Graduate Program in Linguistics

AREAS OF RESEARCH:

1. Natural languages: form and function
2. Classical studies
3. Discourse and text analysis
4 Language and Thought
5 Language, history and knowledge

RESEARCH FIELDS:

1. Natural languages: form and function
1.1. Phonetics and Phonology
1.2. Grammar
1.3. Semantics and Pragmatics
1.4. Sociolinguistics
1.5. Indigenous Languages
1.6. Historical Linguistics

2. Classical Studies
2.1. Studies of ancient Greek language and texts
2.2. Studies of Latin language and texts

3.1. Discourse analysis
3.2. Text linguistics

3. Discourse and Text Analysis
3.1. Discourse analysis
3.2. Text linguistics

4. Language and Thought
4.1 Psycholinguistics
4.2. Neurolinguistics
4.3. Language Acquisition

5. Language, History and knowledge
History of Linguistic Ideas

AREAS OF RESEARCH AND RESEARCH LINES:

1. Natural languages: form and function

1.1. Analysis, description and documentation of natural languages

Syllabus: The purpose of this line of research is to encourage and bring together projects that focus on the description, analysis and documentation of natural languages from different theoretical-methodological standpoints and with special emphasis on indigenous languages. It also includes studies concerned with the evaluation and development of linguistic theories, such as those that take into account the historical and socio-cultural context in which languages operate. Comparative, historical and typological investigations are also part of this line of research, together with studies on research and analysis of sources and documentation of such languages, as well as studies that address linguistic planning and bilingual education.

1.2. The nature of meaning

Syllabus: The purpose of this line of research is to encourage and bring together projects that focus on the study of linguistic meaning processes. Its intent is to bring together projects whose development are based on different theoretical-methodological standpoints to pave the way for a consistent debate involving different opinions that may encourage discussions in the field that studies the meaning of language so as to generate innovative proposals. Therefore, the purpose of this line of research is to describe the meaning of different languages, notably those used in Brazil, as well as to foster a theoretical and methodological reflection that may lead to the development of the disciplines concerned with the study of meaning.

1.3. Generative syntax of natural languages

Syllabus: The purpose of this line of research is to bring together projects focused on the synchronic, diachronic and acquisition studies of the syntactic properties of a given language or on the syntactic phenomena specific to different languages according to the Principles and Parameters Theory of Generative Grammar.

1.4. Language, culture and society

Syllabus: The purpose of this line of research is to bring together projects focused on the study of the linguistic phenomenon in its social context. Along these lines, considerations related to the social, historical and cultural order are crucial to the observation, description and analysis/interpretation of the speech-related activities. As a result, the activities developed under such a title take language as a social practice which is, therefore, inseparable from the speaker and the group to which he/she belongs.

1.5. Sound analysis and modeling of natural languages, from grammar to physics

Syllabus: The purpose of this line of research is to bring together projects focused on taxonomic and/or hypothetico-deductive studies (whether logical-formal or numeric) of the sound-related aspects of natural languages with particular focus on: their functions in the language grammar structures across the world; their acquisition; their pathological deviations; as well as their reproduction/simulation/decoding in the development of speech technology.

2. Classical studies

2.1. Greek and Roman languages and literature

Syllabus: The purpose of this line of research is to bring together projects focused on the study of Greek and Roman language and culture. It includes projects related to the linguistic studies of Old Greek and Latin and the translation of the exegesis of any text written in those languages.

3. Discourse and text analysis:

3.1. Language, text and discourse

Syllabus: The purpose of this line of research is to encourage and bring together projects related to spoken language, text and theory studies. The concepts of language, text and discourse, in the different theoretical perspectives adopted in different research projects are used to clearly state the conditions of enunciation, issues related to the text processing, textualization principles and discursiveness factors.

3.2. Language, subject, history

Syllabus: The purpose of this line of research is to bring together projects focused on the study of the constitutive elements in the relationships of the subject, language and history, demonstrating that meanings are ideologically-produced. The projects comprising this line of research assume a materialist, discursive analysis perspective. They break away from the content-based approaches by decentering the notion of subject, by recognizing the relationship between ideology and unconsciousness, by the relativization of the autonomy of the language, and by conceiving history as a social practice constantly demanding meanings when confronted with reality.

