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Linguistics AB/Linguistics MA

Students with degrees in Linguistics acquire valuable intellectual skills, such as analytical reasoning, critical thinking, argumentation, and the ability to express themselves clearly in writing. They learn to make insightful observations, formulate clear, testable hypotheses, generate predictions, draw conclusions, and communicate their findings to a broader audience. Students with the A.B/M.A. in Linguistics are therefore well equipped for a variety of careers and other graduate-level and professional degree programs.

Many of our students go on to Ph.D. programs in Linguistics; most of the highly-ranked graduate programs in the U.S. admit students only at the Ph.D. level, and it is difficult for students with only an undergraduate degree to gain admission. Students also often enroll in graduate programs in related fields, such as cognitive science, neuroscience, psychology, computer science, anthropology, philosophy, communication sciences, education, English, or other languages. The intellectual skills that students acquire also make them well prepared for professional programs in fields such as law.

Career opportunities include jobs in industry (e.g., in speech recognition, text-to-speech synthesis, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, user research, and computer-mediated language learning); government (the Foreign Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Department of Defense, and the Department of Education all hire linguists; similar opportunities may exist at the state level); education (teaching [including teaching English as a second language], development of instructional materials, educational research); advertising and publishing; translating and interpreting; and linguistic consulting for professions such as medicine or law. Some, but not all of these careers may require additional training or experience beyond the M.A. degree.

View 5-year Sample Program of Study

Admission to Program

Students who meet the admission requirements below may submit an application form (available from the Linguistics office) and accompanying recommendations from two Linguistics faculty members at any time. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis.

• Completion of LING 3060 and LING 3150
• Completion of 60 total hours of undergraduate coursework
• Minimum GPA of 3.5 in LING courses and 3.0 overall

Curriculum

Graduate-level courses that may be used to satisfy undergraduate and graduate program requirements.

All students must take the required courses in (1): LING 3060 and LING 3150. They may substitute graduate equivalents for any of the required courses chosen from the list in (2) or may substitute any graduate-level courses for major electives (with the exception of master's research/thesis and directed reading courses). A maximum of 12 hours of graduate credit may be applied to both the graduate and undergraduate degree requirements.

Degree requirements for the A.B. in Linguistics (24 hours total):
(1) Required foundational courses
LING 3060
LING 3150

(2) Choose two courses from the following:
CMSD(LING) 3120 or LLED 5730 - allowed substitution LLED 7730
ENGL(LING) 4170 - allowed substitution ENGL(LING) 6170
LING 3250 - allowed substitution LING 8120
LING 3830 - NA
LING 4022 - allowed substitution LING 6022
LING 4160 - allowed substitution LING 6160
LING 4690 - allowed substitution LING 6690
LING 4710 - allowed substitution LING 6710
LING(CMLT) 4740 - allowed substitution LING(CMLT) 6740
LING(ANTH) 4860 - allowed substitution LING(ANTH) 6860

(3) Major electives:
12 additional hours of 3000/4000-level LING courses - allowed substitutions: any graduate-level LING courses (excluding LING 7000, 7005, 7300, or 9010)

Additional requirements that are unique to this Double Dawgs program:

Since both the undergraduate and graduate programs of study require certain courses in phonetics/phonology and syntax, students should not take the undergraduate Advanced Phonetics and Phonology (LING 4022) or Advanced Generative Syntax (LING 3160); if desired, they should take the graduate versions of these courses instead (LING 6022, LING 8160). Students should consult with faculty members to identify a committee and a thesis topic prior to their enrollment in the M.A. program in Year 5.

Students in the dual degree pathway are required to complete only one semester of LING 8101 Colloquium.

Although this is not unique to the dual degree pathway, please note that the M.A. program of study should include at least three courses (9 hours) in a primary area of concentration and two courses (6 hours) in a secondary area of concentration, to be determined in consultation with the student's major professor and the Graduate Coordinator. The areas of concentration can be broadly interpreted: they may include any of the required or elective courses for the M.A. degree, including LING 9010 Directed Readings, and are individually designed to correspond to the student's main areas of interest. (For example, students may choose to focus on sociolinguistics and phonetics/phonology, historical linguistics and syntax, etc.)

Admission to Graduate Program

Admission requirements are the same as for the regular M.A. program; see http://linguistics.uga.edu/admissions.

Program Advisor

  • Name: Keith Langston
  • Email: langston@uga.edu
  • Phone: 706-542-2448
  • Address: 0108 Joe Brown Hall
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Undergraduate Major Information

  • Major: Linguistics A.B.
  • Department/College: Linguistics

Advising Contact

  • Name: Rebecca Jeffers
  • Email: rjeffers@uga.edu
  • Phone: 706-542-1522
  • Address: 0118 Memorial Hall

Graduate Major Information

  • Major: Linguistics M.A.
  • Department/College: Linguistics

Advising Contact

  • Name: Jonathan Evans
  • Email: jdmevans@uga.edu
  • Phone: 706-542-2229
  • Address: 335 Park Hall