linguistics masters research topics

Syntax and Semantics

• The Tok Pisin noun phrase
• Towards an investigation of socially-conditioned semantic variation
• Definite article reduction in a religious community of practice
• The definiteness effect in Chinese 'you'-existential constructions: A corpus based study
• Topics and pronouns in the clausal left periphery in Old English
• Scalar implicatures in polar (yes/no) questions
• Quantification, alternative semantics and phases
• The syntax and semantics of V2 – 'weil' in German 
• An analysis of Chinese quantifiers 'ge', 'dou' and 'quan' and their co-occurrence
• Distribution and licensing condititions of Negative Polarity Items in Mandarin Chinese
• The NP/DP Distinction in Slavic: A comparative approach
• A complex predicational analysis of the 'ba'-construction in Mandarin Chinese
• Two types of raising in Korean
• Serial verb constructions in Mandarin Chinese
• From Turncoats to Backstabbers:  How headedness and word order determine the productivity of agentive and instrumental compounding in English

Forensic Phonetics

• An Investigation into the Perceived Similarity of the Speech of Identical Twins and Same Sex Siblings
• Detecting Authenticity of Audio Files Compressed by Social Media Platforms
• Investigating Changes from Neutral to Soft and Whispered Speech and their Impact on Automatic Speaker Recognition
• The Effect of Anger and Fear on Forensic Authomatic Speaker Recognition System Performance
• The Impact of Face Coverings on Speech Comprehension and Perceptions of Speaker Attributes
• Tracking Linguistic Differences in the Ultrasound Images of the Tongue in Spoken and Silent Speech Conditions Using Pose Estimation

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Applied Linguistics Masters Theses Collection

This collection contains open access and campus access Masters theses, made possible through Graduate Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The full content of open access theses is available to all, although some files may have embargoes placed on them and will be made available as soon as possible. The full content of campus access theses is only available to those either on the UMass Boston campus or with a UMass Boston campus username and password. Click on the "Off-Campus UMass Boston Users" link on the record page to download Campus Access publications. Those not on campus and those without a UMass Boston campus username and password may gain access to this thesis through resources like Proquest Dissertations & Theses Global or through Interlibrary Loan.

Theses from 2023 2023

The "Messy Middle": A Framework for Analyzing Raciolinguistic Inequity , Casey Erin Anthony

Japanese Reading Japlish: High School Students Study Their Own Fashion Linguistic Landscape , Gabriel Frost Johnson

Theses from 2021 2021

Meaning-Making Dynamics of Job Interview Performances , Jacquelyn K. Bertman

Theses from 2020 2020

Computerized Dynamic Assessment of Grammar in Second Language Development , Tina S. Randall

Limited Viewpoints: The Implementation of Multimodal Constructs in an ELL Model Curriculum Unit , Deborah A. Smith

Theses from 2019 2019

Adult Educators at the Crossroads of Language Learning and Workforce Development: A Qualitative Study of Teacher Agency , Liz Ging

Language Learning and ADA: An Observation of d/Deaf Adults and Their Interpreters in ESL Classrooms , Katharine M. Ward

Theses from 2017 2017

Languaging at Work: The Language Socialization of Support Staff in the Healthcare Workforce , Kristen E. Schlapp

Theses from 2016 2016

Performing Language and Identities: Adult Immigrant Students and the Creation of a Play , Kathleen R. McGovern

Theses from 2015 2015

Discourses and Capital in Court Trials: Representation of Witness Accounts and Identity , Misty Crooks

Theses from 2014 2014

What's in a Game? Identity Negotiations and Pedagogical Implications of Gameplay Discourse , Caleb Reed

Their Decision to Wear Al Hijab: The Stories of U.S. Northeastern Muslim Women , Hadeel Salman

Theses from 2012 2012

Meanings and Typologies of Duboisian Double Consciousness within 20th Century United States Racial Dynamics , Marc E. Black

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Recent Masters Theses

Since 2009, most theses submitted by M.A. and M.S. recipients at the university are published online at the OhioLINK Electronic Theses & Dissertations Center (EDT). This page lists theses submitted by recipients of the M.A. in Linguistics, beginning with the more recent theses which are avalable through EDT. We are currently in the process of extending the list back to the first OSU M.A. in Linguistics (Thomas Scovel's thesis on A distinctive feature analysis of the phonemic segments of Mandarin in 1964), and intend to provide a link to a pdf file or other publication information where available and otherwise a link to the OSU Library Catalog listing.

Riley Wagner

The Perception of Loan Verb Integration Strategies in Romanian Committee:  Brian Joseph (advisor) and Andrea Sims

Giorgio Sbardolini

Conventions and Change in Semantics Committee:  Craige Roberts (advisor)

Race, Gender, and /u/: Social Perceptions of a Non-Stereotype Feature Committee: Kathryn Campbell-Kibler (advisor) and Donald Winford

Ajda Zeynep Gokcen

A Matter of Debate: Using Dialogue Relation Labels to Augment (Dis)agreement Analysis of Debate Data Committee:  Marie-Catherine de Marneffe (advisor) and Brian Joseph

Eric Snyder

Generalizing Individuating/Measure-Ambiguities Committee:  Craige Roberts and Shapiro Stewart (co-advisors)

Jennifer Qian Zhang

Nonsibilant Fricative Acquisition by Bilingual Guoyu-Taiwanese Southern Min Children Committee:  Mary Beckman (advisor) and Micha Elsner

Yourdanis Sedarous

Studies in Nominal Modification in Bohairic Coptic Committee:  Peter Culicover and Brian Joseph (co-advisors)

Lara Downing

Dutchified English in an Ohio Mennonite Community Committee: Brian Joseph and Donald Winford

Gregory Kierstead

Projectivity and the Tagalog Reportative Evidential Committee: Craige Roberts and Judith Tonhauser (co-advisors)

Robert Brice Russ

Examining Regional Variation Through Online Geotagged Corpora Committee: Kathryn Campbell-Kibler and Brian Joseph Since receiving his MA in Linguistics, Brice Russ has worked as a social media / policy consultant, including serving a three-year term as the first Director of Communications for the LSA.

Jeffrey Parker

Palatalization and Utilization of Contrast: An Information-theoretic Investigation of Palatalization in Russian Committee: Brian Joseph and Andrea Sims After receiving his MA in Linguistics, Jeffrey Parker transferred back to the Slavic Linguistics program , where he is currently finishing his dissertation before taking up a faculty position in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Brigham Young University.

"Y'all Done Up and Done It": The Semantics of a Perfect Construction in an Upstate South Carolina Dialect Committee: Donald Winford and Judith Tonhauser After receiving his MA, Eric Ruppe accepted the position of French immersion teacher at Meadow Glen Middle School in Lexington, SC .

Michelle Dionisio

The Syntax and Semantics of the Tagalog Plural Marker Mga Committee: Judith Tonhauser and Craige Roberts

Sara Phillips-Bourass

Implicit Imitation of Regional Dialects in Typically Developing Adults and Adults with High-Functioning Autism Committee: Cynthia Clopper and Shari Speer

Michael Collins

Cognitive Perspectives On English Word Order Committee: William Schuler and Peter Culicover

Hartman Brawley

What Informs Event Descriptions: Language, Salience, and Discourse in English and Japanese Committee: Laura Wagner, Shari Speer, and Kiwako Ito

Lia Mansfield

A CVG Approach to Verp-Particle Constructions in English Committee: Carl Pollard and Robert Levine

Youn Kyung Shin

Variability in the Use of Infinitival to in Present Day American English Committee: Brian Joseph, Robert Levine, and Donald Winford

Oxana Skorniakova

Sensitivity to Sub-Phonemic Variation: Evidence from a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) Goodness-Rating Task Committee: Mary Beckman and Shari Speer

Sarah Bibyk

The Development of Children’s Processing of English Pitch Accents in a Visual Search Task Committee: Shari Speer, Laura Wagner, Cynthia Clopper, and Kiwako Ito After receiving her MA, Sarah Bibyk was accepted into the doctoral program at the University of Rochester .

Parsing with Local Content Committee: Chris Brew, Laura Wagner, and Shari Speer After receiving his MA, John Pate went on to earn a PhD at the University of Edinburgh and was a post-doctoral research fellow in Machine Learning and Computational Linguistics at Macquarie University before taking up his current position on the faculty in Linguistics at the University of Buffalo .

Differential Object Marking in Paraguayan Guaraní Committee: Judith Tonhauser and Peter Culicover After receiving his MA, Cory Shain worked for several years as a linguist at SIL International before returning to Ohio State University and entering the doctoral program in Linguistics.

Rachel Shain

The Preverb Eis - and Koine Greek Aktionsart Committee: Judith Tonhauser, Brian Joseph, and Craige Roberts

Ross Metusalem

Evoking Upcoming Contrast through Accentual Prominence: The Effect of Producing L+H* on Discourse Entities and Discourse Markers Committee: Kiwako Ito and Shari Speer After receiving his MA, Ross Metusalem went on to earn a PhD in Cognitive Science at the University of California, San Diego , where he is now teaching in the Department of Psychology.

Jon Stevens

The Old English Demonstrative: A Synchronic and Diachronic Investigation Committee: Brian Joseph and Judith Tonhauser After receiving his MA, Jon Stevens went on to earn a PhD at the University of Pennsylvania before taking up his current position on a postdoctoral researcher on the PRAGSales project in computational pragmatics at the Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS) in Berlin.

Sharon Ross

Interpretation by Adults and Children of Implicatures Generated through Contrastive Stress: Evidence that Prosodic Contrastive Stress has a Predominantly Presuppositional Character Committee: Peter Culicover and Laura Wagner After receiving her MA, Sharon Ross become a Fulbright Scholar doing research on The Semantics of Focus Marking and Contrastive Stress in Israeli Sign Language at the University of Haifa.

New Ideas in Language Sciences: Linguistics

Loading... Editorial 21 September 2023 Editorial: New ideas in language sciences: linguistics Rebecca Carroll , Mile Vukovic´ , Moreno I. Coco  and  David Townsend 829 views 0 citations

Original Research 23 August 2023 Morphological and conceptual influences on the real-time comprehension of optional plural marked sentences in Yucatec Maya Lindsay K. Butler 789 views 0 citations

Loading... Original Research 28 June 2023 L1 variation and L2 acquisition: L1 German /eː/-/ɛː/ overlap and its effect on the acquisition of L2 English /ɛ/-/æ/ Marcel Schlechtweg ,  1 more  and  Marina Frank 1,434 views 0 citations

Original Research 09 June 2023 An experimental investigation into scope rigidity in written Mandarin Hongchen Wu 1,302 views 0 citations

Original Research 04 May 2023 The wrong horse was bet on: the effects of argument structure versus argument adjacency on the processing of idiomatic sentences Laura Reimer  and  Eva Smolka 1,021 views 0 citations

Loading... Perspective 08 December 2022 Inflectional zero morphology – Linguistic myth or neurocognitive reality? Maria Alekseeva ,  1 more  and  Yury Shtyrov 1,813 views 0 citations

Loading... Original Research 04 November 2022 The development of speechreading skills in Chinese students with hearing impairment Fen Zhang ,  3 more  and  Liang Chen 1,484 views 0 citations

Loading... Original Research 13 October 2022 The relationships between students’ comprehension of conversational implicatures and their achievement in reading comprehension Safiye Çiftlikli  and  Özcan Demirel 2,501 views 1 citations

Linguistics: Choose a Topic

• Choose a Topic
• Reference Shelf
• Articles and Journals
• Selected Websites
• Citation Help

Choose a Research Topic / Review the Literature

• Personal interest : If feasible, concentrate your efforts on a topic that interests you personally (e.g., bilingual education; English and the immigrant community; history of the English language). Think creatively. Personal interest increases motivation, which in turn often predicts success.
• Brainstorm : Identify synonyms for major concepts (e.g., Applied Linguistics = Language Services). Those "keywords" will come in handy when searching databases such as JSTOR for journal articles about your topic.
• Mindmap : A concept or mindmap uses shape, color, and other visual cues to help researchers think through a research topic. Check out this video for a good example of a mindmap in action. Consult your smart phone's app store for free and low-cost mindmapping apps.
• Explore : Identify important linguists and disciplinary trends. Read, for example, about the careers of well-known linguists such as Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913), Noam Chomsky (1928- ), or William Labov (1927- ); follow the trajectory of an important theory or school of thought such as generativism or universal grammar; and/or concentrate on developments in the field of linguistics during a particular decade such as the 1960s. You can do all of this and more using the sources listed on the Reference Shelf page of this libguide.
• Consult an Expert : Linguistics students must engage with the scholarly secondary literature. Why not begin with an expert who already knows that literature or can help you to identify it? Your professor or librarian can help you to choose a topic and suggest relevant readings.

Library-centric approaches to reviewing the literature and refining your research topic:

• Citation (or Footnote) Chasing : A popular research technique in which the bibliographies of works already located in a literature search (or assigned by your professor) are examined for additional sources containing further information. Books (monographs), journal articles, and scholarly encyclopedia articles all typically contain bibliographies. Footnote chasing is a favorite of many scholars but it is not the only or even most efficient method of reviewing the literature and choosing/narrowing your research topic. Although moderately time consuming, footnote chasing can pay huge dividends to the researcher.
• Consult Reference Works : Reference works list, index, summarize, or in some other way facilitate access to the primary literature of linguistics. Examples of important reference works in linguistics include the encyclopedias listed in the Reference Shelf and Find Articles and Journals pages of this guide.
• Abstracting and Indexing Databases (subset of Reference) : Abstracting and indexing databases are tertiary sources that provide bibliographic citations and/or abstracts of the literature of a discipline (e.g., LLBA for linguistics). Print indexes (and their online analogs) employ controlled vocabularies or subject headings to help researchers understand the nature of the content indexed and to efficiently pinpoint the most relevant material. See the Find Articles and Journals page of this guide for links to important indexes and databases in linguistics.
• Published Bibliographies (subset of Reference) : A bibliography is a systematic list of works written on a given subject, or that share one or more common characteristics of language, form, period, place of publication, author, and so on. A bibliography can be comprehensive, encompassing for example the entire discipline of linguistics, or selective, covering only the scholarly literature on a narrow aspect of second language acquisition. The Reference Shelf tab of this guide provides links to several important linguistics bibliographies.
• Browse the Secondary Literature : Browse the latest issue of a peer-reviewed linguistics journal. While this method is much more time consuming than searching abstracting and indexing databases, use it to identify recent disciplinary problems and debates. Find linguistics journals in the Find Articles and Journals page of this guide.