3.3. Language and psychoanalysis

Syllabus: The purpose of this line of research is to encourage and bring together projects that, by using the psychoanalytical theory as their theoretical reference – and for the intent of linguistic studies -, aim at considering the consequences of the hypothesis that takes the unconsciousness to have a language structure, having as its axis the study of how the subjectivity is structured through language.

4. Language and Thought

4.1. Brain, mind and language

Syllabus: The purpose of this line of research is to encourage and bring together projects focused on linguistic, pragmatic and discursive processes related to language, brain and cognition, such as those related to aphasia, neurological degeneration and deafness, bringing together projects with several aspects related to the discussion of neurolinguistic semiology, to the study of psycholinguistic processes involved in the acquisition and pathology of language, and to the study of the relationship between what is normal and what is pathological in the functioning of language and human cognition. This line of research uses Linguistics as an observation center of linguistic and cognitive phenomena taking place in natural situations (such as aphasias), as well as those which required experimental methods in order to be observed (such as the perception of the written and spoken languages).

4.2. Children’s speech and writing

Syllabus: The purpose of this line of research is to bring together language acquisition projects, including sign language  and the so-called language acquisition-related disorders or pathologies. This line of research also comprises works on initial writing processes, the relationship between drawing and writing, and researches based on clinical phenomena. This line of research takes a stand that favors children’s speech as a question mark directed both to the Linguistic and the development theories.

5. Language, history and knowledge

5.1. Development of linguistic theories and methodologies

Syllabus: The purpose of this line of research is to bring together projects aiming at the study of the history of the linguistic theories and methodologies. Such projects focus on the analysis of the processes for the development of knowledge about the language produced throughout the history of thought, regardless of the discipline on which such knowledge was based. These projects aim at mastering linguistics as a discipline that is particularly relevant in the history of science. Priority is given to the political and social conditions under which such knowledge was produced and how they are related to the development of the language itself.

Completion:

The Master’s degree program in Linguistics must be completed within minimum and maximum time limits of 12 and 30 months, respectively. The Doctorate’s degree program in Linguistics must be completed within minimum and maximum time limits of 24 and 54 months, respectively. In the case of scholarship students, the maximum period will be reduced in accordance with the commitments made with the supporting agencies (CAPES, CNPq, FAPESP).

MASTER’S DEGREE PROGRAM IN LINGUISTICS

The activities of the Master’s Degree Program in Linguistics are divided into two curricular components, in addition to the thesis: a required component and an elective component.
1. The required component must be completed through a minimum number of two courses related to the area of research in which the student will develop his/her thesis.
2. The elective component must be completed through the fulfillment of a minimum of three courses, as authorized by the advisor. The credits of the elective component must be obtained from courses of the same area or sub-area of research in which the Thesis will be developed. One of the courses of this component can be attended in other Graduate Programs – provided they are outstanding Programs – upon the Linguistic Program director’s authorization and his/her advisor, taking into consideration the relevance of the course to the thesis.

Requirements for Obtaining the Master’s Degree

To obtain the Master’s degree, the student regularly enrolled in the Master’s Degree Program in Linguistics must successfully complete the total of credits required and meet the following requirements:
1. Demonstrate mastery of reading skills in English
2. Successfully complete the credits in the courses of the required component
3. Successfully complete the credits in the courses of the elective component
4. Be approved in his/her Qualifier
5. Have his/her Master’s Thesis approved.

Master’s Supervision and Thesis

The student must choose a thesis advisor and, under his/her supervision, he/she will develop a thesis about the topic in the research area in which he/she completed the credits of the required component.

The Qualifier

After having successfully completed at least one academic semester and presented his/her thesis plan, the candidate must take the qualifier exam that will cover the content of the thesis project and will be evaluated by the Board of Examiners comprising (3) three members, one of whom must be his/her advisor.

Thesis Defense

The candidate must defend his/her thesis before the Board of Examiners according to Unicamp’s General Rules of the Graduate Program Courses.

