Business. Please visit the following departments/programs for more information on their offerings.

• French and Francophone Studies
• Global and Comparative Literature
• Greek (Ancient)
• Greek (Modern)
• Modern Hebrew
• Spanish and Portuguese Studies

Course Offerings

The MLC offers a uniquely designed, tailored program of study for every student. MLC students can choose between two different paths through the program:

• 30 credits (10 courses) of coursework
• 24 credits (8 courses) of coursework and a Master’s Thesis (6 credits of thesis research)

    Required Courses

• General Linguistics (sound, form, and meaning). Students with no significant background in linguistics should register for one of the following courses in their first year. Course selection should be made in consultation with the advisor. This requirement may be waived for students with at least a Bachelor’s in Linguistics, but coursework in these areas is encouraged.

LING 401: General Linguistics LING 410: Phonetics LING 411: Phonology LING 427: Syntax I LING 431: Semantics & Pragmatics I

• LING 478: MLC Proseminar. This is a professionalization course designed to illustrate how to use linguistics in professional contexts. Offered in the Spring semester. Student participation is required in professional development events throughout the year.

• 3 core courses. These courses cultivate essential (a) methodological, (b) theoretical, and (c) analytical competencies in sociolinguistics. Some popular courses that fulfill this part of the curriculum include but are not limited to:

LING 481: Sociolinguistic Variation LING 483: Discourse Analysis: Narrative LING 484: Discourse Analysis: Conversation LING 496: Intercultural Communication LING 571: Sociolinguistic Field Methods

Note that course offerings vary semester to semester, and are subject to change. 

    Elective Courses

The remainder of the program of study is composed of courses from across the Linguistics Department. The Department offers graduate courses in all areas of Linguistics, including theoretical, applied, computational, and sociolinguistic offerings. Students have an opportunity to deepen their expertise in one area (e.g. discourse analysis), gain a secondary specialization (e.g. in computational linguistics), or gain a broad understanding of the discipline as a whole. The Linguistics Department’s course offerings vary from year to year. Some popular courses include:

LING 361: Metaphor & Social Change LING 401: Forensic Linguistics LING 405: Discourse of Social Media LING 414: Sociophonetics LING 444: Discourse, Identity & Narrative LING 447: American Dialects LING 496: Intercultural Communication LING 589: Institutional Discourse

LING 350: Language Testing LING 422: Communication, Culture and Study Abroad LING 479: Language Policy LING 494: Task-Based Language Teaching LING 553: Second Language Acquisition & Bilingualism

LING 362: Intro to Natural Language Processing LING 367: Computational Corpus Linguistics LING 464: Social Factors in Computational Linguistics LING 469: Analyzing Language Data with R

LING 408: Ancient Egyptian LING 410: Phonetics

Alternative courses that reflect the needs and interests of individual students may be selected under the guidance of the faculty advisor. They may include courses in other departments or schools within Georgetown, as well as courses at area universities (e.g. American, George Mason, George Washington) through the Washington Area Consortium of Universities.

    Master’s Thesis

MLC students must be approved to pursue the thesis option. By the end of their first year in the program, students will submit a thesis request form. If approved, the student must submit a proposal to their mentor and to the Graduate School. The thesis will be mentored by the faculty adviser with or without additional readers. Upon completion, the Master’s Thesis must be deposited in the Graduate School. The following are some of the MA theses to come from the MLC program in recent years:

• Shelby Lake (2019)  Voting the Straight Ticket: Media Discourse as a Tool for Transforming Ideologies about LGBTQ People into Law
• Nimitha Kommoju (2019)  The Measure of Our Commitment Is Our Commitment to Measurement: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Language of Data in the Public Discourse of U.S. Secretaries of Education
• Jungyoon Koh (2020)  “subtle asian traits”: Multimodal Construction of Dialogue and Identity on Facebook
• Jordana Bickel (2020)  Knitting as Politics: How One Traditionally Non-Political Community Engages with Political Discourse

    The MLC Proseminar

“The Professionalization Seminar changed my life. It gave me a framework for presenting myself, the vocabulary and how to use it in organizing a job search. Not only that, but being able to be reflective and take a moment to figure out what you are passionate about, what you actually want to do.  I feel like you go through college thinking that you have a major and you have to fit a cookie cutter, but this class gives you a chance to make it work for you!”