Source for definitions: ODLIS: Online Dictionary of Library and Information Science

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Faculty & Graduate Research Projects

The Institute of Linguistics is currently engaged in the following sponsored research projects:

Linguistics professor Claire Halpert and the American Indian Studies department’s Brendan Kishketon and Nora Livesay co-lead this three-year NSF/NEH grant project , which seeks to further document Ojibwe, an endangered Indigenous language, and to share the linguistic knowledge gained with the community, scholars, and the public. New interview audio and written historical materials will be used to expand the online  Ojibwe People’s Dictionary and create an open-access linguistic corpus of Ojibwe. Additionally, the project focuses on mentoring and training Indigenous language workers to explore linguistic topics related to their own research interests, developing pedagogical materials for teaching second-language learners, with plans to develop a workshop for prospective Indigenous college students.

Led by professor Diti Bhadra, this five-year NSF CAREER grant project will bring together formal semantics and pragmatics research, semantic fieldwork in understudied languages, and an investigation of semantic typologies, isoglosses, and variation, in the large linguistic area of South Asia. The project focuses on the usage and interpretation of "discourse particles," which are linguistic units (often small function words in a sentence) that track and convey various contextual aspects of interpersonal conversations.

Project director and linguistics professor Hooi Ling Soh, with the help of several cross-discipline university students and native-speaker volunteers, is building a corpus of Hmong texts and audio/video files as a resource for researchers, language learners, and teachers. Funded by a 2023 CLA Seed Grant for Social Science Research, this corpus consists of immigrant stories, folktales, selected book chapters, Hmong language materials available on government websites, and social media posts, in both the Hmong Daw and Mong Leng dialects. The corpus also functions as a searchable bilingual dictionary, showing Hmong words used in context, with the texts translated into English word-for-word and at the sentence level.

PhD student Mskwaankwad Rice and professor Claire Halpert collaborate on this NSF-DDRI project , which investigates a number of syntactic and semantic phenomena in Ojibwe, involving clause type; expression of tense, aspect, and modality; the syntax of clausal embeddings; and counterfactuality. Using original research and field interviews with native speakers, this project is an in-depth linguistic examination of how and when to use specific grammatical patterns depending on the situation and the speaker’s intent, which serves to further linguistic understanding of how human language functions and to document and support an endangered Indigenous language.

The faculty members were very open-minded, understanding, and treated me as their colleagues. I appreciate all the mentorships I got during my program. Borui Z., alumna

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School of Arts & Sciences

Department of Linguistics

• Graduate Program
• MA in Linguistics

Master of Arts in Linguistics

At the University of Rochester, the MA program provides students with a solid foundation in all of the core areas of linguistics, including:

Additional advanced courses provide depth and enrichment in one or more specific areas of linguistics, with a focus on both theoretical/formal and experimental/empirical linguistics. The MA in Linguistics prepares students for further work at the PhD level in Linguistics or related fields, or for employment in teaching or industry.

The Department of Linguistics at the University of Rochester is strongly engaged in collaborative research and is devoted to involving graduate students in research. MA students in Linguistics work closely with faculty on developing their own research interests and participate in faculty members’ research projects. For ongoing research in the Department, see our research page . Additionally, MA students have the opportunity to work as research or teaching assistants.

Program Requirements

The Linguistics MA program is a 32-credit program designed to be completed in two years, as either a traditional or research-focused degree program. 

Students pursuing a traditional MA in Linguistics program will complete 32 credit hours of coursework during the first three semesters and write their MA essay in the final semester. 

Students engaged in a research-focused MA in Linguistics will complete: 

• Twelve credits of coursework during the first semester 
• Eight credits of coursework and four credits of research in the second semester 
• Four credits of coursework and four credits of research in the third semester 
• A master's thesis during the final semester 

A research-focused MA in Linguistics is especially ideal for students with a previous degree in Linguistics planning to pursue subsequent PhD-level training.

Core Courses: 12 Credits

Choose three of the following core courses:

• LING 410: Introduction to Language Sound Systems (Fall)
• LING 420: Introduction to Grammatical Systems (Spring)
• LING 425: Introduction to Semantic Analysis (Fall)
• LING 426: Morphology (Fall)

Track Courses: 12 Credits Required

Phonetics/phonology.

• LING 427: Topics in Phonetics and Phonology (Spring)
• LING 405: Historical Linguistics (Fall)
• LING 428: Lexical Semantics (Spring)
• LING 460: Syntactic Theory (Fall)
• LING 461: Constraint-based Syntax (Spring)
• LING 462: Experimental Syntax (Fall)

Semantics/Pragmatics

• LING 465: Formal Semantics (Spring)
• LING 466: Pragmatics (Spring)
• LING 468: Computational Semantics (Fall)

Advanced Elective Courses: 8 Credits Required

• LING 404: History of Linguistic Thought (Spring)
• LING 424: Introduction to Computational Linguistics (Spring)
• LING 450: Data Science for Linguistics (Spring)
• LING 481: Statistical and Neural Computational Linguistics (Spring)

Applied Linguistics MA

Master of arts in applied linguistics.

We offer a 36-point Masters of Arts degree for students wishing to pursue research in applied linguistics. Through comprehensive and innovative coursework, hands-on experiences in our on-campus language school, and research projects, you’ll explore the theoretical and practical applications of applied linguistics.

Admissions Information

Displaying requirements for the Spring 2024, Summer 2024, and Fall 2024 terms.

Master of Arts

• Points/Credits: 36
• Entry Terms: Fall

Application Deadlines

Select programs remain open beyond our standard application deadlines , such as those with an extended deadline or those that are rolling (open until June or July). If your program is rolling or has an extended deadline indicated above, applications are reviewed as they are received and on a space-available basis. We recommend you complete your application as soon as possible as these programs can close earlier if full capacity has been met.

Application Requirements

Additional information.

• See program website for TOEFL/IELTS policies and score minimums for non-native English speakers
• English Proficiency exam required for all Non-native English Speakers

Requirements from the TC Catalog (AY 2023-2024)

Displaying catalog information for the Fall 2023, Spring 2024 and Summer 2024 terms.

View Full Catalog Listing

The Applied Linguistics track offers a 36-point Master of Arts degree for students wishing to pursue research and other non-teaching pathways in applied linguistics. Through comprehensive and innovative coursework, hands-on experiences in our on-campus language school, and research projects, students will explore the theoretical and practical applications of applied linguistics. Students earning the Master of Arts degree have five types of requirements: (1) general courses, (2) track-specific courses, (3) elective courses within AL and TESOL, and (4) out-of-program breadth courses, and (5) an exit project. 

All course decisions must be made in consultation with the student's assigned faculty advisor. Students should choose elective and breadth courses that align with their career. Below are the track descriptions for the MA in Applied Linguistics. 

General Courses (15 points):

A&HL 4000: Educational Linguistics (3)

A&HL 4085: Pedagogical English grammar (3)

A&HL 4087: Introduction to second language acquisition (3)

A&HL 4088: Second language assessment (3)

One language use course from the list below (for AL and TESOL General only):

A&HL 4001: Sociolinguistics and education (3)

A&HL 4104: Discourse analysis (3)

A&HL 4105: Conversation analysis (3)

A&HL 4106: Text and textuality (3)

A&HL 5020: Interactional sociolinguistics (3)

Track-Specific Courses for the MA in AL (9 points): 

A&HL 4077: TESOL classroom practices (3)

A&HL 5301: Practicum I: Integrated skills (3)

A&HL 5575: Research literacy in applied linguistics and TESOL (3)

Elective Courses (6 points): 

Elective courses in Applied Linguistics and TESOL (6 points):

A&HL 4101: Phonetics and phonology (3)

A&HL 5085: Advanced syntax (3)

A&HL 5105: Classroom discourse (3)

A&HL 5106: Language socialization (3)

A&HL 6031: Advanced conversation analysis (3)

A&HL 4089: Teaching writing to ESL students (3)

A&HL 4090: Introduction to Corpus Linguistics (3)

A&HL 5011: Technology-based language teaching and material design (3)

A&HL 6097: Task-based language teaching  (3)

A&HL 5008: Interlanguage analysis (3)

A&HL 5087: SLA in the classroom (3)

A&HL 6087: Advanced second language acquisition (3)

A&HL 5090: Computational Linguistics for Applied Linguists (3)

A&HL 5199: Topics in language assessment (3)

A&HL 5512: Historical perspectives on language testing research (3)

A&HL 5519: Instructed second language acquisition and assessment (3)

A&HL 6000: Second language test validation (3)

A&HL 6040: Classroom-based language assessment (3)

A&HL 6060: Generalizability theory for second language assessment research (3)

A&HL 6089: Second language performance assessment (3)

Courses can be taken at an affiliate campus in the Columbia community with advisor’s approval.

Breadth Out-of-Program Courses (6 points): 

Breadth courses are classes offered outside of the AL/TESOL Program. Note that all breadth courses must be approved by your advisor. 

Exit Project:

In addition to course requirements, students must complete a master’s degree project written on a research topic arising from course-related interests and subject to approval by an advisor (The advisor can be different from or the same as your assigned academic advisor). This project can be a review of literature on a scholarly topic or a practice motivated review of literature. It is normally completed at the beginning of the last semester of study. For more information, click here . 

Students can normally expect to complete the M.A. in Applied Linguistics or TESOL in four semesters (i.e., two years).

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Teachers College, Columbia University 316 Zankel

Phone: (212) 678-3795 Fax: (212) 678-3428

Email: tesolalofc@tc.edu

100+ Compelling Linguistics Research Topics for University Students

Confused while selecting the interesting linguistics research topics to pen down your thoughts on a piece of paper? So, bounce back to this article and pick the best linguistics research paper topics and boost your grades.

Un-layering the essence of teaching-learning methodology demonstrates the development of linguistic theories. Linguistics is a science of language in which fact-finding is done through some rational and systematic study. While digging into the information about the history of linguistics, two perspectives on languages are unveiled: prescriptive and descriptive views.

The linguistic analysis uncovers the following areas: phonetics, phonology, syntax, morphology, semantics, and pragmatics. Furthermore, the scrutinization of linguistics helps you to know about every aspect of languages as well as methods for studying them.

Table of Contents

How To Choose the Right Linguistics Research Topics?

Stress work is the indication of degraded academic performance and lower grades even if we talk about a linguistics research paper. Make your every endeavor effective and energetic by applying the right strategy. Therefore, make the right selection for your academic writing that starts from the interesting topic selection in linguistics.

Moreover, take advantage of research paper help and discuss your concerns with professional writers. As a suggestion, you can choose the right linguistics research topics by keeping the following points in your mind:

Find your interest: Linguistics uncover various aspects of language learning and allow you to expand your mind capabilities. So, try to explore the depth of the subject and find your area of interest. It will make your academic writing more interesting and enthralling.

Brainstorm the ideas: Picking the interesting linguistics topics demands your knowledge and expertise. Therefore, you need to take the advantage of brainstorming and collect various ideas to explore the concept of linguistics.

Perform pensive research : When you are keen to score high marks, you need to have sufficient knowledge. Conduct insightful research and uncover the pensive ideas for your research paper topics in linguistics.

Interesting Topics in Linguistics

Linguistics is the foundation of language knowledge. Linguistics theories indeed are interrelated to learning the English language. When you have to boost your grades, your selection for linguistics research paper topics makes a huge difference.  Some of the interesting linguistics research topics are:

• Explain the significance of music in the evolution of language.
• Does age really impact English pronunciation?
• What is the role of sociolinguistics education in creating discipline?
• What is the significance of language in creating teaching methodology?
• Analysis of verbal and written communication based on language usage.
• Is it important to have expertise in several languages?
• Explain the issues related to receptive language disorder and its impact on brain development.
• How do you correlate sentence-making and word flow in linguistics?
• Discuss the comparability between English and French languages.
• Factors responsible for different spoken languages.
• The impact of slang in the development of languages.
• Is text messaging creating a revolutionary subculture in the new linguistic scenario?
• How are linguistic patterns helpful in locating migration roadways?
• What are factors affecting the capability of learning a language?
• Explain the role of language in building a national identity for developing a multicultural society.
• Digital Revolution: impact of computers in modern language
• A systematic review on vowel pronunciation in the American Schools.
• Significance of language in creating cross-cultural communities: A comprehensive review
• Elucidate the impact of language on one’s perception.
• Textual and Linguistic analysis for housing studies.

Stimulating Research Paper Topics In Sociolinguistics

While seeking linguistics research topics for your assignments or research paper, you may find sociolinguistics interesting to explore. Sociolinguistics demonstrates the impact of language on our society. When you are keen to explore the effect of language in different aspects of society (including cultural values and expectations), you need to do an in-depth analysis of sociolinguistics.

For building a good foundation on sociolinguistics, you can select the following linguistics paper topics:

• How would you define linguistic practices in specific communities?
• An elaborative approach for code-switching and code-mixing
• Explain the impact of dialect on gender.
• A correlational study to share the relationship between language, social class, and cognition.
• In-depth study of interactional sociolinguistics in the 21st Century.
• A comprehensive analysis on accountability and aptness of dialect.
• Evaluate the education of language in the U.S.
• The role of languages in controlling emotions.
• Effectiveness of verbal communication in expressing one’s feelings: A competitive analysis.
• A literature review on communication with a precise comparison of verbal and non-verbal communication
• Difference between advanced placement (AP) English literature and language.
• What is the relationship between language and one’s personality?
• A critical analysis on the relation of language and ethnicity.
• Describe the attitudes to various languages among societies.
• A comprehensive approach on dialect variations in American English-speaking people.
• Scrutinize linguistic variation on language loyalty.
• Develop a good understanding of sociological variations to languages.
• Impact of the generation gap on language usage.
• Examine the impact of various factors (social tension, media, racism, and entertainment) on the utilization of languages.
• Is there a difference between linguistic practices among men and women?

Also, Read: 150+ Business Research Topics

Interesting Research Topics in Applied Linguistics

Are you looking for linguistics research topics to advance your learning abilities? In such a case, you have to learn about “Applied Linguistics.” It is the branch of linguistics in which one can understand the practical applications of language studies such as speech therapy, language teaching, and more.