DOCTORATE’S DEGREE PROGRAM IN LINGUISTICS

The Doctorate’s degree Program in Linguistics provides guidance as to more advanced specialization studies. As a result, students must choose the credits in courses which are aligned with the interests of his/her education and research to the degree they are applicable to their dissertation.

Requirements for Obtaining the Doctorate’s Degree

To obtain the Doctorate’s Degree in Linguistics, the student must fulfill a total of credits required and meet the following requirements:
1. After enrolling in the course, the student must complete a minimum of 4 courses, in which one of them may be the Thematic Seminar, but none of them in LL406 – Supervised Individual Reading. One of the courses may be completed in other Graduate Programs, provided they are outstanding, upon the Linguistic Program director’s  and the student’s advisor’s authorization, based on the relevance of such courses to the dissertation.
2. Be approved in the Qualifier Exams;
3. Demonstrate mastery of reading skills in two foreign languages, one of which must be English;
4 Have his/her Doctorate’s Dissertation approved.

Doctorate’s Supervision and Dissertation

The student will choose an advisor for the Dissertation and, under his/her supervision, will prepare a Study plan establishing the courses he/she must attend, develop a Research Plan, and prepare its Doctorate’s Dissertation.

Qualifier Exams

The Qualifiers for the Doctorate’s Degree Program is applied in two modalities:
a) General Qualifier (or Area Qualifier), conducted in another area or sub-area which must be different from that of the dissertation, chosen in agreement with the advisor.
b) The Dissertation Qualifier will include the content of the student’s dissertation.
The general qualifier, applied under the supervision of a faculty member from the selected area, will consist of the development and publication of a text with characteristics of a paper worth publishing in a relevant journal.

In order take the General Qualifier, the doctoral student must:
– Define one of the fields of the 05 major research areas of the Program, one which is necessarily different from that in which he/she develops his/her dissertation;
– Choose a faculty member to supervise the paper and submit  to him/her the text to be qualified.

After the text has been approved by the faculty member supervising the work, he/she will appoint the qualification board members. The qualification board consists of a chair, the one who is supervising the work, and two PhD professors that may or may not be a member of the PGLL program. The two members of the board must communicate their evaluation to the chair  by means of a review of the paper.
The doctoral student has the responsibility of informing the PPGL of the date when the qualifier took place, the title of the paper to be qualified, the members of the board, as well as submitting copies of the  paper to the board members.
If the doctoral student wishes to obtain his General Qualifier from a Program other than the PPGL, he/she must:
– Request, in writing, an authorization from the PPGL describing the area, the institution and the board members and attach a letter signed by the advisor justifying such a choice.
The text produced will be evaluated by a board comprising the advisor and two other faculty members, who will be responsible for rendering an informed decision about the paper.
The paper should be analyzed and  reviewed by the board within a minimum period of six months prior to  the date scheduled for the defense of the dissertation.

The Dissertation Qualifier will be taken before a Board of Examiners comprising (3) three faculty members, one of whom must be his/her advisor.

Dissertation Defense

The candidate must defend his/her dissertation before a Board of Examiners according to Unicamp’s General Rules of the Graduate Program Courses.

Foreign Language Proficiency

The enrollment in the Master’s or Doctorate’s Degree programs requires that the student pass a reading comprehension test in English, for the Master’s, and English or French, for the Doctorate’s, according to the candidate’s choice.
During the course, the doctoral student must demonstrate his/her proficiency in a second foreign language. Spanish will not be accepted as an option to meet the foreign language-related requirement, because it is assumed that Portuguese speaking candidates already master technical reading skills in Spanish.

Portuguese Proficiency

Non-Portuguese-speaking candidates must demonstrate Portuguese proficiency in written and oral skills by taking a proper test during the admission process (or by presenting the CELPE-BRAS certificate).

LL013 – Introduction to Syntax
Syllabus: General introduction to the Theory of Principles and Parameters of Generative Grammar.

LL015 – Morphology
Syllabus: Morphological analysis criteria according to different linguistic theories. Flexional and derivational morphology, relations with phonology and syntax.

LL017 – Syntax I
Syllabus: Introduction to the Minimalist Program of Theory of Principles and Parameters.

