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GRADUATE DEGREES AND REQUIREMENTS
The M.A. ProgramsClick here for the full M.A. manual and checklist.The department offers students three options for completing their core course requirements: (1) the Linguistic Analysis option, (2) the Language and Cognition option, and (3) the Language Documentation and Conservation option. Linguistic AnalysisThe Linguistic Analysis program introduces students to graduate study in the field of Linguistics. Students selecting the Linguistic Analysis option must complete six core courses (or their equivalents), as well as one 700-level seminar.
Language and CognitionThe Language and Cognition program provides students primarily interested in this area with different options for the core course requirements, allowing students to fulfill these with classes on psycholinguistics, cognitive linguistics, language acquisition, computational linguistics, and quantitative methods. Students in the Language and Cognition option must complete seven core courses, four from List 1 below, 2 from List 2 below, 1 from List 3 below, and at least one 700-level seminar. The total number of courses taken, including electives, is the same in both the Linguistic Analysis and Language and Cognition programs. Students in the Language and Cognition program must select from among Plans A, B, and C (below) to complete their requirements. List 1
Language Documentation and ConservationThe Department of Linguistics’ MA program in Language Documentation and Conservation is designed to integrate theoretical, descriptive, anthropological, and practical approaches to the study of the language, with a special focus on the undocumented, under-documented, and endangered languages of the Pacific and Southeast Asia. A brief summary of the requirements of this program follow.The following courses are required:
Exit Requirement: By the end of the final semester, the student must submit for approval by the Language Documentation and Conservation Committee a ‘Research Portfolio’ of at least 50 pages. This portfolio will include samples of work done by the student on his/her research language(s). For example, it might include an outline of a reference grammar, sample dictionary entries, language policy or planning proposals, papers on phonetic, phonological, morphological, or syntactic aspects of the language(s), etc. For further information, please contact Dr. Kenneth L. Rehg at the Department of Linguistics, Moore Hall 569, University of Hawai'i, Honolulu, Hawai'i 96822 or at rehg@hawaii.edu. Note: Capable students who complete the MA program in Language Documentation and Conservation will be encouraged to apply to the Ph.D. program. At this level, the course requirements are flexible; hence, no special track is required. Such students will, of course, be encouraged to continue work on the research language they selected for their MA. Plans A, B, and CFor the Linguistics Analysis and Language and Cognition programs, the department offers the MA Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C programs. In addition to the University-wide residence requirement of a minimum of two semesters of full-time work, all three programs require that students demonstrate competence in one language other than their native language.Plan A requires a thesis (12 credit hours) and a minimum of 18 credit hours of course work. A final oral examination covering the thesis and related areas is also required. Plan B requires a minimum of 30 credit hours and a final seminar presentation near the end of the course work. The topic and format of the seminar must be approved in advance by the graduate chair. Plan C requires a final examination with both written and oral portions. Plan C is open to selected students with some previous work in linguistics who show both high potential for scholarly development and the motivation and discipline necessary for an independent course of study. A committee of faculty is appointed for each student in Plan C. The committee administers a general examination during the student's first semester of study to determine the appropriateness of Plan C, advises the student in developing a program of study, and administers the final examination. Click here to find out how to apply to the graduate programs.
Exemption Exam Policy
There are 4 courses that are typically part of the MA core that students may wish to be exempted from. These are:
Students who enter the Department with little or no background in linguistics are expected to take these courses. However, we will offer exemption exams for each of these courses during Registration Week, i.e., the week before classes start. If you wish to take one or more of these exams, you must notify the Department secretary no later than July 15 (for Fall) and December 1 (for Spring), stating which exams you are planning to take. The secretary will then notify you of the exact exam schedule. Exemption exams will be graded on a pass/fail basis. A pass will be awarded if the student’s background and exam performance indicate sufficient mastery of the course content. Exemption exams may be taken only once.