In other words, applied linguistics offers solutions to deal with language-related real-life problems. Imperative academic areas where you can find the applications of applied linguistics are psychology, education, sociology, communication research, and anthropology. Some applied linguistics research paper topics:

• Discuss the expansion of learning a second language through reading.
• Share your learning on the critical period hypothesis for the acquisition of the second language.
• Impact of bilingualism on an individual’s personality.
• Linguistics evaluation on the difference between written and spoken language.
• Describe language cognition and perceptions in a learning process.
• Impact of language barriers on healthcare delivery.
• Detailed analysis on various methodologies to learn applied linguistics.
• Discuss the relationship between empathy and language proficiency in learners of adult language.
• Detailed analysis on multilingualism and multiculturalism.
• Impact of extended instructions on the use of passive voices, modals, and relative clauses: A critical analysis.
• Explain digitally-mediated collaborative writing for ESL students.
• How do we evaluate self-efficacy in students who speak low-level English language?
• Elucidate the significance of phrasal verbs in creating technical documents.
• Expectations of American Students while taking Japanese language classes.
• A detailed study on American deaf students in English as a Non-Native Language (ENNL) classes.
• How do you understand by modeling music with Grammars?
• The cognitive development of expertise as an ESL teacher: An insightful analysis.
• Sound Effects: Gender, Age, and Sound symbolism in American English.
• Importance of applied linguistics in today’s digital world.

Also, Read: Modern Literature

Interesting Research Topics in Semantics

The study of reference, meaning, and the truth is covered under semantics or semiotics, or semasiology. A comprehensive analysis of semantics reflects the essence of compositional semantics and lexical semantics.  The combination of words and their interaction to form larger experiences like sentences comes under compositional semantics. Whereas, the notion of words is shared under lexical semantics.

Some academic disciplines in linguistic semantics are conceptual semantics, cognitive semantics, formal semantics, computational semantics, and more. Linguistic research paper topics on Semantics are as follows:

• Examine meaning work in language interpretation and scrutinization
• A critical evaluation of language acquisition and language use.
• Challenges in the study of semantic and pragmatic theory.
• Discuss semantics lessons and paragraph structure in written language.
• How do you explain the semantic richness effects in the recognition of visual words?
• How richness of semantics affects the processing of a language.
• Semantic generation to action-related stimuli: A neuroanatomical evaluation of embodied cognition.
• Examine the understanding of blind children for reading phonological and tactual coding in Braille.
• Explain a semantic typology of gradable predicates.
• A comparison of between blind and sighted children’s memory performance: the reverse-generation effect.
• Clinical research for designing medical decision support systems.
• Discuss word recognition processes in blind and sighted children.
• A corpus-based study on argumentative indicators.
• The typology of modality in modern West Iranian languages.
• A critical analysis on changes in naming and semantic abilities in different age groups.
• Explain the multidimensional semantics of evaluative adverbs.
• A comprehensive analysis on procedural meaning: problems and perspectives.
• Cross-cultural and cross-linguistic perspectives on figurative language.
• Elucidate semantic and pragmatic problems in discourse and dialogue.

Topics For Linguistics Essays

A curiosity of exploring the various concepts in linguistics leads you to work on essays. Projecting your thoughts in writing linguistics essays makes you understand the structure and changes in human languages. In a case, if you are searching for the best topics in linguistics, go through the following list of linguistics essays:

• Difference between human language and artificial language.
• Classification of writing systems based on various stages of development.
• The laws of language development
• Culture and language: impact on reflections.
• Methodology of reading and writing for children by Albert James.
• Significance of phoneme and phonological matters
• The complexity of human language: the specific cases of the apes
• Explain the development of languages and derivational morphology.
• Detailed analysis on language extinction.
• Investigate the peculiarities of English-Chinese and Chinese-English translations.
• A comprehensive overview on the acquisition of English as a second language by Mid-Eastern students.
• Discuss semiology in language analysis.
• Impact of blogging on learning languages.
• Linguistics: grammar and language teaching.
• English Language: Explain its standard and non-standard types.
• Discuss speech community as linguistic anthropology.
• A systematic review on linguistic diversity in modern culture.
• Similarities and differences between language and logic.
• What is the impact of language on digital communication?
• Listening comprehension: a comparative analysis of the articles.

Computational Linguistics Research Topics

Analysis and synthesis of language and speech using the techniques of computer science share the significance of computational linguistics. This branch of linguistics reflects the study of computational modeling of natural language. It also describes the computational approaches to answering the linguistic questions.

Under computational linguistics, you can explore different concepts such as artificial intelligence, mathematics, computer science, cognitive science, neuroscience, anthropology. More interesting computational linguistics research topics are:

• Explain the factors measuring the performance of speech recognition.
• Discuss word sense disambiguation.
• Detailed analysis on dependency parsing based on graphs and transitions.
• A multidimensional analysis on linguistic dimensions
• Analyze Medieval German poetry through supervised learning.
• Extraction of Danish verbs.
• Analysis of Schizophrenia text dataset.
• An intra-lingual contrastive corpus analysis based on computational linguistics.
• Discuss various methods to introduce, create, and conclude a text.

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130+ Original Linguistics Research Topics: Ideas To Focus On

Linguistics is an exciting course to learn. Unfortunately, writing a research paper or essay or write my thesis in linguistics is not as easy. Many students struggle to find a good research topic to write about. Finding a good research topic is crucial because it is the foundation of your paper. It will guide your research and dictate what you write.

Creative Language Research Topics

Argumentative research titles about language, english language research topics for stem students, social media research topics about language, the best quantitative research topics about language, more creative sociolinguistics research topics, research topics in english language education for students, top thesis topics in language, creative language and gender research topics, language education research topics on social issues, research title about language acquisition.

Most students turn to the internet to find research paper topics. Sadly, most sources provide unoriginal and basic topics. For this reason, this article provides some creative sample research topics for English majors.

Linguistics is a fascinating subject with so many research topic options. Check out the following creative research topics in language

• How you can use linguistic patterns to locate migration paths
• Computers and their effect on language creation
• The internet and its impacts on modern language
• Has text messages helped create a new linguistic culture?
• Language and change; how social changes influence language development
• How language changes over time
• How effective is non-verbal communication in communicating emotions?
• Verbal communication and emotional displays: what is the link?
• The negative power of language in internet interactions
• How words change as society develops
• Is the evolution of languages a scientific concept?
• Role of technology in linguistics

Argumentative essay topics should state your view on a subject so you can create content to defend the view and convince others that it is logical and well-researched. Here are some excellent language research titles examples

• Society alters words and their meanings over time
• Children have a better grasp of new language and speech than adults
• Childhood is the perfect time to develop speech
• Individuals can communicate without a shared language
• Learning more than one language as a child can benefit individuals in adulthood
• Elementary schools should teach students a second language
• Language acquisition changes at different growth stages
• The impact of technology on linguistics
• Language has significant power to capitalize on emotions
• The proper use of language can have positive impacts on society

Research topics for STEM students do not differ much from those for college and high school students. However, they are slightly more targeted. Find an excellent research title about language for your paper below:

• How does language promote gender differences?
• Music and language evolution: the correlation
• Slang: development and evolution in different cultures
• Can language create bonds among cross-cultural societies?
• Formal vs informal language: what are the differences?
• Age and pronunciation: what is the correlation?
• How languages vary across STEM subjects
• Are STEM students less proficient in languages?
• The use of language in the legal sector
• The importance of non-verbal communication and body language
• How politeness is perceived through language choices and use
• The evolution of English through history

Did you know you can find excellent social media research topics if you do it right? Check out the following social media language research titles:

• The role of the internet in promoting language acquisition
• A look at changes in languages since social media gained traction
• How social media brings new language
• How effective are language apps in teaching foreign languages?
• The popularity of language applications among learners
• A study of the impact of the internet on the spreading of slang
• Social media as a tool for promoting hate language
• Free speech vs hate speech: what is the difference?
• How social media platforms can combat hate language propagation
• How can social media users express emotions through written language?
• Political censorship and its impact on the linguistics applied in the media
• The differences between social media and real-life languages

A language research title can be the foundation of your quantitative research. Find some of the best examples of research topics for English majors here:

• Language barriers in the healthcare sector
• What percentage of kids below five struggle with languages?
• Understanding the increase in multilingual people
• Language barriers and their impact on effective communication
• Social media and language: are language barriers existent in social media?
• Bilingualism affects people’s personalities and temperaments
• Can non-native teachers effectively teach local students the English language?
• Bilingualism and its impact on social perceptions
• The new generative grammar concept: an in-depth analysis
• Racist language: its history and impacts
• A look into examples of endangered languages
• Attitudes toward a language and how it can impact language acquisition

You can choose a research topic about language based on social issues, science concerns like biochemistry topics , and much more. Sociolinguistics is the study of the correlation between language and society and the application of language in various social situations. Here are some excellent research topics in sociolinguistics:

• An analysis of how sociolinguistics can help people understand multi-lingual language choices
• An analysis of sociolinguistics through America’s color and race background
• The role of sociolinguistics in children development
• Comparing sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics
• Sociolinguistics and gender empowerment: an analysis of their correlation
• How media houses use sociolinguistics to create bias and gain a competitive advantage
• The value of sociolinguistics education in the teaching of discipline
• The role played by sociolinguistics in creating social change throughout history
• Research methods used in sociolinguistics
• Different sociolinguistics and their role in English evolution
• Sociolinguistics: an in-depth analysis
• What is sociolinguistics, and what is its role in language evolution?

A good research topic in English will serve as the guiding point for your research paper. Find a suitable research topic for English majors below:

• Types of indigenous languages
• Language s an essential element of human life
• Language as the primary communication medium
• The value of language in society
• The negative side of coded language
• School curriculums and how they influence languages
• Linguistics: a forensic language
• Elements that influence people’s ability to learn a new language
• The development of the English language
• How the English language borrows from other languages
• Multilingualism: an insight
• The correlation between metaphors and similes

Many students struggle to find good thesis topics in language and linguistics. As you read more on the thesis statement about social media , make sure you also understand every thesis title about language from the following examples:

• The classification of human languages
• The application of different tools in language identification
• The role of linguists in language identification
• The contributions of Greek philosophers to language development
• The origin of language: early speculations
• The history of language through the scope of mythology
• Theories that explain the origin and development of language
• Is language the most effective form of communication
• The impact of brain injuries on language
• Language impacts on sports
• Linguistics intervention that won’t work in this century
• Language as a system of symbols

Just like economic research paper topics , gender and language topics do not have to stick to the norms or the standards by which all students write. You can exercise some creativity when creating your topic. Discover a topic about language and gender from this list:

• Language and gender: what is the correlation?
• How different genders perceive language
• Does a kid’s gender influence their grasp of languages?
• Men vs Women: a statistical overview of their multilingual prowess.
• The perception of language from the female standpoint
• The difference between female and male language use
• The use of language as a tool for connection between females and males
• Does gender have an impact on efficient communication
• Does gender impact word choices in conversations?
• Females have an easier time learning two or more languages
• What makes female and male language choices differ?
• Are females better at communicating using spoken language?

There are many social issues related to language education that you can cover in your research paper. Check out the following topics about language related to social issues research topics for your research:

• Language translation: what makes it possible
• How does the mother tongue influence pronunciation?
• Issues that encourage people to learn different languages
• Sign language: origin and more
• Role of language in solving conflicts
• Language and mental health: a vivid analysis
• The similarities between English and French languages
• Language disorders: an overview
• Common barriers to language acquisition
• The impact of mother tongue on effective communication
• Reasons you should learn two or more languages
• The benefits of multilingualism in the corporate world
• Language and identity: what is the correlation?

Language acquisition is the process by which people gain the ability to understand and produce language. Like anatomy research paper topics , language acquisition is a great area to focus your linguistics research. Here are some research questions that bring the focus of the study of linguistic and language acquisition:

• Language acquisition: an overview
• What attitudes do people have about language acquisition
• How attitude can impact language acquisition
• The evolution of language acquisition over time
• Language and ethnicity: their correlation
• Do native English speakers have an easier time acquiring new languages?
• A case study on political language
• Why is language acquisition a key factor in leadership
• Language acquisition and mother tongue pronunciation: the link
• Ambiguity as a barrier to language acquisition
• How words acquire their meanings

While a good topic can help capture the reader and create a good impression, it is insufficient to earn you excellent grades. You also need quality content for your paper to get perfect grades. However, creating a high-quality research paper takes time, effort, and skill, which most students do not have.

For these reasons, we offer quality research paper writing services for all students. We guarantee quality papers, timely deliveries, and originality. Reach out to our writers for top linguistics research papers today!

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Trends and hot topics in linguistics studies from 2011 to 2021: A bibliometric analysis of highly cited papers

Associated data.

The datasets presented in this study can be found in online repositories. The names of the repository/repositories and accession number(s) can be found in the article/ supplementary material .

High citations most often characterize quality research that reflects the foci of the discipline. This study aims to spotlight the most recent hot topics and the trends looming from the highly cited papers (HCPs) in Web of Science category of linguistics and language & linguistics with bibliometric analysis. The bibliometric information of the 143 HCPs based on Essential Citation Indicators was retrieved and used to identify and analyze influential contributors at the levels of journals, authors, and countries. The most frequently explored topics were identified by corpus analysis and manual checking. The retrieved topics can be grouped into five general categories: multilingual-related , language teaching , and learning related , psycho/pathological/cognitive linguistics-related , methods and tools-related , and others . Topics such as bi/multilingual(ism) , translanguaging , language/writing development , models , emotions , foreign language enjoyment (FLE) , cognition , anxiety are among the most frequently explored. Multilingual and positive trends are discerned from the investigated HCPs. The findings inform linguistic researchers of the publication characteristics of the HCPs in the linguistics field and help them pinpoint the research trends and directions to exert their efforts in future studies.