LL018 – Syntax II
Syllabus: Recent developments of the Minimalist Program of Theory of Principles and Parameters.

LL022 – Argumentative Semantics
Syllabus: How to situate the problem of an argumentative semantics in the general framework of studies of linguistic meanings. Argumentative scales. Polyphony Theory. Topoi theory. Semantic Blocks.

LL041 – Introduction to Discourse Analysis
Syllabus: Epistemological situation in the field of discourse conceptualization. Production conditions. The concepts of discursive formation, interdiscourse and ideology. The subject-position.

LL042 – Introduction to Text Linguistics
Syllabus: Epistemological situation of the field. Fundamentals of discipline. Conceptualization of text and textuality. Basic notions of Textual Linguistics. Textual cohesion.

LL043 – Conversation Analysis
Syllabus: Epistemological situation of the field. Basic concepts of Conversation Analysis. Organizational principles of conversation and spoken text.

LL047 – Lexicology and Lexicography
Syllabus: The disciplines of the lexicon, its history, its objectives, its questions and its relationship with Semantics and General Linguistics.

LL051 – Methodology of Sociolinguistic Research
Syllabus: Definition of the field of sociolinguistics in its relations with the humanities; study objects; data collection, analysis and interpretation.

LL057 – Topics in Lexicon and Meaning
Syllabus: To be made available during the course offering period.

LL065 – Psycholinguistics
Syllabus: Study of hypotheses about relationships between language and so-called higher mental functions, such as perception, attention and memory.

LL069 – Topics in Psycholinguistics
Syllabus: To be made available during the course offering period.

LL115 – Topics in Morphology
Syllabus: To be made available during the course offering period.

LL117 – Discourse: Language, History and Ideology
Syllabus: Reflection on discourse as a place of contact between the linguistic and the ideological. Redefining, in the theoretical field of discourse analysis, the question of ideology and the historical determination of the processes of meaning.

LL123 – Semantics of Enunciation
Syllabus: The enunciation event Enunciation space: languages and speakers. The enunciative constitution of meaning. The divisions of the subject, processes of subjectification. Enunciative procedures: rewriting and articulation. Enunciation and textuality. Designation and Semantic Domains of Determination.

LL131 – Variation and Linguistic Change
Syllabus: Historical overview of the treatment of variation and change in pre and post Saussurean linguistic studies; impact of the synchrony and diachrony dichotomy; the issue of linguistic change from representative authors.

LL132 – Historical Linguistics
Syllabus: Topics of methodology in Historical Linguistics, with applications in the Romanesque domain or in the domain of classification of native languages of the Americas.

LL167 – Language and Cognitive Processes
Syllabus: Examination of recent contributions from psychology, cybernetics, philosophy, linguistics and text theory to the study of the relationship between language and data processing by the human mind.

LL170 – Field Methods in Anthropological Linguistics
Syllabus: Documentation and analysis methods appropriate to the study of indigenous languages.

LL171 – Documentation and Description of Indigenous Languages
Syllabus: Theoretical and practical problems in the documentation, analysis and description of Brazilian indigenous languages.

LL175 – Indigenous Languages of Brazil
Syllabus: Knowledge of LIB: historical evolution. Classification: sources of knowledge and ongoing research. The Tupi trunk and the Tupi-Guarani family. The Jê trunk. The Karib, Aruak, Pano, Tucano families. Descriptive Linguistics and Comparative Linguistics. Reconstructions.

LL176 – Fieldwork I
Syllabus: Development of field research under the guidance of a teacher.

LL190 – Models of Phonological Analysis
Syllabus: Presentation and discussion of theoretical and methodological proposals for phonological analysis models.

LL191 – Models of Prosodic Analysis
Syllabus: Study of the prosodic phenomena of natural languages. Prosodic elements and accent, rhythm and intonation systems. Prosodic analysis models and notation issues. Relationships between prosodic and other linguistic levels.

LL192 – Phonological Theory
Syllabus: Study of a recent phonological theory.

LL193 – Topics in Discourse Analysis
Syllabus: To be made available during the course offering period.