— Renee Tomlin (MLC ’11)

The MLC Professionalization Seminar is a unique professional development course, designed exclusively for linguistsics graduate students. The course is designed to help students figure out where the skills and training that they are acquiring in their classes are needed and valued professionally. It is also designed to help students learn about what motivates them, to uncover values around work, and ultimately to enact the shift to an active professional stance from “What should I do?” to “Here’s what I can do!”

See an example of a student’s final portfolio of items from the Proseminar, Spring 2013

The class is structured as a dynamic mix of lecture, discussion, and activity-based interaction. Students develop an understanding of professional applications of sociolinguistics through readings, lectures and presentations by guest lecturers who themselves engage with the question of combining sociolinguistic theory and practice. Students select a field of professional interest on which to focus for the duration of the course, reflecting on and practicing applications of their training to said field. Students develop targeted portfolio materials (e.g. resume, cover letter, elevator pitch, online portfolio) to be applied to a current or future job search. Students network at professional events, attend Career Fairs and conduct informational interviews to practice the skill of clearly articulating where their skills and training combine with their interests and values in a chosen workplace setting.

Georgetown University Medical Center

Deborah Tannen, PhD

University Professor Department of Linguistics Georgetown University 471 ICC, Box 571051 3900 Reservoir Road, NW Washington, DC 20057  Phone: 202 687-5910 Fax: 202 687-2637  [email protected] explore.georgetown.edu/people/tannend www.deborahtannen.com 

Research Interests

Gender differences in language use

Research Summary

Conversations between women and men can be regarded, metaphorically, as cross-cultural communication. Boys and girls learn ways of speaking as children at play with other children of the same sex, with the result that as adults men and women have different senses of how to use language in interaction. Differences include physical orientation (in informal conversations, women tend to sit face to face and lean toward each other, while men tend to sit at angles or parallel and look around the room); women tend to give more listener cues, such as “mhm, yeah, uhuh.” Both these patterns result in women feeling men aren’t listening and, in the case of listener cues, men feeling women are rushing them along; women tend to value having their experience validated while men tend to focus more quickly on what actions they should take. All these patterns, and many more, differ by cultural background as well as gender. Understanding how gender differences in communication affect doctor-patient interaction is crucial to understanding and improving diagnosis, outcomes and compliance in interactions in medical contexts.

Representative Publications

• You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation. New York: Morrow, 1990. Paperback: Ballantine. (translated into 29 languages)
• Talking from 9 to 5: How Women’s and Men’s Conversational Styles Affect Who Gets Heard, Who Gets Credit, and What Gets Done at Work. NY: Morrow, 1994. Paperback Avon, 1995.
• Gender and Discourse. NY & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.
• “Gender and Family Interaction,” Handbook on Language and Gender ed. by Janet Holmes and Miriam Meyerhoff. Cambridge, MA and Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell, 2003.
• “Discourse and Gender.” The Handbook of Discourse Analysis, ed. by Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen, and Heidi E. Hamilton, pp. 548-567. Cambridge, MA and Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 2001. (with Shari Kendall).

Global Engagement

Global database, department of linguistics.

Georgetown University College of Arts & Sciences

Learn More About Department of Linguistics

• Academic Programs

M.A. in Language and Communication

M.S. in Linguistics

Major in Linguistics

Ph.D. in Linguistics

Georgetown University Round Table

Linguistics Friday Research Talks

Linguistics Research and Reading Groups

Linguistics Workshop Examines Social Justice, Language Diversity, and Globalization

Linguistics Professor and Students Document Endangered Language in Ivory Coast

Georgetown University

Program Specific Requirements

Computer science.

Computer Science PhD students wishing to participate in the cognitive science concentration must receive approval from their advisor and DGS. The concentration requires students to take 4 courses in the cognitive science fields outside of their major PhD department. It also requires participation in a cognitive science research seminar (ICOS-710) and journal club course (ICOS-712). To accommodate these course requirements, the CS student can:

• Replace one of three required doctoral seminars with ICOS-710.
• Increase the number of external electives allowed to accommodate the 4 external cognitive science courses and the journal club course. In the extreme case, this would require the number of external electives to grow from 2 to 5. There are, however, several courses in the Linguistics department that are not considered external electives by the CS department (due to cross-listing), but that would count toward external courses for the cognitive science concentration. In practice, therefore, this exception would often increase the number of allowed external electives only by 1 or 2 courses.

Linguistics

Graduate students select a track (Applied Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Theoretical Linguistics, or Computational Linguistics, or General) and may now select a second track in Cognitive Science, either at the time of admission into the Linguistics Ph.D. or after matriculating. 