1. Introduction

Citations, as a rule, exhibit a skewed distributional pattern over the academic publications: a few papers accumulate an overwhelming large citations while the majority are rarely, if ever, cited. Correspondingly, the highly cited papers (HCPs) receive the greatest amount of attention in the academia as citations are commonly regarded as a strong indicator of research excellence. For academic professionals, following HCPs is an efficient way to stay current with the developments in a field and to make better informed decisions regarding potential research topics and directions to exert their efforts. For academic institutions, government and private agencies, and generally the science policy makers, they keep a close eye on and take advantage of this visible indicator, citations, to make more informed decisions on research funding allocation and science policy formulation. Under the backdrop of ever-growing academic outputs, there is noticeable attention shift from publication quantity to publication quality. Many countries are developing research policies to identify “excellent” universities, research groups, and researchers ( Danell, 2011 ). In a word, HCPs showcase high-quality research, encompass significant themes, and constitute a critical reference point in a research field as they are “gold bullion of science” ( Smith, 2007 ).

2. Literature review

Bibliometrics, a term coined by Pritchard (1969) , refers to the application of mathematical methods to the analysis of academic publications. Essentially this is a quantitative method to depict publication patterns within a given field based on a body of literature. There are many bibliometric studies on natural and social sciences in general ( Hsu and Ho, 2014 ; Zhu and Lei, 2022 ) and on various specific disciplines such as management sciences ( Liao et al., 2018 ), biomass research ( Chen and Ho, 2015 ), computer sciences ( Xie and Willett, 2013 ), and sport sciences ( Mancebo et al., 2013 ; Ríos et al., 2013 ), etc. In these studies, researchers tracked developments, weighed research impacts, and highlighted emerging scientific fronts with bibliometric methods. In the field of linguistics, bibliometric studies all occurred in the past few years ( van Doorslaer and Gambier, 2015 ; Lei and Liao, 2017 ; Gong et al., 2018 ; Lei and Liu, 2018 , 2019 ). These bibliometric studies mostly examined a sub-area of linguistics, such as corpus linguistics ( Liao and Lei, 2017 ), translation studies ( van Doorslaer and Gambier, 2015 ), the teaching of Chinese as a second/foreign language ( Gong et al., 2018 ), academic journals like System ( Lei and Liu, 2018 ) or Porta Linguarum ( Sabiote and Rodríguez, 2015 ), etc. Although Lei and Liu (2019) took the entire discipline of linguistics under investigation, their research is exclusively focused on applied linguistics and restricted in a limited number of journals (42 journals in total), leaving publications in other linguistics disciplines and qualified journals unexamined.

Over the recent years, a number of studies have been concerned with “excellent” papers or HCPs. For example, Small (2004) surveyed the HCPs authors’ opinions on why their papers are highly cited. The strong interest, the novelty, the utility, and the high importance of the work were among the most frequently mentioned. Most authors also considered that their selected HCPs are indeed based on their most important work in their academic career. Aksnes (2003) investigated the characteristics of HCPs and found that they were generally authored by a large number of scientists, often involving international collaboration. Some researchers even attempted to predict the HCPs by building mathematical models, implying “the first mover advantage in scientific publication” ( Newman, 2008 , 2014 ). In other words, papers published earlier in a field generally are more likely to accumulate more citations than those published later. Although many papers addressed HCPs from different perspectives, they held a common belief that HCPs are very different from less or zero cited papers and thus deserve utmost attention in academic research ( Aksnes, 2003 ; Blessinger and Hrycaj, 2010 ; Yan et al., 2022 ).

Although an increased focus on research quality can be observed in different fields, opinions diverge on the range and the inclusion criterion of excellent papers. Are they ‘highly cited’, ‘top cited’, or ‘most frequently cited’ papers? Aksnes (2003) noted two different approaches to define a highly cited article, involving absolute or relative thresholds, respectively. An absolute threshold stipulates a minimum number of citations for identifying excellent papers while a relative threshold employs the percentile rank classes, for example, the top 10% most highly cited papers in a discipline or in a publication year or in a publication set. It is important to note that citations differ significantly in different fields and disciplines. A HCP in natural sciences generally accumulates more citations than its counterpart in social sciences. Thus, it is necessary to investigate HCPs from different fields separately or adopt different inclusion criterion to ensure a valid comparison.

The present study has been motivated by two considerations. First, the sizable number of publications of varied qualities in a scientific field makes it difficult or even impossible to conduct any reliable and effective literature research. Focusing on the quality publications, the HCPs in particular, might lend more credibility to the findings on trends. Second, HCPs can serve as a great platform to discover potentially important information for the development of a discipline and understand the past, present, and future of the scientific structure. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the hot topics and publication trends in the Web of Science category of linguistics or language & linguistics (shortened as linguistics in later references) with bibliometric methods. The study aims to answer the following three questions:

• Who are the most productive and impactful contributors of the HCPs in WoS category of linguistics or language & linguistics in terms of publication venues, authors, and countries?
• What are the most frequently explored topics in HCPs?
• What are the general research trends revealed from the HCPs?

3. Materials and methods

Different from previous studies which used an arbitrary inclusion threshold (e.g., Blessinger and Hrycaj, 2010 ; Hsu and Ho, 2014 ), we rely on Essential Science Indicator (ESI) to identify the HCPs. Developed by Clarivate, a leading company in the areas of bibliometrics and scientometrics, ESI reveals emerging science trends as well as influential individuals, institutions, papers, journals, and countries in any scientific fields of inquiry by drawing on the complete WoS databases. ESI has been chosen for the following three reasons. First, ESI adopts a stricter inclusion criterion for HCPs identification. That is, a paper is selected as a HCP only when its citations exceed the top 1% citation threshold in each of the 22 ESI subject categories. Second, ESI is widely used and recognized for its reliability and authority in identifying the top-charting work, generating “excellent” metrics including hot and highly cited papers. Third, ESI automatically updates its database to generate the most recent HCPs, especially suitable for trend studies for a specified timeframe.

3.1. Data source

The data retrieval was completed at the portal of our university library on June 20, 2022. The methods to retrieve the data are described in Table 1 . The bibliometric indicators regarding the important contributors at journal/author/country levels were obtained. Specifically, after the research was completed, we clicked the “Analyze Results” bar on the result page for the detailed descriptive analysis of the retrieved bibliometric data.

Retrieval strategies.

Several points should be noted about the search strategies. First, we searched the bibliometric data from two sub-databases of WoS core collection: Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) and Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI). There is no need to include the sub-database of Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED) because publications in the linguistics field are almost exclusively indexed in SSCI and A&HCI journals. WoS core collection was chosen as the data source because it boasts one of the most comprehensive and authoritative databases of bibliometric information in the world. Many previous studies utilized WoS to retrieve bibliometric data. van Oorschot et al. (2018) and Ruggeri et al. (2019) even indicated that WoS meets the highest standards in terms of impact factor and citation counts and hence guarantees the validity of any bibliometric analysis. Second, we do not restrict the document types as HCPs selection informed by ESI only considers articles and reviews. Third, we do not set the date range as the dataset of ESI-HCPs is automatically updated regularly to include the most recent 10 years of publications.

The aforementioned query obtained a total of 143 HCPs published in 48 journals contributed by 352 authors of 226 institutions. We then downloaded the raw bibliometric parameters of the 143 HCPs for follow-up analysis including publication years, authors, publication titles, countries, affiliations, abstracts, citation reports, etc. A complete list of the 143 HCPs can be found in the Supplementary Material . We collected the most recent impact factor (IF) of each journal from the 2022 Journal Citation Reports (JCR).

3.2. Data analysis

3.2.1. citation analysis.

A citation threshold is the minimum number of citations obtained by ranking papers in a research field in descending order by citation counts and then selecting the top fraction or percentage of papers. In ESI, the highly cited threshold reveals the minimum number of citations received by the top 1% of papers from each of the 10 database years. In other words, a paper has to meet the minimum citation threshold that varies by research fields and by years to enter the HCP list. Of the 22 research fields in ESI, Social Science, General is a broad field covering a number of WoS categories including linguistics and language & linguistics . We checked the ESI official website to obtain the yearly highly cited thresholds in the research field of Social Science , General as shown in Figure 1 ( https://esi.clarivate.com/ThresholdsAction.action ). As we can see, the longer a paper has been published, the more citations it has to receive to meet the threshold. We then divided the raw citation numbers of HCPs with the Highly Cited Thresholds in the corresponding year to obtain the normalized citations for each HCP.

Highly cited thresholds in the research field of Social Sciences, General.

3.2.2. Corpus analysis and manual checking

To determine the most frequently explored topics in these HCPs, we used both corpus-based analysis of word frequency and manual checking. Specifically, the more frequently a word or phrase occurs in a specifically designed corpus, the more likely it constitutes a research topic. In this study, we built an Abstract corpus with all the abstracts of the 143 HCPs, totaling 24,800 tokens. The procedures to retrieve the research topics in the Abstract corpus were as follows. First, the 143 pieces of abstracts were saved as separate .txt files in one folder. Second, AntConc ( Anthony, 2022 ), a corpus analysis tool for concordancing and text analysis, was employed to extract lists of n-grams (2–4) in decreasing order of frequency. We also generated a list of individual nouns because sometimes individual nouns can also constitute research topics. Considering our small corpus data, we adopted both frequency (3) and range criteria (3) for topic candidacy. That is, a candidate n-gram must occur at least 3 times and in at least 3 different abstract files. The frequency threshold guarantees the importance of the candidate topics while the range threshold guarantees that the topics are not overly crowded in a few number of publications. In this process, we actually tested the frequency and range thresholds several rounds for the inclusion of all the potential topics. In total, we obtained 531 nouns, 1,330 2-grams, 331 3-grams, and 81 4-grams. Third, because most of the retrieved n-grams cannot function as meaningful research topics, we manually checked all the candidate items and discussed extensively to decide their roles as potential research topics until full agreements were reached. Finally, we read all the abstracts of the 143 HCPs to further validate their roles as research topics. In the end, we got 118 topic items in total.

4.1. Main publication venues of HCPs

Of the 48 journals which published the 143 HCPs, 17 journals have contributed at least 3 HCPs ( Table 2 ), around 71.33% of the total examined HCPs (102/143), indicating that HCPs tend to be highly concentrated in a limited number of journals. The three largest publication outlets of HCPs are Bilingualism Language and Cognition (16), International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (11), and Modern Language Journal (10). Because each journal varies greatly in the number of papers published per year and the number of HCPs is associated with journal circulations, we divided the total number of papers (TP) in the examined years (2011–2021) with the number of the HCPs to acquire the HCP percentage for each journal (HCPs/TP). The three journals with the highest HCPs/TP percentage are Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (2.26), Modern Language Journal (2.08), and Bilingualism Language and Cognition (1.74), indicating that papers published in these journals have a higher probability to enter the HCPs list.

Top 17 publication venues of HCPs.

N: the number of HCPs in each journal; N%: the percentage of HCPs in each journal in the total of 143 HCPs; TP: the total number of papers in the examined timespan (2011–2021); N/TP %: the percentage of HCPs in the total journal publications in the examined time span; TC/HCP: average citations of each HCP; R: journal ranking for the designated indicator; IF: Impact Factor in the year of 2022.

In terms of the general impact of the HCPs from each journal, we divided the number of HCPs with their total citations (TC) to obtain the average citations for each HCP (TC/HCP). The three journals with the highest TC/HCP are Journal of Memory and Language (837.86), Computational Linguistics (533.75), and Journal of Pragmatics (303.75). It indicates that even in the same WoS category, HCPs in different journals have strikingly different capability to accumulate citations. For example, the TC/HCP in System is as low as 31.73, which is even less than 4% of the highest TC/HCP in Journal of Memory and Language .

In regards to the latest journal impact factor (IF) in 2022, the top four journals with the highest IF are Computational Linguistics (7.778) , Modern Language Journal (7.5), Computer Assisted Language Learning (5.964), and Language Learning (5.24). According to the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) quantile rankings in WoS category of linguistics , all the journals on the list belong to the Q 1 (the top 25%), indicating that contributors are more likely to be attracted to contribute and cite papers in these prestigious high impact journals.

4.2. Authors of HCPs

A total of 352 authors had their names listed in the 143 HCPs, of whom 33 authors appeared in at least 2 HCPs as shown in Table 3 . We also provided in Table 3 other indicators to evaluate the authors’ productivity and impact including the total number of citations (TC), the number of citations per HCP, and the number of First author or Corresponding author HCPs (FA/CA). The reason we include the FA/CA indicator is that first authors and corresponding authors are usually considered to contribute the most and should receive greater proportion of credit in academic publications ( Marui et al., 2004 ; Dance, 2012 ).

Authors with at least 2 HCPs.

N: number of HCPs from each author; FA/CA: first author or corresponding author HCPs; TC: total citations of the HCPs from each author; C/HCP: average citations per HCP for each author.

In terms of the number of HCPs, Dewaele JM from Birkbeck Univ London tops the list with 7 HCPs with total citations of 492 (TC = 492), followed by Li C from Huazhong Univ Sci & Technol (#HCPs = 5; TC = 215) and Saito K from UCL (#HCPs = 5; TC = 576). It is to be noted that both Li C and Saito K have close academic collaborations with Dewaele JM . For example, 3 of the 5 HCPs by Li C are co-authored with Dewaele JM . The topics in their co-authored HCPs are mostly about foreign language learning emotions such as boredom , anxiety , enjoyment , the measurement , and positive psychology .

In regards to TC, Li, W . from UCL stands out as the most influential scholar among all the listed authors with total citations of 956 from 2 HCPs, followed by Norton B from Univ British Columbia (TC = 915) and Vasishth S from Univ Potsdam (TC = 694). The average citations per HCP from them are also the highest among the listed authors (478, 305, 347, respectively). It is important to note that Li, W.’ s 2 HCPs are his groundbreaking works on translanguaging which almost become must-reads for anyone who engages in translanguaging research ( Li, 2011 , 2018 ). Besides, Li, W. single authors his 2 HCPs, which is extremely rare as HCPs are often the results from multiple researchers. Norton B ’s HCPs are exploring some core issues in applied linguistics such as identity and investment , language learning , and social change that are considered the foundational work in its field ( Norton and Toohey, 2011 ; Darvin and Norton, 2015 ).

From the perspective of FA/CA papers, Li C from Huazhong Univ Sci and Technol is prominent because she is the first author of all her 5 HCPs. Her research on language learning emotions in the Chinese context is gaining widespread recognition ( Li et al., 2018 , 2019 , 2021 ; Li, 2019 , 2021 ). However, as a newly emerging researcher, most of her HCPs are published in the very recent years and hence accumulate relatively fewer citations (TC = 215). Mondada L from Univ Basel follows closely and single authors her 3 HCPs. Her work is mostly devoted to conversation analysis , multimodality , and social interaction ( Mondada, 2016 , 2018 , 2019 ).