LL194 – Language Acquisition
Syllabus: Discipline that aims at an introduction to the central issues addressed by theories of language acquisition: methodology, the constitution of “corpora”, theoretical proposals.

LL197 – Advanced Seminars on Language Acquisition
Syllabus: Discussion and guidance of research on language acquisition being developed by the participants.

LL213 – Advanced Seminar on Syntax
Syllabus: Discussion of ongoing projects related to the Syntax area.

LL218 – Topics in Syntactic Theory
Syllabus: Reading and discussion of texts related to specific topics within the Theory of Principles and Parameters of Generative Grammar.

LL231 – Advanced Seminar on Sociolinguistics
Syllabus: To be made available during the course offering period.

LL235 – Topics in Historical Linguistics
Syllabus: To be made available during the course offering period.

LL248 – Advanced Seminar on Text Linguistics
Syllabus: Discussion and guidance of research in Discourse Analysis being developed by the participants.

LL264 – Topics in Language Acquisition
Syllabus: To be made available during the course offering period.

LL270 – Advanced Seminar on Semantics
Syllabus: Recent studies in semantics and enunciation studies.

LL273 – Textual Coherence
Syllabus: Study of the mechanisms, processes and strategies of different orders involved in the production of meaning and in the construction of the coherence of texts.

LL276 – Fieldwork II
Syllabus: Development of field research under the guidance of a teacher.

LL349 – Psychoanalysis and Discourse
Syllabus: The unconscious and the speech of the other. The logic of the signifier. The places of speech. The production of Lacan’s four speeches. The object “a” as more-to enjoy. The sense and the enjoyment.

LL350 – The History of Linguistic Ideas
Syllabus: Procedures for a History of Ideas. History of grammar and rhetoric. The grammatization of languages. Philosophy and language studies. Linguistics and the subjects that study language and languages.

LL351 – The History of Linguistic Ideas in Brazil
Syllabus: Language studies and teaching and research institutions in Brazil. Brazilian grammatization of Portuguese; History of Grammar in Brazil. Linguistic disciplines in Brazil.

LL352 – Topics in the History of Linguistics Ideas
Syllabus: To be made available during the course offering period.

LL363 – Topics in Neurolinguistics
Syllabus: Discussion of a core of common issues between Linguistics and other knowledge disciplines dealing with human cognition.

LL406 – Guided Reading
Syllabus: To be made available during the course offering period.

LL407 – Advanced Seminar on Phonetics / Phonology
Syllabus: Discussion of specific topics of phonetic theory and / or phonology.

LL409 – Advanced Seminar on the History of Linguistic Ideas
Syllabus: To be made available during the course offering period.

LL425 – Topics in Linguistics
Syllabus: Study of interdisciplinary aspects related to one or more areas of Linguistics.

LL426 – Topics in Linguistic Typology
Syllabus: Typological approaches to natural languages, considering their phonological, morphological and syntactic aspects.

LL427 – Acoustic Phonetics
Syllabus: The sound wave. The spectrum, acoustic analysis instruments. Acoustic theory of speech production. Main phonetic-acoustic characteristics of vowels. Main phonetic-acoustic characteristics of consonants. Phonetic-acoustic aspects of prosodic principles. Sound diversity in different speaking styles and dialects of Portuguese Brazilian. Advanced phonetic analysis techniques (cepstral analysis, acoustic jitter and shimmer analysis, delexicalization, perception tests). Experimentation in the area of phonetics. Experimental design, statistical tests associated with the design for evaluating experimental hypotheses.

LL428 – Topics in Phonetics
Syllabus: Studies of theoretical aspects in Phonetics.

LL429 – Topics in Phonology
Syllabus: Study of theoretical aspects of the theory of phonology.

LL430 – Semantics
Syllabus: Different approaches to the study of linguistic meaning.

LL431 – Topics in Semantics
Syllabus: Specific themes in the studies of meaning.

LL432 – Topics in Sociolinguistics
Syllabus: Study and discussion of basic themes and concepts about the relationship between language and society.

LL433 – Introduction to the study of Language and Society
Syllabus: ntroduction to the study of language in its social context.