The Ph.D. ProgramClick here for the full Ph.D. manual and checklist.Students in the PhD program are required to complete a minimum of 33 credit hours of course and seminar work at the University of HawaiÔi (exclusive of LING 800) beyond those counted toward their MA degrees (or, for students not holding an MA, beyond the core courses specified for the MA as above). Courses in field methods (LING 630 or another course concerned with the analysis of primary data), phonology (LING 621), and grammar (LING 622) are required of all PhD students. PhD students must pass a preliminary examination, a comprehensive examination, and a final oral examination in defense of the dissertation. The preliminary examination is normally taken at a point soon after the completion of the core courses required for the MA. It consists of two parts, the first of which is a written examination. Students are encouraged to form their PhD program committees in consultation with the graduate chair as soon as possible after they have completed this part. The second part of the PhD preliminary examination is fulfilled by having a paper accepted for dissemination in the departmental Working Papers series or published in an acceptable form elsewhere. Both parts of the preliminary examination are waived for those students receiving the MA under Plan A who also have their theses accepted for publication in an outlet agreed to beforehand by the linguistics faculty. Students hoping to have their theses published under this latter provision are required, before submitting their theses for publication, to identify the publication outlet (or sequence of outlets) to which they plan to submit their theses and, for each outlet, to provide as much background information as possible, including the names of the editorial board, stated review policies, a list of recently published titles, and other relevant bibliographic information. The faculty will review the proposed outlets and indicate which, if any, it finds acceptable. The preliminary examination is offered once each semester, in August and January. The exam consists of four sections: general linguistics, historical-comparative linguistics, phonology, and grammar-syntax. Students must take all four sections when they first take the exam. They are given the advantage of averaging among the four to achieve an average pass. Students who do not pass all four sections need retake only those sections they did not pass; their best scores on each section will be averaged to achieve an average pass. Students must also demonstrate competence in two languages other than their native language. One of the languages must be in the "research tool" category. A "research-tool language" should be one of the major languages of the world in which there is ample published material on linguistic topics: Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Russian, or Spanish. Students should demonstrate their ability to read linguistic materials in one of these languages. They will be expected to take the usual reading/translation test in the chosen language. (Foreign students may use English if it is not their native language, and they will be considered as having satisfied this requirement when the English Language Institute certifies them as exempt from taking any further ELI courses.) If a student can demonstrate that another language would be an appropriate language as his/her research-tool, that language may be approved by the chair of the graduate field as a "research-tool language" for that student. For example, Dutch may be an appropriate "research tool language" for a student who is working with Dutch materials dealing with the languages of Indonesia. The other language may be any language, including any of the designated research languages. It may also be American Sign Language or any other language for which a qualified examiner can be found in HawaiÔi. The additional language is required of doctoral candidates in linguistics to encourage some increased breadth of language background beyond that provided by the research-tool requirement and as such does not include the same reading/translation requirement. Accordingly, students may satisfy the second language requirement by demonstrating a certain degree of speaking proficiency and knowledge of the structure of the language. Passing a fourth semester foreign language course (e.g., Japanese 202) with a grade of B or better will be deemed sufficient to satisfy this requirement. Alternatively, students may take a placement test to demonstrate that they have the equivalent of four semesters of the language. Students are admitted to candidacy after demonstrating competence in both languages and performing successfully on the comprehensive examination. The comprehensive examination is both written and oral. Students are expected to demonstrate an understanding of general issues in synchronic and diachronic linguistic theory in three areas of specialization chosen from among the following: phonological theory, syntactic theory, phonetics, semantics, morphology, language in its social and cultural context, pragmatics, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, discourse analysis, computational linguistics, language acquisition, language documentation and conservation, language learning and teaching, multilingualism, pidgin and creole studies, typology and universals, lexicography, or the linguistics of any of the following areas or genetic groupings: Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Chinese, English, Indo-European, Japanese, Korean, Sino-Tibetan, or Tai. Related disciplines may also be designated as areas of specialization. These particulars are determined when a student's doctoral committee is formed, after the preliminary examination has been passed. To gain approval of dissertation topics, students are expected to develop detailed written proposals and to defend them successfully in oral examinations conducted by their committees. Click here to find out how to apply to the graduate programs.
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