Ph.D. Degree Requirements:

1. Course work. For the Ph.D., the student is required to complete a total of 72 points of approved courses (of which at least 32 must be completed in residence at NYU). Course work in related fields must be approved in advance by the director of graduate studies.

The following 4-point courses are required of all students:

Phonology I (G61.1210)
Syntax I (G61.1310)
Semantics I (G61.1340)
Sociolinguistics (G61.1510)

In addition, students must fulfill breadth and area requirements, as follows.

Breadth requirements: All students are required to take three of the following four courses: Field Methods (G61.0044), Phonology II (G61.1220), Historical Linguistics (G61.1410), and Syntax II (G61.2310).

Area requirements: For students wishing to specialize in syntax or semantics, the area requirements are Syntax II (G61.2310) and Semantics II (G61.2370); Semantics II must be taken in the same year as Semantics I. Area requirements for those wishing to specialize in phonetics or phonology are Phonology II (G61.1220) and a course in phonetics. Students wishing to specialize in sociolinguistics are required to take Sociolinguistic Field Methods (G61.2540) and Linguistic Variation (G61.2530); the department also recommends that these students take Linguistic Anthropology (G14.1040) and at least one other course in linguistic anthropology from the following: Ethnographic Methods (G14.2700), Identity and Language (G14.3392), or Linguistic Field Methods (G14.3394). For students wishing to specialize in neurolinguistics, the department recommends the Seminar in Neurolinguistics (G61.3710) and another appropriate course in this area.

Students are not required to choose a specialization when they enter the program. When they choose, or change, their specialization, the DGS will advise them about how to comply with the area requirements.

2. Language proficiency. For the Ph.D. degree, the student must demonstrate reasonable proficiency in two languages other than English that are of clear relevance to the student’s research, subject to approval by the director of graduate studies. (A language used to satisfy the M.A. language requirement may count as one of the two required for the Ph.D.) Proficiency can be demonstrated either by earning a grade of B or better in at least the fourth term of a college foreign language course completed not more than two years before the student’s admission to the Graduate School of Arts and Science, or by passing the appropriate Graduate School of Arts and Science foreign language proficiency examination. When proficiency is demonstrated in some other way (e.g., when a student presents an undergraduate degree from a foreign university where the language in question is the medium of instruction for the student’s course of study), the director of graduate studies may forward to GSAS a request for a waiver of the foreign language examination.

3. Qualifying papers. For the Ph.D. degree, students must submit qualifying papers in two different areas of linguistics. A qualifying paper (QP) is called “qualifying” because by it a student demonstrates that she or he is qualified to do a dissertation. It contains original thought, a command of the literature, sound linguistic analysis and argumentation, and clear presentation.

Length of the paper. Each paper must be no more than 50 double-spaced pages in length (tables, charts, spectrograms, footnotes, and bibliography included).

Qualifying-paper committee. Each qualifying-paper committee consists of a committee chair and two other faculty members. It is the student’s responsibility to obtain the consent of the committee chair and members to participate on the committee. The committee should be fully constituted before the start of the semester in which work on the QP is to begin.

Timetable for submission. The student submits the first QP in the fourth semester of the student’s career and the second QP in the fifth semester. If one of the QPs contains an extensive experimental or fieldwork component, one semester is added to that QP’s timetable. Thus, if it is the first QP, it is due in the fifth semester (and hence the second QP is due in the sixth semester), while if it is the second QP that adds an extensive experimental/ fieldwork component, it is due in the sixth rather than the fifth semester. This alteration of timetable must be agreed upon by the student’s adviser, QP committee chair, and the DGS no later than the beginning of the semester in which the QP would otherwise be due.

Proposals. Before undertaking a QP, students must prepare a two-page proposal of their QP consisting of an abstract and a reading list. For QPs with extensive experimental or fieldwork content, this proposal must include a timetable indicating what work is to be done and when, extending across both semesters of work. The student is then expected to adhere to this timetable. For QPs conducted during the spring semester, the proposals must be delivered to the committee chair in the last week of the fall semester; for QPs conducted during the fall semester, they are due the first week of the fall semester. Students receive prompt feedback from the QP committee members on the proposal.

Deadlines. A substantial first draft of the QP must be submitted by the beginning of the tenth week of spring semester (ordinarily the first week after the spring break), or the ninth week of fall semester. The student’s committee reviews the paper with the student within three weeks of submission. This evaluation results in a finding that the paper is either acceptable, acceptable upon revision, or unacceptable. If the paper is found to be “acceptable upon revision,” the student will have four weeks to complete the revisions to the satisfaction of the committee.

Students are expected to submit acceptable QPs on time. If a student’s paper is either not submitted on time or submitted but not deemed acceptable by the student’s committee, or if the student fails to complete acceptable revisions required by the committee within the prescribed time limits, then the student is placed on academic probation. To be removed from probation and return to good academic standing, the student must submit an acceptable QP as soon as possible; when this happens, the student’s QP timetable is adjusted by one semester. However, a student who fails to submit an acceptable QP by the end of the semester following the one in which the QP was originally due will be terminated. Probation in connection with Qualifying Papers is only possible once in the student’s career. If a student is put on probation for any reason in connection with the first QP, then for the second QP, failure to submit on time or submission of a paper that is not ultimately passed by the committee will be grounds for termination.