We need to mention the following points regarding the productive authors of HCPs. First, when we calculated the number of HCPs from each author, only the papers published in the journals indexed in the investigated WoS categories were taken in account ( linguistics; language & linguistics ), which came as a compromise to protect the linguistics oriented nature of the HCPs. For example, Brysbaert M from Ghent University claimed a total of 8 HCPs at the time of the data retrieval, of which 6 HCPs were published in WoS category of psychology and more psychologically oriented, hence not included in our study. Besides, all the authors on the author list were treated equally when we calculated the number of HCPs, disregarding the author ordering. That implies that some influential authors may not be able to enter the list as their publications are comparatively fewer. Second, as some authors reported different affiliations at their different career stages, we only provide their most recent affiliation for convenience. Third, it is highly competitive to have one’s work selected as HCPs. The fact that a majority of the HCPs authors do not appear in our productive author list does not diminish their great contributions to this field. The rankings in Table 3 does not necessarily reflect the recognition authors have earned in academia at large.

4.3. Productive countries of HCPs

In total, the 143 HCPs originated from 33 countries. The most productive countries that contributed at least three HCPs are listed in Table 4 . The USA took an overwhelming lead with 59 HCPs, followed distantly by England with 31 HCPs. They also boasted the highest total citations (TC = 15,770; TC = 9,840), manifesting their high productivity and strong influence as traditional powerhouses in linguistics research. In regards to the average citations per HCP, Germany , England and the USA were the top three countries (TC/HCP = 281.67, 281.14, and 267.29, respectively). Although China held the third position with 19 HCPs published, its TC/HCP is the third from the bottom (TC/HCP = 66.84). One of the important reasons is that 13 out of the 19 HCPs contributed by scholars in China are published in the year of 2020 or 2021. The newly published HCPs may need more time to accumulate citations. Besides, 18 out of the 19 HCPs in China are first author and/or corresponding authors, indicating that scholars in China are becoming more independent and gaining more voice in English linguistics research.

Top 18 countries with at least 3 HCPs.

Two points should be noted here as to the productive countries. First, we calculated the HCP contributions from the country level instead of the region level. In other words, HCP contributions from different regions of the same country will be combined in the calculation. For example, HCPs from Scotland were added to the HCPs from England . HCPs from Hong Kong , Macau , and Taiwan are put together with the HCPs from Mainland China . In this way, a clear picture of the HCPs on the country level can be painted. Second, we manually checked the address information of the first author and corresponding author for each HCP. There are some cases where the first author or the corresponding author may report affiliations from more than one country. In this case, every country in their address list will be treated equally in the FA/CA calculation. In other word, a HCP may be classified into more than one country because of the different country backgrounds of the first and/or the corresponding author.

4.4. Top 20 HCPs

The top 20 HCPs with the highest normed citations are listed in decreasing order in Table 5 . The top cited publications can guide us to better understand the development and research topics in recent years.

Top 20 HCPs.

To save space, not full information about the HCPs is given. Some article titles have been abbreviated if they are too lengthy; for the authors, we report the first two authors and use “et al” if there are three authors or more; RC: raw citations; NC: normalized citations

By reading the titles and the abstracts of these top HCPs, we categorized the topics of the 20 HCPs into the following five groups: (i) statistical and analytical methods in (psycho)linguistics such as sentimental analysis, sentence simplification techniques, effect sizes, linear mixed models (#1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 14), (ii) language learning/teaching emotions such enjoyment, anxiety, boredom, stress (#11, 15, 16, 18, 19), (iii) translanguaging or multilinguilism (#5, 13, 20, 17), (iv) language perception (#2, 7, 10), (v) medium of instruction (#8, 12). It is no surprise that 6 out of the top 20 HCPs are about statistical methods in linguistics because language researchers aspire to employ statistics to make their research more scientific. Besides, we noticed that the papers on language teaching/learning emotions on the list are all published in the year of 2020 and 2021, indicating that these emerging topics may deserve more attention in future research. We also noticed two Covid-19 related articles (#16, 19) explored the emotions teachers and students experience during the pandemic, a timely response to the urgent need of the language learning and teaching community.

It is of special interest to note that papers from the journals indexed in multiple JCR categories seem to accumulate more citations. For example, Journal of Memory and Language , American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology , and Computational Linguistics are indexed both in SSCI and SCIE and contribute the top 4 HCPs, manifesting the advantage of these hybrid journals in amassing citations compared to the conventional language journals. Besides, different to findings from Yan et al. (2022) that most of the top HCPs in the field of radiology are reviews in document types, 19 out of the top 20 HCPs are research articles instead of reviews except Macaro et al. (2018) .

4.5. Most frequently explored topics of HCPs

After obtaining the corpus based topic items, we read all the titles and abstracts of the 143 HCPs to further validate their roles as research topics. Table 6 presents the top research topics with the observed frequency of 5 or above. We grouped these topics into five broad categories: bilingual-related, language learning/teaching-related, psycho/pathological/cognitive linguistics-related, methods and tools-related, and others . The observed frequency count for each topic in the abstract corpus were included in the brackets. We found that about 34 of the 143 HCPs are exploring bilingual related issues, the largest share among all the categorized topics, testifying its academic popularity in the examined timespan. Besides, 30 of the 143 HCPs are investigating language learning/teaching-related issues, with topics ranging from learners (e.g., EFL learners, individual difference) to multiple learning variables (e.g., learning strategy, motivation, agency). The findings here will be validated by the analysis of the keywords.

Categorization of the most explored research topics.

N: the number of the HCPs in each topic category; ELF: English as a lingua franca; CLIL: content and language integrated learning; FLE: foreign language enjoyment; FLCA: foreign language classroom anxiety

Several points should be mentioned regarding the topic candidacy. First, for similar topic expressions, we used a cover term and added the frequency counts. For example, multilingualism is a cover term for bilinguals, bilingualism, plurilingualism, and multilingualism . Second, for nouns of singular and plural forms (e.g., emotion and emotions ) or for items with different spellings (e.g., meta analysis and meta analyses ), we combined the frequency counts. Third, we found that some longer items (3 grams and 4 grams) could be subsumed to short ones (2 grams or monogram) without loss of essential meaning (e.g., working memory from working memory capacity ). In this case, the shorter ones were kept for their higher frequency. Fourth, some highly frequent terms were discarded because they were too general to be valuable topics in language research, for example, applied linguistics , language use , second language .

5. Discussion and implications

Based on 143 highly cited papers collected from the WoS categories of linguistics , the present study attempts to present a bird’s eye view of the publication landscape and the most updated research themes reflected from the HCPs in the linguistics field. Specifically, we investigated the important contributors of HCPs in terms of journals, authors and countries. Besides, we spotlighted the research topics by corpus-based analysis of the abstracts and a detailed analysis of the top HCPs. The study has produced several findings that bear important implications.

The first finding is that the HCPs are highly concentrated in a limited journals and countries. In regards to journals, those in the spheres of bilingualism and applied linguistics (e.g., language teaching and learning) are likely to accumulate more citations and hence to produce more HCPs. Journals that focus on bilingualism from a linguistic, psycholinguistic, and neuroscientific perspective are the most frequent outlets of HCPs as evidenced by the top two productive journals of HCPs, Bilingualism Language and Cognition and International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism . This can be explained by the multidisciplinary nature of bilingual-related research and the development of cognitive measurement techniques. The merits of analyzing publication venues of HCPs are two folds. One the one hand, it can point out which sources of high-quality publications in this field can be inquired for readers as most of the significant and cutting-edge achievements are concentrated in these prestigious journals. On the other hand, it also provides essential guidance or channels for authors or contributors to submit their works for higher visibility.

In terms of country distributions, the traditional powerhouses in linguistics research such as the USA and England are undoubtedly leading the HCP publications in both the number and the citations of the HCPs. However, developing countries are also becoming increasing prominent such as China and Iran , which could be traceable in the funding and support of national language policies and development policies as reported in recent studies ( Ping et al., 2009 ; Lei and Liu, 2019 ). Take China as an example. Along with economic development, China has given more impetus to academic outputs with increased investment in scientific research ( Lei and Liao, 2017 ). Therefore, researchers in China are highly motivated to publish papers in high-quality journals to win recognition in international academia and to deal with the publish or perish pressure ( Lee, 2014 ). These factors may explain the rise of China as a new emerging research powerhouse in both natural and social sciences, including English linguistics research.

The second finding is the multilingual trend in linguistics research. The dominant clustering of topics regarding multilingualism can be understood as a timely response to the multilingual research fever ( May, 2014 ). 34 out of the 143 HCPs have such words as bilingualism, bilingual, multilingualism , translanguaging , etc., in their titles, reflecting a strong multilingual tendency of the HCPs. Multilingual-related HCPs mainly involve three aspects: multilingualism from the perspectives of psycholinguistics and cognition (e.g., Luk et al., 2011 ; Leivada et al., 2020 ); multilingual teaching (e.g., Schissel et al., 2018 ; Ortega, 2019 ; Archila et al., 2021 ); language policies related to multilingualism (e.g., Shen and Gao, 2018 ). As a pedagogical process initially used to describe the bilingual classroom practice and also a frequently explored topic in HCPs, translanguaging is developed into an applied linguistics theory since Li’s Translanguaging as a Practical Theory of Language ( Li, 2018 ). The most common collocates of translanguaging in the Abstract corpus are pedagogy/pedagogies, practices, space/spaces . There are two main reasons for this multilingual turn. First, the rapid development of globalization, immigration, and overseas study programs greatly stimulate the use and research of multiple languages in different linguistic contexts. Second, in many non-English countries, courses are delivered through languages (mostly English) besides their mother tongue ( Clark, 2017 ). Students are required to use multiple languages as resources to learn and understand subjects and ideas. The burgeoning body of English Medium Instruction literature in higher education is in line with the rising interest in multilingualism. Due to the innate multidisciplinary nature, it is to be expected that, multilingualism, the topic du jour, is bound to attract more attention in the future.

The third finding is the application of Positive Psychology (PP) in second language acquisition (SLA), that is, the positive trend in linguistic research. In our analysis, 20 out of 143 HCPs have words or phrases such as emotions, enjoyment, boredom, anxiety , and positive psychology in their titles, which might signal a shift of interest in the psychology of language learners and teachers in different linguistic environments. Our study shows Foreign language enjoyment (FLE) is the most frequently explored emotion, followed by foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA), the learners’ metaphorical left and right feet on their journey to acquiring the foreign language ( Dewaele and MacIntyre, 2016 ). In fact, the topics of PP are not entirely new to SLA. For example, studies of language motivations, affections, and good language learners all provide roots for the emergence of PP in SLA ( Naiman, 1978 ; Gardner, 2010 ). In recent years, both research and teaching applications of PP in SLA are building rapidly, with a diversity of topics already being explored such as positive education and PP interventions. It is to be noted that SLA also feeds back on PP theories and concepts besides drawing inspirations from it, which makes it “an area rich for interdisciplinary cross-fertilization of ideas” ( Macintyre et al., 2019 ).

It should be noted that subjectivity is involved when we decide and categorize the candidate topic items based on the Abstract corpus. However, the frequency and range criteria guarantee that these items are actually more explored in multiple HCPs, thus indicating topic values for further investigation. Some high frequent n-grams are abandoned because they are too general or not meaningful topics. For example, applied linguistics is too broad to be included as most of the HCPs concern issues in this research line instead of theoretical linguistics. By meaningful topics, we mean that the topics can help journal editors and readers quickly locate their interested fields ( Lei and Liu, 2019 ), as the author keywords such as bilingualism , emotions , and individual differences . The examination of the few 3/4-grams and monograms (mostly nouns) revealed that most of them were either not meaningful topics or they could be subsumed in the 2-grams. Besides, there is inevitably some overlapping in the topic categorizations. For example, some topics in the language teaching and learning category are situated and discussed within the context of multilingualism. The merits of topic categorizations are two folds: to better monitor the overlapping between the Abstract corpus-based topic items and the keywords; to roughly delineate the research strands in the HCPs for future research.

It should also be noted that all the results were based on the retrieved HCPs only. The study did not aim to paint a comprehensive and full picture of the whole landscape of linguistic research. Rather, it specifically focused on the most popular literature in a specified timeframe, thus generating the snapshots or trends in linguistic research. One of the important merits of this methodology is that some newly emerging but highly cited researchers can be spotlighted and gain more academic attention because only the metrics of HCPs are considered in calculation. On the contrary, the exclusion of some other highly cited researchers in general such as Rod Ellis and Ken Hyland just indicates that their highly cited publications are not within our investigated timeframe and cannot be interpreted as their diminishing academic influence in the field. Besides, the study does not consider the issue of collaborators or collaborations in calculating the number of HCPs for two reasons. First, although some researchers are regular collaborators such as Li CC and Dewaele JM, their individual contribution can never be undermined. Second, the study also provides additional information about the number of the FA/CA HCPs from each listed author, which may aid readers in locating their interested research.

We acknowledge that our study has some limitations that should be addressed in future research. First, our study focuses on the HCPs extracted from WoS SSCI and A&HCI journals, the alleged most celebrated papers in this field. Future studies may consider including data from other databases such as Scopus to verify the findings of the present study. Second, our Abstract corpus-based method for topic extraction involved human judgement. Although the final list was the result of several rounds of discussions among the authors, it is difficult or even impossible to avoid subjectivity and some worthy topics may be unconsciously missed. Therefore, future research may consider employing automatic algorithms to extract topics. For example, a dependency-based machine learning approach can be used to identify research topics ( Zhu and Lei, 2021 ).

Data availability statement

Author contributions.

SY: conceptualization and methodology. SY and LZ: writing-review and editing and writing-original draft. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

This work was supported by Humanities and Social Sciences Youth Fund of China MOE under the grant 20YJC740076 and 18YJC740141.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary material

The Supplementary material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1052586/full#supplementary-material

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Thesis Helpers

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55 Top-Rated Research Topics in Linguistics For an A+

The field of linguistics is one of the easiest yet challenging subjects for college and university students. Areas such as phonology, phonetics, syntax, morphology, and semantics in linguistics can keep you up all night.

That is why we came up with these quality language research topics.

What are the Linguistics Research Topics?