Students in the Cognitive Science concentration will take five courses outside Linguistics from the list of CogSci courses.  In most cases, these courses will be in place of linguistics electives.  In some cases, however, in order to keep within the 54-credit limit, students will need to waive some Linguistics requirements.  Eligibility for waivers will depend on the student’s previous coursework, as determined by usual departmental procedures, including approvals from the advisor, the DGS, and the CogSci co-Directors.

The General track is the one with fewest stipulated requirements and therefore is the one combining most easily with a second concentration in Cognitive Science.  However, students from any of the five Linguistics concentrations may select, in addition, the new interdisciplinary concentration.

Students may use research methods courses from other cognitive sciences to fulfill the Linguistics research tools requirement (e.g. courses dealing with fMRI, computational modeling, or behavioral science methods).

The Teaching Practicum (currently required of all students with a service assistantship) will not be required for students funded by the Cognitive Science concentration.

Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience (IPN)

Students in the Cognitive Science concentration will be required to take the following courses and training activities during their first year:

• Core Courses in Neuroscience (NSCI 501, NSCI 503)
• Neuroscience Critical Readings (NSCI 507)
• Neuroscience Recitation (NSCI 511 & 513) –  optional for Cognitive Science students 
• Neuroanatomy and Diseases of the Nervous System/Medical Neuroscience (NSCI 545)
• Survival Skills and Ethics (NSCI 532)
• Three laboratory rotations (1-2 will be in a cognitive science lab)
• Journal club and seminar series

The following first-year requirements will be waived for students in the Cognitive Science concentration:

• Neuroscience Survey (NSCI 505)
• Neurobiology of Disease (NSCI 533, NSCI 534)

In the second year, IPN students take elective courses selected according to their areas of interest, to fill out a total of 40 credit hours of graduate coursework.  The 4-5 courses from other fields required for the CogSci concentration may count toward this requirement. Individualized selections of coursework from IPN courses and/or courses in other cognitive science fields will be reviewed and approved by the Cognitive Science concentration and the Chair of the IPN Curriculum Committee.

• Elective courses in the student’s areas of interest and specialization

Philosophy Ph.D. students may take up to five courses outside of Philosophy.  That suffices to accommodate the 4-5 non-Philosophy courses required for the CogSci concentration within the 45 credits normally required for the overall Ph.D.

If further courses are required for individual students, they will be kept to a minimum with the goal of staying within the usual 45-credit requirement for the Philosophy degree, if possible.

Any student accepted into the CogSci concentration and funded by the concentration will have the usual teaching requirement reduced.

Psychology: Lifespan Cognitive Neuroscience

The Psychology Ph.D. program does not offer a general Ph.D. in Psychology. Rather, the program offers two tracks, one in Lifespan Cognitive Neuroscience and the other in Human Development and Public Policy. Students interested in adding a Concentration in Cognitive Science should apply to (or matriculate in) the track in Lifespan Cognitive Neuroscience.

Psychology: Lifespan Cognitive Neuroscience requires 2 core courses in development (PSYC 501 and 502), a seminar in Cognition (PSYC 511), a seminar in Cognitive Neuroscience (PSYC 512), 2 courses in quantitative methods (PSYC 521 and PSYC 522), a course in ethics (PHAR 534 or equivalent), and a tutorial in teaching (PSYC 505); and also requires the two-semester core course in Neuroscience (NSCI 501 and 503, 6 credits each) with an associated Critical Readings course each semester (NCSI 507, 1 credit each). All of these courses are also required for students electing the Concentration in Cognitive Science.

Because this Ph.D. track requires both Psychology and Neuroscience courses as part of the Ph.D. program, neither Psychology nor Neuroscience courses may be used to fulfill the Cognitive Science concentration requirement that students must take 4 courses in 1-2 Cognitive Science disciplines outside of the Ph.D. program. Students electing the CogSci concentration should plan an interdisciplinary training program that includes cognitive science disciplines outside of those normally required in the Ph.D.

Psychology Ph.D. students ordinarily must fulfill 48/49 credits to receive the Ph.D. Beyond the required courses listed above, the remainder are elective and may include courses outside of Psychology. That suffices to accommodate the 4-5 non-Psychology and non-Neuroscience courses required for the Cognitive Science concentration.

