Department of Linguistics
Totem Field Studios 2613 West Mall
Vancouver,
BC
Canada
V6T 1Z4
Tel 604-822-0415
For information concerning program regulations, including information about full-time and part-time status, residence requirements, time limits, and so on, students are referred to the Faculty of Graduate Studies (FogS) website and the UBC Calendar.
Programs are individually planned at the time of registration; all programs must be approved by the Graduate Advisor. This section outlines the core course requirements for the Ph.D.
Core course requirement: The Ph.D. program minimally requires the following courses or equivalents:
Advanced seminar requirement: The Department offers 2-section sequences of the seminar level course, LING 530: Linguistic Problems in a Special Area. The Ph.D. program minimally requires the completion of two such sequences, that is, four (3-credit) sections of LING 530.
The default course sequence would be as follows:
Term 3 and 4 sections of LING 530* will be coordinated; term 3 and 4 sections of LING 530** will be coordinated. First-year graduate students who do not have sufficient background for the first-year graduate courses would be expected to take appropriate undergraduate courses (e.g. LING 300, LING 311, LING 316, LING 327) prior to registration in the graduate courses.
The Cognitive Systems Ph.D. affords students the opportunity to work collaboratively across more than one discipline. Therefore, program planning is carried out in consultation with the Graduate Advisor and the prospective research faculty member(s) who will (co-)supervise the student prior to registration in the Program. This section outlines the core course requirements for the Ph.D.
Credit requirement: There are no credit requirements for the Ph.D. See the website of the Faculty of Graduate Studies.
Core course requirement: The COGS Ph.D. program minimally requires the following courses or equivalents, which are the same as for the Linguistics M.A.:
Advanced seminar requirement: The Department offers 2-section sequences of the seminar level course, LING 530: Linguistic Problems in a Special Area. The Ph.D. program minimally requires the completion of one such sequence, that is, two (3-credit) sections of LING 530.
In addition to courses and seminars within the Linguistics Department, COGS Ph.D. students may be required by their supervisory committees to take additional courses or seminars relevant to their specific research topics.
Each Ph.D. student is required to submit two Qualifying Papers, normally chosen from the areas of phonetics, phonology, semantics and syntax. In exceptional cases, and if the department is satisfied that a given student has shown sufficient expertise in the core areas, a Qualifying Paper in the student's chosen area of specialization may be substituted for one of the two core area papers, with permission of the student’s supervisory committee. The two Qualifying Papers should be in distinct areas.
A Qualifying Paper is a written research paper, developed under the guidance of a faculty member or members, presented orally to the Department, and passed before a faculty committee. The paper must make a substantive original contribution to current work in the area and exhibit clarity in form of presentation. The desired scale is that of a paper in a conference proceedings, with content considered to be at the level of a one-term second year graduate seminar paper.
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 supervisory committee. 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 (see CLA website for details), 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 QP proposal will normally be more speculative than a conference abstract. Once approved, the Qualifying Paper proposal is filed in the Department Reading Room and circulated electronically to the Department.
The Department will hold two mini-conferences each year, at the end of each winter term; qualifying papers are publicly presented as part of these mini-conferences. The mini-conferences will normally take place on the Tuesday of the second week after the last class of each term.
Qualifying Paper Deadlines In order to defend a QP in a particular term, all of the following deadlines must be met: (N.B.: Week counts are different for terms 1 and 2 because of reading week in term 2.)
Depending on the number of presentations, supervisory committees will either meet on the same day as the mini-conference or else on the following day to evaluate the qualifying papers. Students will be informed as to whether the qualifying paper has been passed or not, and what revisions, if any, are required. Students will have a maximum of four weeks to complete all revisions and submit the final qualifying papers to the Department. Revised QPs submitted after this date must be defended again the following term.
Qualifying Papers are published by the UBC Working Papers in Linguistics. Two weeks after submitting the copy of the Qualifying Paper that is approved by the supervisory committee and filed in the Department, students must electronically submit to the UBC Working Papers in Linguistics a copy of the Qualifying Paper that is formatted according to the UBC Working Papers in Linguistics style sheet. The main body of the paper, including footnotes and references, must not exceed 14 pages; for papers based on primary data, an appendix not exceeding 10 pages may be submitted in addition to the main paper.
Unless a nonstandard course schedule has been established by a student’s supervisory committee, any student not completing the qualifying paper process by the end of term 4 will be on probation (i.e., not in good academic standing).
A student may formally request an extension to the time allowed for the qualifying paper process. Normally only a single one-term extension will be approved. If approved by the Department, then the student will have an opportunity to present the qualifying paper at the end of the next semester, with presentations as outlined above.