To understand this better, we’d have first to define the term linguistics.

• Language in context ,
• Language form, and
• Language meaning.

The researcher will have to determine the interplay between sound and meaning when presented with this subject. A linguistics research paper will, therefore, deal with the following:

• The nature of language
• How human languages are classified
• Tools used in language identification

Language entices researchers as it draws significant and sustained attention with the reader. With the numerous languages in the world now, you cannot miss finding an area or two to write on this topic.

However, we endeavor to make this task quick and easy for you by shooting up 55 research topics in linguistics.

How To Write Linguistic Topics For Your Dissertation

Are you having trouble coming up with a research topic for your research paper? Here are the top expert recommendations:

• Brainstorm ideas on your own and with your friends
• Pick a broad topic and free-write specific sub-topics on it
• Get inspiration from other available linguistics research paper topics

After coming up with a topic that interests you, check to ensure that it meets your assignment criteria.

So let’s get started!

History of Language Research Topics

• The contribution of Greek philosophers to language
• Significance of the over 30,000 preserved cuneiform writings to language
• Early speculations about the origin of language
• The long history of language as rooted in mythology
• Why the origin of language is an unanswerable problem
• A critical analysis of theories that explain the origin and development of language

Argumentative College Linguistic Research Topics

• Is language the only way we can use to communicate?
• Does a brain injury have an impact on language?
• Should we refer to the language as a mere system of symbols?
• Do language disorders make it a difficult subject to study?
• Does the mother tongue have an impact on efficient communication?
• Should we learn two or more languages?

Linguistics Research Topics – Tough Questions

• Why is there a similarity among many English and French words?
• What makes people speak different languages?
• Why does the mother tongue always interfere with one’s pronunciation?
• What makes it possible for language translation?
• Is sign language only a matter of making signs with the hands?
• Why are some languages difficult to learn than others?

Sociolinguistic Research Topics

• Social factors that necessitate language variation and varieties
• What are the attitudes to language among different societies?
• The relationship between language and identity
• A critical evaluation of language and ethnicity
• Analyzing language attrition among most English speakers
• Distinct functions of language among different communities

Interesting Topics in Linguistics

• Salient factors that contribute to language shift and death
• Why nobody can claim to know a certain language in its entirety
• Why is written communication more precise than spoken one?
• Problems of ambiguity during language translation
• Does language influence society, or vice versa, is it true?
• The effectiveness of language support and subject teaching

Linguistics Paper Topics on Politics

• Persuasive language strategies and techniques in political speeches
• Why politicians use culturally used languages when addressing indigenous communities?
• The place of colonial rule in African politics
• A case study of effective political communication
• Understanding the changing landscape of political communication
• The use of buzz words and tag lines in political speeches

Linguistics Research Paper Topics on Semantics

• How does meaning work in language analysis and interpretation?
• How can the meanings of words relate to each other?
• Ways in which sentences are related to one another
• What causes ambiguity to arise in language?
• How do different speakers acquire a sense of meaning?
• A critical analysis of language use and language acquisition

Linguistic Topics on Translation

• The role of the latest technologies in the translation industry
• Is the translator training and pedagogy producing efficient translators?
• Are translations the cause of misunderstanding between different languages?
• What is the effectiveness of audiovisual translation?
• Is literary translation causing more harm than good in communication?
• What is the relationship between translation and popular culture?

Interesting Linguistics Topics on Language Disorders

• Causes of receptive language disorders among children
• Mental formation of language disorders during a child’s development
• Symptoms of language disorder and how to deal with them
• What is the effectiveness of psychotherapy in dealing with language disorders?
• Why is autism spectrum disorder common among most children?
• What causes problems with the sentence and word flow?
• Why children of 1 and 2 years of age have trouble with p, b, m, h, and w sounds

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Unpacking the history of middle chinese *ɣu- in the yue dialects in guangdong: a dialect geographical analysis , perception and production of singular they in british english , cross-dialect variation in dinka tonal morphology , morphophonological interactions in shilluk: an investigation into the tone system and suffixation patterns in the gar dialect , vowel duration in the standard english of scotland , linguicide or linguistic suicide: a case study of indigenous minority languages in france , combining translation into the second language and second language learning : an integrated computational approach , post-critical period age of arrival and its relationship to ultimate attainment in a second language , hci for development: does sense of agency affect the adoption of a mobile health insurance service in tanzania , language policy and planning in xinjiang uygur autonomous region of china , comparable structural priming from comprehension and production: evidence against error-based learning of syntactic structure , developing educational games for teaching children with special educational needs , variation in the speech of university students from edinburgh: the cases of /x/ and // , a diachronic constructional investigation into the adverse avertive schema in chinese , onset consonants and the perceptions of tone and voicing in thai , simulating the interaction between mindreading and language in development and evolution , in task-oriented dyadic dialogue, how do non-native speakers of english align with each other in terms of lexical choices , native english speakers' music ability and their perception and production of l2 mandarin tones , a study of cmc language switching in china , the cognitive processes involved with hitting a fastball and why the baseball axiom "keeping your eye on the ball" is an exercise in futility .

Linguistics (research)

Please carefully read the information in the first tab The Programme , so that you are well informed about the programme and its requirements.

The Programme

The programme and its requirements.

The Leiden University Research Master’s programme in Linguistics provides intensive and comprehensive training covering the entire range of present-day linguistic research. Students need to earn 120 EC in total, including a thesis of 30 EC.

The basic programme consists of:

40 EC of compulsory components

20 EC of electives at research master level 600

30 EC of electives

30 EC thesis

Compulsory Compontents (40 EC) All the compulsory components are taught at research master level. This means they equal level 600 according to the programme structure at Leiden University.

Students have to take two compulsory core courses, each worth 10 EC (20 EC in total). The core courses cover the broad theoretical and methodological aspects of diversity in linguistics.

Besides the core courses, students have to take two topics courses, each worth 5 EC (10 EC in total). These short, current-research-oriented courses change every year. Students are advised to take Topics B as preparation for their thesis.

Lastly, students must attend courses at a research school to obtain the remaining 10 credits of the compulsory package. The recommended research school to do so is LOT , the Netherlands National Graduate School of Linguistics.

Electives at research master level 600 (at least 20 EC) It is required that at least 20 EC (of the total of 50 EC electives) are completed with courses at research master's level (i.e. level 600). This can be done in three ways: 1. by taking courses that are only open to research master’s students (e.g. more Topics courses and/or the elective Corpus Lexicography). Those courses are always taught at level 600; 2. by taking courses via the RM Mobility Programme in ResMA Linguistics Programmes all over the Netherlands; 3. by taking a 10 EC course of the regular master’s (level 500), with an upgrade of the level by meeting an extra requirement. Read more about this option on the tab Extra Requirement. This can be done twice in order to complete 20 EC of credits on a research master’s level.

Electives (30 EC) The remaining credits can be obtained in several ways. The ways to obtain elective credits are as follows. Students can:

take more courses offered in the programme of the research master’s in Linguistics; more Topics in Linguistics courses or the elective Corpus lexicography;

choose courses from among the courses offered by the specialisations ‘Linguistics’ and ‘Modern Languages’ within the master’s programme in Linguistics. Those courses are taught on level 500, so if necessary an extra requirement can be met. (NB: Course admission requirements must be met);

select other linguistic courses within other Master's programmes in Leiden. You may search for such courses in this e-Prospectus, on the web pages and timetables of various departments. Such courses need to have at least the 500 level and are subject to prior approval by the Board of Examiners of Linguistics;

organize tutorials with an LUCL professor. Tutorials are small-scale classes worth 5 or 10 EC (subject to prior approval by the Board of Examiners). Please discuss the possibilities with the expert lecturers and consult the Coordinator of Studies;

take some courses at another university in the Netherlands or abroad. Approval from the Board of Examiners is required in advance. The usual limit is a maximum of 15 EC at another Dutch university and maximum 30 EC abroad;

take courses at Research Schools in the Humanities. Such courses are subject to prior approval by the Board of Examiners of Linguistics;

do an internship (10 or 20 EC). For more information, please contact the Humanities Career Service and the Coordinator of Studies .

Second year

Students can choose from courses of the following tracks of the MA Linguistics:

MA Linguistics: Linguistics MA LInguistics: Modern Languages

The ways to obtain elective credits are as follows. Students can:

take more courses offered in the programme of the research master’s in Linguistics; more topics courses or the elective Corpus lexicography.

select other linguistic courses within other Master's programmes in Leiden. You may search for such courses in this e-Prospectus, on the web pages and timetables of various departments. Such courses need to have at least the 500 level and are subject to prior approval by the Board of Examiners of Linguistics.

organize tutorials with an LUCL professor. Tutorials are small-scale classes worth 5 or 10 EC (subject to prior approval by the Board of Examiners). Please discuss the possibilities with the expert lecturers and consult the Coordinator of Studies.

take some courses at another university in the Netherlands or abroad. Approval from the Board of Examiners is required in advance. The usual limit is a maximum of 15 EC at another Dutch university and maximum 30 EC abroad.

do an internship (10 or 20 EC). For more information, please contact Humanities Career Service and the Coordinator of Studies . It is required that at least 20 of the 50 EC of electives are completed with courses at research master's level (600). This can be done by taking courses that are only open to research master’s students. Those courses are always taught at level 600. If you take a 10 EC course of the regular master’s (level 500), you could upgrade the level by meeting an extra requirement (see also the extra requirement tab). This can be done twice in order to complete 20 EC of credits on a research master’s level.

Extra Requirement

Extra requirement research master linguistics, introduction.

Since the academic year 2014-2015 there has been an extra requirement for research master students in Linguistics. The goal of this extra requirement is twofold: (i) To distinguish the programme of the research master from the programme of the regular (one-year) master. (ii) To train the research master students in academic skills, more particularly writing an academic paper that could be published in an academic journal.

What is the extra requirement?

The extra requirement is meant to bring a regular master’s course to a research master’s level. With the extra requirement, students can complete a course on level 600 when it is actually taught on level 500. The extra requirement can be met in courses of 10 EC from the regular (one year) Master's Linguistics Programme within Leiden, or from other regular (one year) Master's programmes at the Faculty of Humanities in Leiden that offer linguistics courses (Russian Studies, Asian Studies, etc.).

The assignment to meet the extra requirement is as follows: The student writes a final paper in the form of an academic article meant for an academic journal (including the number of pages/words that is customary within the field). The form of the article will be determined by the lecturer of the class, who will use the format of an academic article of his/her own linguistic subdiscipline.

A possible structure could be:

Introduction (with research question)

Literature review (or: Background, Theoretical framework)

Methods/methodology

What is the procedure?

The student is responsible for choosing the ‘upgraded’ course(s) during the course of his/her study. Only 10 EC courses for which a final paper have to be written can be used to meet an extra requirement.

The weight of the final paper must be 70%.

Courses where there is no final paper but another type of examination (for example a written exam or an oral exam) are not eligible for an ‘upgrade’.

In normal cases the student follows these two courses in the first year of the programme.

At the beginning of the class the student lets the lecturer know that he/she/they want to follow the course with an extra requirement.

The lecturer will let the student know how the extra requirement should be interpreted for the course in question (for example the format of an academic article).

In grading the paper, the lecturer takes into account whether the extra requirement has been met and in what way.

After the paper is graded, the lecturer notifies the Education Administration Office Reuvensplaats ([email protected]) about whether the student has passed the exam and about the grade (for this, the office uses is a separate uSis-code).

Eligible courses

The extra requirement can only be met in 10 EC courses for which a final paper have to be written. 5 EC courses are not eligible for an extra requirement. The weight of the final paper must be 70%.

The one year master’s programme in Linguistics offers several 10 EC courses that are split into two components. It concerns:

Advanced Syntax 1 & 2

Advanced Phonology 1 & 2

These courses can only be concluded with an extra requirement if:

both 5 EC courses are taken. The student enrolls in usis for both courses;

the assessment of the individual parts is replaced by one paper that concludes both courses;

the final grade is registered in usis for both courses (1 & 2).

Discuss the possibilities of this elaboration of the extra requirement with the relevant lecturer. The procedure as described in the paragraph "What is the procedure?’ remains in effect.

Exemption of the extra requirement

Exemption for the extra requirement does not apply. Students must complete 20 EC of their elective package on research master’s level. They can do so by taking courses on a research master’s level or by meeting one or two extra requirements.

Objectives Programme Admission Structure Requirements for graduation

The Leiden University research master’s programme in Linguistics provides intensive and comprehensive training covering the entire range of present-day linguistic research. The end of the 20th century witnessed a return of the interest in the diversity of human languages in virtually all existing approaches to linguistics. While descriptive, historical, and anthropological linguists have traditionally emphasised the variability of languages, scholars working in structuralist traditions aiming to uncover specific linguistic universal themes have also recognised the challenge posed by the immense variation between and within languages, and have started to develop theories and methods in attempts to meet it. Students in the Research Master’s Linguistics programme receive education and training that introduces them to and prepares them for innovative research at the front line of present-day linguistic investigation along the lines presented above.

Completion of a Research Master’s degree in Linguistics qualifies graduates for the pursuit of a PhD research project. At the same time, graduates will have acquired good credentials for working as a consultant or employee for an international or governmental agency, multinational business enterprise or non-governmental organisation. Because of the unique curriculum of the programme and the research experience accrued, graduates are an asset to any undertaking in the areas of sustainable development, investigative journalism, social engineering, education planning, and human resource management in a multicultural and multilingual context.

The Research Master in Linguistics is a specialised research-based programme offered at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL). This two-year programme is designed to prepare students for a career in research, for example as a PhD student. The programme is based on the expertise present within LUCL, specifically in the areas of language diversity and the languages of the world.

The students need to earn 120 EC in total. The programme consists of obligatory and elective courses, worth in total 90 EC. In the first year, all students of Linguistics (research) follow two core courses. The first core course is Research Methods in Linguistics. In the core course Samples of Linguistic Structure, you get an overview of the grammar of typically four or five languages from different language families. This course gives you a broad overview of language variation – the focus point of linguistic research in Leiden. All students should take two Topics courses during their programme and are advised to take at least one, preferably two of these courses in their first year.

You can choose the remaining EC in the first year from a list of various courses on topics ranging from approaches to language variation and language change to more disciplinary courses in syntax, phonology, semantics and phonetics or courses about the linguistics of individual languages. In addition, numerous conferences, workshops and lecture series are organised by LUCL and all students are encouraged to attend. Students should also do 10 EC worth of courses from the LOT summer/winter schools.