Any student accepted into the CogSci concentration and funded by the concentration will have the usual teaching requirement reduced to serving as a teaching fellow for one course each year in years one through four. The teaching tutorial course requirement is also waived.

Spanish and Portuguese: Spanish Linguistics

Graduate students in Spanish Linguistics take 11 required courses (33 credits): 9 general requirements and 2 electives in their first two years. In their third year they take 6 additional courses (18 credits), 3 of which must be seminars, for a total of 51 credits required for the Ph.D.

Students in the Cognitive Science concentration will take five CogSci courses outside of Spanish Linguistics or Linguistics. These five courses will be taken within the 51 credits required for the Ph.D.

The Spanish Teaching Methodology course is a prerequisite for the Teaching Practicum required of all students with a service assistantship. This Practicum will not be required for students funded by the Cognitive Science concentration; for those funded by the Cognitive Science concentration, the teaching requirement will be reduced to serving as a teaching fellow for one course each year in years two through five.

College of Arts & Sciences

Graduate Programs

Our two graduate programs stress the development of analytical, scholarly, and creative abilities through small seminars; formal pedagogical training is also a key component. Graduate students (both domestic and international) are encouraged to present their work at scholarly meetings and to publish in refereed media, often in collaboration with faculty members. The Department has had considerable success in placing its graduates in tenure-track jobs in many major educational institutions in the United States and abroad.

The Department works with  The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences to support new students entering our doctoral programs every year in Linguistics and Literature and Cultural Studies. All fellows entering the doctoral programs receive a stipend, health insurance, and a tuition waiver for five years. You can apply  here . Please note that to be eligible for a fellowship you must apply directly to the Ph.D. Program. A previous MA or MS is not required to apply directly to the Ph.D. program.

The Spanish Linguistics program, one of the strongest in the U.S., includes courses in Applied Linguistics, Semantics, Pragmatics, Syntax, Phonology, Dialectology, Lexicography, Textual Edition, Corpus Linguistics, and Sociolinguistics. The program is offered in close collaboration with the Department of Linguistics. 

Our program in Literature and Cultural Studies emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach in which attention to primary texts and critical theory is combined with audiovisual, historical, and philosophical perspectives so that students can develop their research skills to the fullest. Our faculty cover all traditional areas – Medieval, Early Modern, Modern Spain, Colonial Latin America, Modern Latin America, and Luso-Brazilian Studies – as well as less traditional or emerging fields such as Transatlantic/Transpacific Studies, and Film and Media Studies.

Sarah Frances Phillips, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral scholar, georgetown university medical center.

Welcome! 어서오세요! Akwaaba!

Starting Fall 2024, I will be a Postdoctoral Fellow in the GHUCCTS TL1/TBS program , working with Anna Greenwald in the Department of Neurology at Georgetown. I completed my PhD in the Department of Linguistics at New York University, working with Liina Pylkkänen . After completing my PhD in 2022, I completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in the Georgetown Neuroscience of Language Program , working with Elissa Newport and Peter Turkeltaub .

All of us are capable of building and interpreting novel linguistic expressions despite the wide range of variability in our language experiences. As children, we implicitly learn the “words” and “rules” of our languages; and as adults, we rapidly comprehend and produce both familiar and novel sentences. What are the principled mechanisms, and their neural bases, that support our ability to de-/compose linguistic expressions? I am interested in characterizing both language-specific (morpho-/syntactic processing) and domain-general (attention, working memory) mechanisms as well as how they interact during both learning and processing. To do this work, I focus on bilingual populations because they reflect the linguistic and social diversity that represents the global majority. I use behavioral measures (eye-tracking, response times, accuracy), neuroimaging techniques (MEG, MRI), and artificial language learning paradigms to develop and refine a linguistically-inclusive, neurobiologically-grounded model of language that can readily translate into clinical spaces.

Being Blasian (Black + Korean-American) also means that I did not see people who look or sound like me in academic spaces very often. Because of this, I am committed to putting linguistics and the neurobiology of language into public spaces. Most of this outreach has been with at-risk youth in the New York City area, talking about the functions and benefits of code-switching as well as the neurobiology of language. I have also appeared on several podcasts, including NPR’s Short Wave , and most recently assisted in the filming of the third documentary in the Talking Black in America Project series.

Read my Op-Ed for JoySauce on the costs of assimilation here .

Read my Q&A with Scientific American here .

I am also passionate about photography! You can see my general body of work here or of linguists here .

Share this:

• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• Manage subscriptions