Ph.D.

The Ph.D. program at USC prepares scholars to conduct advanced research and teach across diverse landscape of linguistic subfields. Our curriculum offers a range of coursework, engaging students in rigorous inquiry into language structure, variation, acquisition, and change. Doctoral candidates select a major field of concentration and may choose a secondary specialization, enabling them to work at the intersections of multiple subfields.  Graduates emerge equipped to make substantive contributions to knowledge, and to engage in teaching, scholarship, and professional practice across academia and industry.

M.A.

The M.A. in Linguistics at South Carolina is a degree in general linguistics that can be completed in two years. The graduate program in Linguistics offers several broadly construed areas of specialization including Psycholinguistics; Cognitive and Formal Linguistics; Second Language Acquisition; Social, Cultural, and Historical Linguistics; and Computational Linguistics. Our M.A. program is designed to provide students with the broadest possible background in the discipline. Students are encouraged them to take advantage of the wide range of opportunities presented by the program's faculty and to discover connections between the various subdisciplines in the field.

Areas of Specialization

The interdepartmental structure of the program affords students the opportunity to take coursework in various areas of concentration: Psycholinguistics; Cognitive and Formal Linguistics; Second Language Acquisition; and Social, Cultural, and Historical Linguistics; and Computational Linguistics. The program's dual emphasis on theoretical and applied aspects of linguistics is one of its major strengths, and the great variety of research conducted by faculty and graduate students is a reflection of the intellectual diversity that characterizes the program.