LL434 – Introduction to Statistics for Linguistics
Syllabus: Basic concepts and methods of statistical analysis focused on Linguistics.

LL435 – Topics in Anthropological Linguistics
Syllabus: Study of the relationships between language and culture. The uses of language in different cultural patterns. Lexical taxonomies in Amerindian languages.

LL436 – Greek texts I
Syllabus: Study of texts written in classical Greek and their reception.

LL437 – Greek texts II
Syllabus: Study of texts written in classical Greek and their reception.

LL438 – Latin Texts I
Syllabus: Study of texts written in Latin and their reception.

LL439 – Latin Texts II
Syllabus: Study of texts written in Latin and their reception.

LL440 – Topics in Theory of Philology
Syllabus: Discussion about epistemological and historical aspects of Classical Studies, in their relations with other areas and sciences dedicated to texts.

LL441 – Advanced Seminar on Latin Language and Culture
Syllabus: Advanced study of texts from the most significant periods of ancient Roman culture and their reception.

LL442 – Advanced Seminar on Greek Language and Culture
Syllabus: Advanced study of texts from the most significant periods of ancient Greek culture.

LL443 – Advanced Seminar on Discourse Analysis
Syllabus: Discussion and counseling of the participants’ ongoing research in Discourse Analysis.

LL444 – Topics in Textual Linguistics
Syllabus: Treatment of topics related to the issue of relationships between text and context, text and discourse genres, text and textual and discursive typologies, text and referencing strategies and text progression.

LL445 – Training in Experimental Psycholinguistics
Syllabus: Practice in the method, design, programming and application of psycholinguistic experiments. Ethical, legal and reproducibility issues in research with human participants.

LL446 – Introduction to Neurolinguistics
Syllabus: Theoretical introduction to Neurolinguistics. The objective is to focus on the relationship between Neurolinguistics and other disciplines that deal with human cognition. Critical study of semiology and classification of aphasias and other brain pathologies. Data analysis and neurolinguistic research procedures.

LL447 – Linguistic Theorization of Neurolinguistic Phenomena
Syllabus: Deepening and discussion around specific issues on the scientific agenda of Neurolinguistics, with a focus on linguistic theorization.

LL448 – Advanced Seminar on Neurolinguistics
Syllabus: Deepening and discussion around a specific topic on the scientific agenda of Neurolinguistics.

LL449 – Forensic Phonetics
Syllabus: Basic elements of Acoustic Phonetics. Linguistic-phonetic variation and individual variation. The Speaker Comparison task. Discrimination and typicality of an individual’s speech. Speaker Comparison task steps: Preliminary perceptual assessment of the material, Transcription of the material, Linguistic Analysis, Acoustic analysis and Rationale for the technical report. Speaker Comparison Practice.

LL450 – Topics in Grammatical Theory
Syllabus: Discussion of topics in syntax and/or morphology, according to one or more models of grammatical analysis.

LL451 – Topics in Psychoanalysis and Discourse
Syllabus: In-depth study of a specific aspect in Psychoanalysis and discourse.

LL452 – Advanced Seminar in Psychoanalysis and Discourse
Syllabus: Discussion and counseling of the participants’ ongoing research in Psychoanalysis and Discourse.

LL453 – Topics on Contact Linguistics
Syllabus: Study of one or more aspects related to language contact situations.

LL800 – Linguistics Online Seminar
Syllabus: Discussion of one or more topics in Linguistics, in partnership with researchers from other institutions.

LL908 – Topics in Classical Languages and Cultures (Greek and Latin)
Syllabus: Study of linguistic and / or literary subjects referring to ancient Greek and Roman cultures, taken together.

LL909 – Topics in Greek Language and Culture
Syllabus: Study of the most significant periods of ancient Greek culture. The specifically literary and linguistic aspects of the works and genres studied will be privileged.

LL914 – Topics in Latin Language and Culture
Syllabus: Study of the most significant periods of ancient Latin culture. The specifically literary and linguistic aspects of the works and genres studied will be privileged.

In order to obtain specific information about the process and the relevant dates, please send an e-mail to cpgiel@iel.unicamp.br.