Failure to complete the Qualifying Papers requirement within the stated time period will result in the student being asked to withdraw from the program. The Qualifying Papers requirement must be satisfied before a student may submit a Ph.D. dissertation prospectus.
A Temporary Supervisory Committee is established for all incoming Ph.D. students no later than August 15. The Temporary Supervisory Committee consists of three members: (i) the Graduate Admissions Officer, (ii) the Graduate Advisor, (iii) the Temporary Advisor (appointed by the Department).
Prior to registration for the second year, the Temporary Supervisory Committee shall be dissolved and a new Supervisory Committee shall be established to oversee the qualifying paper process. A Ph.D. Qualifying Paper Supervisory Committee consists minimally of three members, one of whom must act as chair. All members are normally drawn from the Department of Linguistics. Establishing a Qualifying Paper committee is the responsibility of the Graduate Advisor, in consultation with both students and faculty members. A student may submit a request for a specific committee membership, but the ultimate decision on committee membership rests with the Department.
Upon completion of the second qualifying paper, students should establish a new Supervisory Committee as soon as possible to oversee the prospectus and thesis. The Supervisory Committee consists minimally of the Research Supervisor and two additional members. Establishing a Research Supervisor is the joint responsibility of the student and the Graduate Advisor. Normally the members of the supervisory committee are from the Department of Linguistics; if the student's committee includes members from outside the Department of Linguistics, a majority must be departmental members.
Both new and continuing Ph.D. students will have a meeting with their Supervisory 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 Supervisory Committee to discuss the year's progress and to plan further work.
Any changes in a graduate student's program must be approved by the Supervisory Committee.
Proposal Approval: Qualifying Papers and Ph.D. Prospectus - see Forms.
The Graduate Advisor, in advising students, makes every effort to ensure that they have satisfied all the requirements for the degree -- language requirements, course work, etc. However, it is ultimately every student's responsibility to ensure that at the time he/she applies for the degree he/she has met all the requirements. Separate records of a student's program and progress are kept by the Faculty of Graduate Studies; these records are obtained from information provided by the Graduate Advisor and by the Student Information System and are used to determine a student's ultimate eligibility for graduation.
The faculty will meet during the spring exam period each year to discuss the progress of each student in the Ph.D. program. The student's supervisor will inform him/her of the results of the evaluation. If a student is not making satisfactory progress, he/she 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, he/she will then normally be required to withdraw from the program.
The dissertation marks the culmination of the Ph.D. 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.
Within six months of the successful completion of the Qualifying Papers, the student must submit to the Graduate Advisor a prospectus signed by the members of the dissertation committee. The approved prospectus is filed in the Department Reading Room and circulated electronically to the Department. The content of a dissertation prospectus should be along the lines of an NSERC Discovery Grant or a SSHRC Standard Research grant; it should have the following components:
Dissertations should be prepared in accordance with the thesis formatting regulations available on the Faculty of Graduate Studies website. Typescripts which do not meet the standards specified may be rejected. Documentation should follow the style guide of the The Canadian Journal of Linguistics, Language, or the American Psychological Association.
Readers shall be given a minimum of six weeks to read the completed dissertation before the oral examination is held.
During the weeks prior to the oral examination, students are strongly encouraged to give a practice oral presentation, ideally during a Wednesday departmental research seminar slot. Practice orals should follow the FoGS 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 "prep" students for specific questions that students will be asked by committee members at the official defence.
The candidate should submit at least four copies of the final copy of the dissertation. The original is submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies; one copy is submitted to the Department of Linguistics for the Reading Room; copies are submitted to the dissertation supervisor and the External Examiner; normally, copies are also submitted to members of the dissertation committee and in some cases for the members of the Final Examining Committee.
External Examiner: The completed dissertation will be read by a specialist from outside the University, arranged by the Dean of Graduate 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 to the Dean a list of names of specialists who might serve as External Examiner.
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 the Dean of Graduate Studies or his/her appointee, and attended by the members of the examining committee and other interested persons.
Detailed information on the completion of the Ph.D. degree is on the website of the Faculty of Graduate Studies.
The final oral may be held at any time of the year (except the first two weeks of September) provided that the examining committee can be assembled.
The dissertations thus far accepted by the Department are in the Special Collections Division of the UBC Library.
A transfer between the PhD in Linguistics and the PhD in Cognitive Systems will be permitted with an appropriate academic justification. A student wishing to request such a transfer should do the following:
Considerations such as the following will be considered when the Department is assessing a request for transfer: Will the transfer result in more appropriate course requirements? Will the transfer reduce the time to candidacy? Will the transfer help the student pursue dissertation research?
Transfers will normally be accepted only before a student is admitted to candidacy.
Once processed by the Graduate Advisor, the request for a transfer will be submitted for approval to the Department, then forwarded if approved to the SAS Director at FOGS for a decision.
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