In the third semester, you are encouraged to take further courses from this broad range, and are further expected to follow (at least) two or three short research seminars in which researchers talk about their current research. In the fourth and last semester you write a thesis under supervision of one of the LUCL Professors, who can also guide you towards a submission for a PhD Position, if this is what you wish.

A BA-degree with a relevant specialisation from a recognised university;

Good grades comparable with an average mark of at least 7.5 (Dutch grading system) for the entire bachelor’s programme, and a grade for the bachelor’s thesis of an 8 or higher;

Sufficient command of English (IELTS 7.0, TOEFL 100 (internet-based) or Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE); for the ‘speaking’ and ‘writing’ components a minimum score of IELTS 6.5 or TOEFL22 is required)

Selection takes place by considering not only the final mark for the Bachelor’s thesis and the level of command of the English language, but several other aspects as well. Important factors are motivation and eagerness to carry out scientific research, as should be demonstrated in the documents required for the admission procedure and/or interview with the candidate.

All students admitted to the programme participate in a common set of courses providing them with the necessary foundations for further training and research, through confrontation with research methods and results in different approaches to linguistic diversity, presented by specialists in the field. By choosing a particular composition of courses within this common framework, a student may opt for an established or personalised study track, also aimed at a specific type of career. Tracks may also be characterised by special emphasis on the combination of studied languages.

Requirements for Graduation

In order to graduate, students must have completed 90 EC worth of courses and have written a Research Master’s thesis. The thesis needs to be written under the supervision of a lecturer affiliated with the LUCL (Leiden University Centre for Linguistics) and evaluated by the supervisor and a second reader (selected by the supervisor). It must show that the student is capable of analysing existing literature in a critical manner, and of conducting independent research. Moreover, this process must be recorded in an academically sound report. A research master’s thesis is worth 30 EC. It should consist of max. 30,000 words.

Also see: Course and Examination Regulations (OER)

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Course Catalog and Topics

Uw course catalog.

The UW Course Catalog , part of the Student Guide , lists all courses potentially taught by the department. Not every course in the catalog is available every quarter. To see scheduled courses, see Current & Upcoming .

The Department of Linguistics teaches courses in these three curricula:

• Linguistics (LING)
• Spanish Linguistics (SPLING)
• American Sign Language (ASL)

Undergraduate Courses in Linguistics and Related Fields Course Topics

Introductory linguistics.

The Linguistics department offers several survey courses that provide a broad introduction to the field of linguistics. For more information on choosing an introductory linguistics course, see the Introductory Classes page .

• LING 200 Introduction to Linguistic Thought (5) I&S/VLPA, QSR
• LING 203/ANTH 203 Introduction to Anthropological Linguistics (5) I&S/VLPA
• LING 400 Survey of Linguistic Method and Theory (5) I&S/VLPA, QSR

The Linguistics department also offers introductory-level courses in specific areas of linguistics. Note that these courses may not count towards the linguistics majors or minor; see the Elective Requirement page .

• LING 100 Fundamentals of Grammar (5) VLPA
• LING 101 Fundamentals of Pronunciation for Language Learners (5) VLPA
• LING/GERMAN 220 Origins of the Germanic Languages (5) VLPA
• LING/ANTH/COM 233 Introduction to Language and Society (5) VLPA
• LING 234 Language and Diversity (5) I&S

In addition, introductory linguistics courses are offered by a number of other departments. Prerequisites may apply, and some departments normally restrict courses to majors; contact department advisors for information.

• ASIAN 401 Introduction to Asian Linguistics (5) VLPA
• ENGL 370 English Language Study (5) VLPA
• GERMAN 451 Linguistic Analysis of German (5) VLPA
• JAPAN 440 Introduction to Japanese Linguistics (5) VLPA
• SPAN 323 Introduction to Spanish Linguistics (5) VLPA
• SPHSC 303 Language Science (3) VLPA

Animal Communication

Check the Psychology department listings in the Course Catalog for a variety of courses on animal communication and animal behavior. Prerequisites may apply, and some PSYCH courses are normally open only to PSYCH majors; contact PSYCH advising for information. Of particular interest:

• PSYCH 416 Animal Communication (5) NW

Anthropological Linguistics

LING/ANTH 203 Introduction to Anthropological Linguistics (5) I&S/VLPA Linguistic methods, theories used within anthropology. Basic structural features of language; human language and animal communication compared; evidence for the innate nature of language. Language and culture: linguistic relativism, ethnography of communication, sociolinguistics. Language and nationalism, language politics in the U.S. and elsewhere.

LING/ANTH/COM 233 Introduction to Language and Society (5) VLPA Provides an introduction to the study of language through culture and society, and raises and awareness of the role that society and the individual play in shaping language via the systematic observation and critical discussion of linguistic phenomena.

Check the Anthropology and Communication department listings in the Course Catalog for a variety of courses on language and communication in social and anthropological context. Prerequisites may apply, and some ANTH and COM courses are normally open only to ANTH or COM majors; contact ANTH or COM advising for information. Of particular interest:

ANTH 358 Culture and Cognition (5) I&S/NW Surveys anthropological theories and research on the relationship between language, thought, and behavior. Examines the influence of cultural inheritance on perception, classification, inference, and choice. Describes relevant cross-cultural research methods and evaluates theoretical models used by cognitive anthropologists. Prerequisite: either ANTH 203, LING 203, or PSYCH 355.

ANTH 359 Linguistic Ethnography (5) I&S Language use in cultural contexts. How language reflects world view. Language use in culturally significant settings. Analyzes sets of culturally specific terms in semantic domains. Includes projects demonstrating application of theory and method to data addressing specific problems.

COM 478 Intercultural Communication (5) I&S Investigates intercultural communication theory and its application for varying levels of human interaction: interpersonal, intergroup, and international.

COM 484 Cultural Codes in Communication (5) I&S/VLPA Social and cultural codes in interpersonal communication, with special reference to contemporary American subcultural groups and their communication patterns.

LING/ANTH 464 Language Politics and Cultural Identity (3) I&S/VLPA Theories and case studies of the power of language and how it is manipulated. Multilingualism, diglossia. Role of language and linguistics in nationalism. Standardization, educational policy, language and ethnicity. World languages, language death and revival. Prerequisite: either LING 200, LING 201, ANTH/LING 203, or LING 400.

Other courses which might be of related interest are:

• AES 151 Introduction to the Cultures of American Ethnic Groups (5) I&S
• AIS 201 Introduction: Ethnohistory of Native North America (5) I&S
• AIS 270 Native Peoples of the Pacific Northwest (5) I&S
• AIS 317 North American Indians: The Southwest (5) I&S
• COM 321 Communications in International Relations (5) I&S
• COM 425 European Media Systems (5) I&S
• COM 426 International Media Images (5) I&S
• SLAV 425 Ways of Meaning: Universal and Culture Specific Aspects of Language (5) I&S/VLPA
• SLAV 426 Ways of Feeling: Expressions of Emotions Across Languages and Cultures (5) I&S/VLPA

Applied Linguistics: Language Teaching

EDC&I 453 Teaching the Bilingual-Bicultural Student (3) I&S Educational needs of bilingual students: research findings, special programs, materials, and methodologies that bilingual-bicultural education can provide to meet those needs. Cultural combinations of bilingual populations in American culture; historical, social, and linguistic factors affecting their K-12 education.

SPLING/SPAN 406 Advanced Spanish Grammar (5) VLPA Problems of Spanish grammar. Differences from English grammar. Techniques for the effective teaching of Spanish. Prerequisites: either SPAN 303, SPAN 316 or 330; SPAN 323.

Applied Linguistics: Translation

SPAN 408 Spanish Translation Workshop (5) VLPA Intensive practice in translation to and from Spanish. Texts include literary prose, poetry, expository writing, newspaper and magazine articles. Problems of standard versus colloquial language, transposition of cultural references, concept of fidelity in translation. Prerequisites: either SPAN 303, SPAN 316, or SPAN 330; SPAN 323; recommended: SPAN 406.  

FRENCH 472 French-English/English-French Translation (5) VLPA Intense practice of translation from English into French and from French into English. Translation issues specific to French and English syntactic, semantic, and grammatical differences with emphasis on the naturalness of the target language and the accuracy of the translation of the source language. Conducted in French. Prerequisite: FRENCH 303; either FRENCH 304, FRENCH 305, FRENCH 306, or FRENCH 307.

Computational Linguistics

In addition to the undergraduate-level courses in computational linguistics listed below, the linguistics department's graduate-level courses are open to qualified undergraduates with permission of the instructor.

LING 471 Computational Methods for Linguists (5) QSR Overview of methods for working with linguistic data in electronic form: electronic corpora, linguistic software tools, textual data formats, operating system fundamentals, and basic programming. Prerequisite: either LING 450 or LING 461.

LING/CSE 472 Introduction to Computational Linguistics (5) NW/VLPA Introduction to computational approaches to modeling language, for linguistic research and practical applications, including analyses at different levels of linguistic structure and symbolic as well as statistical approaches. Prerequisites: either LING 200 or LING 400; either LING 461 or CSE 321. Offered: jointly with CSE 472.

LING 473 Basics for Computational Linguistics (3) Examines computer applications involving automatic processing of natural language speech or text by machines. Intended as preparation for CLMA core courses. Includes concepts form probability and statistics; formal grammars and languages; finite-state automata and transducers; review of algorithms and data structures; and software for using parallel server cluster. Prerequisites: CSE 326; STAT 391; programming in Perl, C, C++, Java, or Python. Offered: S.

Check the Computer Science and Engineering listings in the Course Catalog for other relevant courses. Prerequisites may apply, and some CSE courses are normally open only to CSE majors; contact CSE advising for information. Of particular interest:

• CSE 142 Computer Programming for Engineers and Scientists I (4) NW, QSR
• CSE 143 Computer Programming for Engineers and Scientists II (5) NW, QSR
• CSE 373 Data Structures and Algorithms (3)
• CSE 415 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (3) NW

LING 100 Fundamentals of Grammar (5) VLPA Introduction to basic grammatical concepts and terminology. Specifically intended for students planning to take a foreign language or linguistics. Does not count toward the linguistics major or minor.

Historical Linguistics

General historical linguistics.

LING 454 Methods in Comparative Linguistics (5) VLPA Aldridge, Handel Method and theory of historical and comparative linguistics. Problems of phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic change and reconstruction. Prerequisite: either LING 200, LING 201, ANTH/LING 203, or LING 400.

Language Family-Specific Historical Linguistics

ROLING 402 Historical Romance Linguistics (5) VLPA Klausenburger Comparative historical survey of the development of the principal Romance tongues. Prerequisite: LING 400. (UW also offers Latin.)

Scandinavian

SCAND 460 History of the Scandinavian Languages (5) VLPA Development of languages from common Scandinavian to contemporary Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Faroese, and Icelandic. Recommended: DANISH 203, FINN 203, NORW 203, or SWED 203.

SLAV 351 History of the Slavic Languages (5) VLPA External and internal history of Slavic literary languages from the beginnings to the present time, including the development of writing systems, external attempts at reform, and the development of vocabulary. Prerequisite: LING 200.

Language-Specific Historical Linguistics

ENGL 373 History of the English Language (5) VLPA Evolution of English sounds, forms, structures, and word meanings from Anglo-Saxon times to the present. Prerequisite: either ENGL 370 or LING 200.

FRENCH 404 Old French (5) VLPA Designed for acquisition of reading facility in Old French through intensive study of selected texts. (UW also offers Latin.)

(UW offers Classical Greek.)

(UW offers Sanskrit.)

Italian and other Romance Languages

(UW offers Latin.)

LING 415/GERMAN 452 History of the German Language (5) VLPA Traces the history of the German language from early Germanic to the present. Recommended: LING 200 and GERMAN 203. Offered: jointly with LING 415.

JAPAN 405 History of the Japanese Language (5) VLPA Introduction to the history of the Japanese language, including phonology, morphology, syntax, and the writing system. Prerequisite: JAPAN 313. Recommended: JAPAN 440, JAPAN 471.

JAPAN 471 Introduction to Classical Japanese (5) VLPA Introduction to classical Japanese writing system, grammar, and vocabulary. Prerequisite: minimum grade of 2.5 in either JAPAN 313 or JAPAN 334; may not be repeated. Offered: A.

SPLING/SPAN 403 The Evolution of the Spanish Language (5) VLPA Historical survey of Spanish phonology, morphology, and syntax, from Latin origins to the modern language. Prerequisites: either SPAN 301 or SPAN 314; either ANTH 203, LING 200, LING 201, LING 203, LING 400, or SPAN 323. Offered: jointly with SPAN 403. (UW also offers Latin.)

History of Linguistics

LING 402 Survey of the History of Linguistics (3) VLPA/I&S Main trends in linguistic theory and philosophy of linguistics from ancient times through advent of transformational-generative grammar. Includes nineteenth-century comparative and historical grammar, Prague school grammar, American structuralist grammar, major concerns of linguistics today. Prerequisite: LING 451.

Language Contact

LING 430/ANTH 439 Pidgin and Creole Languages (5) VLPA/I&S Explores aspects of the linguistic structure, history, and social context of pidgin and creole languages. Creolization as one possible outcome of language contact. Examines theories of creole genesis, similarities and differences between creole and non-creole languages. Prerequisite: either ANTH 203, LING 200, LING 201, LING 203, or LING 400. Offered: jointly with ANTH 439.

Language Policy

ENGL 478 Language and Social Policy (5) I&S/VLPA Examines the relationship between language policy and social organization; the impact of language policy on immigration, education, and access to resources and political institutions; language policy and revolutionary change; language rights.

ENGL 479 Language Variation and Language Policy in North America (5) I&S/VLPA Surveys basic issues of language variation: phonological, syntactic, semantic, and narrative/discourse differences among speech communities of North American English; examines how language policy can affect access to education, the labor force, and political institutions.

Language Variation

LING/ANTH 432 Sociolinguistics I (5) I&S/VLPA Social variation in the phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon of languages and dialects. Nonstandard language, diglossia, pidgins and creoles, gender differences, bi- and multilingualism, ethnography of speaking, pragmatics, and language attitudes. Prerequisite: either LING 200 or LING 400; recommended: prior or concurrent registration in LING 450. Offered: jointly with ANTH 432.