Note also that the Graduate School requires completion of qualifying requirements for doctoral candidates by the end of the third year of study, which means that students must complete and pass both QPs by the end of the third year. Failure to do so is grounds for termination. Therefore, if students have taken an extra semester for a QP with extensive experimental work or field work, there is no room to also have a semester of probation; conversely, if they have taken an extra semester on probation completing a QP, there will be no extra semesters remaining in which to do experimental work/fieldwork.

Changing topics. If a student’s first submission is not accepted, the student is permitted to change the topic or even the area of linguistics, provided that the student’s two acceptable qualifying papers are in two different areas of linguistics. Changing the topic does not alter the student’s timetable or the student’s status relative to academic probation or termination. If a student changes the topic or area after the first submission is not accepted, the second submission is precisely that, a second submission of the first QP.

4. Dissertation proposal.

Choosing an adviser and a committee. After a student has completed the second qualifying paper, the student begins work on a dissertation proposal. Once the student has selected the area in which she or he wishes to write a dissertation, the student should meet with her or his potential dissertation adviser and obtain that faculty member’s agreement to serve in that capacity. Together the student and the dissertation adviser will explore potential topics for the dissertation.

Students are expected to choose the dissertation adviser by the end of the first week of the seventh semester. This person is responsible for working with the student to make sure that the dissertation proposal is completed in a timely fashion.

The student and the dissertation adviser will also work out the composition of the student’s dissertation committee; in addition to the dissertation adviser, it will consist of four faculty members, at least three of whom will come from within the department. A full committee for the dissertation should be chosen by February 1 of the eighth semester.

Content of the proposal. The dissertation proposal is to be a maximum of 50 double-spaced pages, including footnotes, tables, charts, spectrograms, and bibliography. It should demonstrate a command of the literature, the significance of the dissertation (i.e., the contribution that it will make to the field), the structure of the proposed dissertation, and the student’s ability to carry out linguistic analysis of a quality appropriate for a dissertation. Students may incorporate one (or both) of the qualifying papers into the dissertation proposal if appropriate. Similarly, it is fully expected that large sections of the dissertation proposal will go directly into the dissertation.

Timetable for submission. Students are expected to complete the dissertation proposal by the third Monday in April of the eighth semester and defend the proposal by the end of the fourth year. A date for the defense will be determined in conjunction with the committee members. A proposal defense can have three outcomes: “accepted,” “accepted pending satisfactory revisions,” and “rejected.” If the proposal is not accepted (in either form) by the end of the fourth year, the student will be put on academic probation.

It is expected that all students will submit their proposals no later than their eighth semester. However, if the student completed a QP that was given an extension of one semester, then the date of completion of the proposal and the proposal defense may be extended to the end of the ninth semester with permission of the dissertation adviser and the DGS. If the proposal of a student who is given permission to take an extra semester is not accepted by the end of the ninth semester, he or she will be put on academic probation. (But note that the timetable for dissertation proposals is not adjusted for a student who had earlier been on academic probation for failure to have a QP accepted in the semester in which it was due.)

In either of these cases, if the student’s proposal is not submitted and fully accepted (i.e., no further revisions necessary) by the end of the student’s first semester on academic probation, then the student will be terminated.

Evaluation of the proposal. Once a student submits a proposal, it is evaluated by the student’s committee. There will also be an oral defense scheduled in consultation with all of the committee members. If the committee finds the proposal acceptable, then the student may proceed to work on the dissertation. If the committee does not find the proposal acceptable, it will notify the student as to what changes it recommends. The student may then submit a revised proposal in the following semester.

Completion of other requirements. Ordinarily a student whose dissertation proposal has been accepted has already completed the language requirements and all course work for the Ph.D. other than the final course taken in the fifth year. A student who has reached this level and has not yet met these requirements is encouraged to do so at once.

5. Dissertation defense. Students with an approved dissertation proposal will proceed to write the dissertation under the supervision of the dissertation adviser and with the advice of the members of the dissertation committee. When the committee members agree that the dissertation is ready to be defended, a final oral examination will be scheduled. The defense of the dissertation is during a final oral examination. Passing this defense and receiving the committee’s approval of the dissertation are the final departmental requirements for the Ph.D.

Full-time status: To qualify for full-time status, Ph.D. students enroll in courses according to the following schedule. The three courses completed in the fourth and fifth years must be seminars; they cannot be reading courses.

First Year: fall, 12 points; spring, 12 points.

Second Year: fall, 12 points; spring, 8 points.

Third Year: fall, 8 points; spring, 8 points.

Fourth Year: fall, 4 points; spring, 4 points.

Fifth Year: 4 points.

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