LING/ANTH 433 Sociolinguistics II (5) I&S/VLPA Examines field methods linguists use in socially oriented studies of language variation and change. Includes language attitudes, study of urban dialects, syntactic variation, sampling and interview design. Discussion of issues related to recording, ethics, and analysis of large bodies of data. Prerequisite: LING 432. Offered: jointly with ANTH 433.

Language-Specific Variation

ENGL 372 World Englishes (5) VLPA Examines emerging World/New Englishes, and variants of English employed as a second language in former colonies of the United Kingdom and United States. Explores issues of standardization and the standard in a global perspective. Prerequisite: ENGL 370, LING 200, or LING 400.

Topics in Japanese Sociolinguistics (5) I&S/VLPA Methodology and theory of sociolinguistic analysis. Reading of research literature and training in analysis of Japanese language data. Prerequisites: JAPAN 312; either JAPAN 343 or JAPAN 440, either of which may be taken concurrently.

General Morphology

LING 481 Introduction to Morphology (5) VLPA Structure of words and the processes by which they are formed. Morphological processes in a wide variety of languages.

Prerequisites: LING 451.

Language-Specific Morphology

HINDI 404 Derivational Morphology of Hindi/Urdu (3) VLPA Shapiro A systematic introduction to the derivational morphology of Hindi/Urdu. Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, and English elements in Hindi/Urdu. Treatment of derivational prefixes and suffixes, stem alternations, and methods of compound formation. Prerequisite: HINDI 323.

Philosophical Aspects of Linguistics

PHIL 464 Philosophical Issues in the Cognitive Sciences (5) I&S/NW Philosophical problems connected with research in psychology, artificial intelligence, and other cognitive sciences. Topics vary. Readings from both philosophical and scientific literature. Accessible to nonphilosophers with suitable interests and backgrounds.

General Phonetics

LING 450 Introduction to Linguistic Phonetics (5) VLPA/NW Introduction to the articulatory and acoustic correlates of phonological features. Issues covered include the mapping of dynamic events to static representations, phonetic evidence for phonological description, universal constraints on phonological structure, and implications of psychological speech-sound categorization for phonological theory. Prerequisite: either LING 200 or 400.

LING 453 Experimental Phonetics (5) I&S/NW/VLPA Examines phonetic and phonological aspects of spoken language using experimental methods. Focuses on acoustic phonetics and speech perception. Significant time devoted to experimental design and hands-on data analysis techniques. Prerequisite: LING 451.

SPHSC 302 Phonetics (3) VLPA Introduction to the description and classification of speech sounds with a focus on American English. Phonetic analysis of segmental and suprasegmental properties of speech. Practice using the International Phonetic Alphabet to transcribe normal and disordered speech patterns. Prerequisite: either SPHSC 303, LING 200, or LING 400. Offered: W.

Articulatory Phonetics

SPHSC 320 Anatomy and Physiology of Speech (5) NW Anatomy and physiology of the speech and swallowing mechanism, including the respiratory, phonatory, and resonatory systems and the neural control. Examples and laboratory work are directed toward clinical issues in speech-language pathology.

Offered: Sp.

Acoustic Phonetics

SPHSC 261 The Nature of Sound (4) NW Fundamental principles of sound and vibration with emphasis on examples relevant to the speech and hearing systems. Recommended: MATH 120; PHYS 114. Offered: W,S.

PHYS 116 General Physics (4) NW, QSR Basic principles of physics presented without use of calculus. Suitable for students majoring in technically oriented fields other than engineering or the physical sciences. Sound, light, and modern physics. Credit is not given for both PHYS 116 and PHYS 123. Prerequisite: PHYS 115 or PHYS 122. Recommended: concurrent registration in PHYS 119. Offered: AWSpS.

Auditory Phonetics

SPHSC 461 Introduction to Hearing Science (5) NW Basic aspects of hearing and the ear and auditory nervous system. How the auditory system constructs an image of the acoustic environment. How attention and memory influence hearing. Effects of damage to the auditory system. Prerequisite: either SPHSC 261 or PSYCH 333. Offered: Sp.

SPHSC 462 Hearing Development (3) NW Description of the changes that occur in human hearing during development. Consideration of the possible explanations for early immaturity. Prerequisite: SPHSC 461. Offered: A, even years.

General Phonology

LING 451, 452 Phonology I, II (5, 5) VLPA/I&S Hargus, Kaisse Speech sounds, mechanism of their production, and structuring of sounds in languages; generative view of phonology; autosegmental and metrical phonology. LING 451 Prerequisite: LING 450. LING 452 Prerequisite: LING 451.

Language-Specific Phonology

LING 446 English Phonology(3) VLPA Hargus Descriptively oriented approach to of English phonology and phonetics; dialect differences. Prerequisite: LING 450.

SPHSC 308 Social-Cultural Aspects of Communication (3) I&S Introduction to human communication in context. Exploration of ways communication is influenced by context, including situational, social/interpersonal, and cultural variables. Studies systems and cultural practices as they influence communication. Offered: WS.

Psycholinguistics

General psycholinguistics.

LING/PSYCH 447 Psychology of Language (4) VLPA/I&S Osterhout Introduction to the study of language, including language structure, speech perception, language acquisition, psychological processes underlying comprehension and production of language, the relation between brain and language, and the question of the species-specificity of human language. Prerequisite: 2.0 in either PSYCH 209 or either LING 200 or LING 201. Offered: jointly with PSYCH 447.

SPHSC 425 Speech, Language, Hearing, and the Brain (4) NW Addresses the neural bases of topics in speech, language, and hearing with an emphasis on the normal aspects of central nervous system anatomy, physiology, and function. Gives attention to issues relevant to understanding disordered systems and to points of contemporary debate among neuroscientists. Offered: W.

Check the Psychology listings in the Course Catalog for other relevant courses. Prerequisites may apply, and some PSYCH courses are normally open only to PSYCH majors; contact PSYCH advising for information. Of particular interest:

• PSYCH 355 Cognitive Psychology (5) I&S
• PSYCH 460 Cognitive Neuroscience (4) NW

Language Acquisition

JAPAN 441 The Acquisition of Japanese as a Second or Foreign Language (5) Ohta Focuses on how Japanese is acquired or learned by non-native speakers in North America and Japan. Includes study of how Japanese is learned in both naturalistic settings such as study abroad and in foreign language classrooms. Prerequisite: either JAPAN 312, which may be taken concurrently, or JAPAN 334.

LING 449 Second-Language Learning (5) VLPA Herschensohn Issues related to the linguistic aspects of second-language learning. Prerequisite: either LING 200, LING 201, ANTH/LING 203, or LING 400.

PSYCH 414 Cognitive Development (5) I&S Key theoretical and research approaches to cognitive development from infancy through adolescence. Sensorimotor development, language development, imitation, number concepts, logical reasoning, memory, cognition in adolescents, intelligence, and the role of biology, environment, and experience. Prerequisite: Prerequisite: either 2.0 in PSYCH 306, or 2.0 in both PSYCH 206 and PSYCH 209.

SPHSC 304 Developmental Aspects of Communication (5) I&S Patterns of communicative development in English speaking children and adolescents. Introduction to the study of language and communication from a developmental perspective. Application to children with various types of communication impairments. Prerequisites: either SPHSC 303, ANTH 203, LING 200, or LING 400. Offered: Sp.

COM 480 Communication in Adolescent Environments (5) VLPA/I&S Study of the communication process in youth environments with a primary focus on formal and informal learning. Includes critical analysis of communication in contemporary instructional settings and the development of communication strategies for teaching and learning. Also of related interest to those studying language acquisition:

• PSYCH 306 Developmental Psychology (5) I&S

Language Processing

LING 441 Language Processing and Development 1 (5) I&S/NW A. OMAKI This course explores current research on language processing and development in adult native speakers and children, with a focus on sound and world-level representations. Topics include speech perception, word recognition, acquisition of phonology and word meanings, as well as a variety of methodologies that are used to study these mechanisms. Prerequisite: LING 200 or LING 400. Offered: A.

LING 442 Language Processing and Development 2 (5) I&S Overview of research on language processing and development in adult native speakers and children, with a focus on the sentence-level representations. Topics include processing of syntactic/semantic representations, development of morpho-syntax, semantics and pragmatics, as well as variety of methodologies for studying these mechanisms.  

SPHSC 445 Models of Speech Processing (3) NW Examines models and basic issues concerning how spoken language is processed. Presents current issues, theories, and research relative to the levels of processing entailed in producing and comprehending speech. Prerequisites: SPHSC 302, 303, 320, and 425. Offered: SpS.

LING 442 Semantics I (5) VLPA/NW Ogihara Introduction to the study of meaning as part of linguistic theory. Relation of semantics to syntax. Emphasis on formal semantics and pragmatics. Discussion of various semantic phenomena in natural language that are theoretically relevant. Prerequisite: LING 461.

LING/PHIL 479 Semantics II (3) VLPA/I&S/NW Ogihara Formal characterization of linguistic meaning. Emphasis on nature and purpose of formal semantics and on its relation to formal syntax. Prerequisite: LING 442. Offered: jointly with PHIL 479.

PHIL 120 Introduction to Logic (5) I&S/NW, QSR Elementary symbolic logic. The development, application, and theoretical properties of an artificial symbolic language designed to provide a clear representation of the logical structure of deductive arguments. Offered: AWSpS.

LING 476 Philosophy of Language (5) VLPA/I&S Current theories of meaning, reference, predication, and related concepts. Recommended: PHIL 120. Offered: jointly with PHIL 453.

Also of related interest to those studying semantics (or pragmatics):

• PHIL 363 Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind (5) I&S
• PHIL 463 Philosophy of Mind (5) I&S
• PHIL 470 Intermediate Logic (5) I&S/NW, QSR
• PHIL 471 Advanced Logic (5) I&S/NW
• PHIL 472 Axiomatic Set Theory (5) I&S/NW
• PHIL 474 Modal Logic (5) I&S/NW

Speech Disorders

SPHSC 250 Human Communication and Its Disorders (5) I&S/NW Overview of normal and impaired human communication, including speech, language, and hearing disorders. Offered: WS.

SPHSC 305 Speech and Language Disorders (5) NW Etiology and nature of developmental and acquired communication disorders across the lifespan. Behavioral characteristics of language delay and disorders, developmental apraxia of speech, phonological disorders, stuttering, acquired aphasia, apraxia of speech and dysarthria, craniofacial anomalies, and voice disorders. Prerequisite: SPHSC 302; SPHSC 304; SPHSC 320. Offered: A.

SPHSC 405 Diagnosis of Speech and Language Disorders (3) NW Principles and procedures for the diagnosis of speech and language disorders. Prerequisite: SPHSC 305. Offered: W.

SPHSC 406 Treatment of Speech and Language Disorders (4) NW Principles and procedures for planning, implementing, and evaluating treatment for speech and language disorders. Prerequisite: SPHSC 405. Offered: SpS.

General Syntax

LING 461, 462 Syntax I, II (5, 5) VLPA/I&S Zagona, Citko, Aldridge Study of the structural properties of language; introduction to generative transformational syntax. LING 461 Prerequisite: either LING 200 or LING 400. LING 462 Prerequisite: either LING 461.

Language-Specific Syntax

CHIN 443 Structure of Chinese (5) VLPA Outline of the major grammatical structures of Chinese. Focus on learning and teaching problems. Prerequisite: CHIN 413.

ENGL 371 English Syntax (5) VLPA Description of sentence, phrase, and word structures in present-day English. Prerequisite: ENGL 370, LING 200 or LING 400.

Visual Languages

American sign language.

ASL 305 Deaf Studies (3) I&S Introduces the language, culture, and community of Deaf people. Covers topics in Deaf history, education, sociology, language, legal issues, art and literature, organizations and services for the Deaf, technological devices, and the nature of Deafhood. Analyzes issues such as methods of Deaf education, biomedical ethics, and the social movements in Deaf community.

LING 403 Structure of American Sign Language (5) VLPA Introduction to the phonological, morphological, and syntactic structure of American Sign Language. Topics include acquisition, sociolinguisitics, neurolinguisitics, lexicography, history, and culture. Knowledge of American Sign Language is not required. Prerequisite: LING 200, 201, 203, or 400.

Of possible interest to students of a visual language is:

COM 376 Nonverbal Communication (5) VLPA/I&S Reviews the nature of nonverbal communication as part of the human message system. Discusses research on the types of cues that are part of the nonverbal system, reviews some communicative functions allowed by nonverbal cues (e.g., emotional expressions, relational messages, deception, coordination, or interaction), and ties nonverbal communication to language.

In addition, UW offers: SPHSC 481 Management of Hearing Loss (4) NW Introduction to methods of communicative rehabilitation of person with hearing loss. Remediation principles of auditory and visual perception, amplification, communication strategies, and information counseling. Prerequisite: SPHSC 471; may not be repeated. Offered: WSp.

Writing Systems

Language family-specific writing systems.

ASIAN 404 Writing Systems (3) VLPA Origin, nature, and development of writing systems. Alphabets, syllabaries, and logographic systems; relation of writing systems to spoken languages; decipherment of previously undeciphered scripts.

Other Courses with Linguistic Content or Content Related to Linguistics

LING 480 Topics in Linguistics (3, max. 12) VLPA Introduction to an area of linguistic study not covered by the regular departmental course offerings.

LING/COM 470 Discourse: Analyzing Talk and Texts (5) I&S/VLPA A critical and practical introduction to contemporary theories/methods in discourse analysis: how verbal communication (together with visual communication) is used in conversational talk and mediztized texts to construct identities and relationships; and how power and ideology are reproduced through these everyday social interactions. Offered: jointly with COM 470.

SLAV 210 Introduction to Bilingualism (5) VLPA/I&S Provides a multidisciplinary examination of bilingualism as a societal and individual phenomenon. Considers language versus dialect, diglossia, state language policies, language rights, indigenous languages, and linguistic minorities. Explores bilingualism and biculturalism as human experience and as indexes of identity. Includes a fieldwork project focused on linguistic diversity in the Pacific Northwest. Offered: W.

Language Family-Specific

ASIAN 405 Advanced Problems in Asian Linguistics (3) VLPA Advanced problems in the analysis of the languages of east, southeast, south, and central Asia. Includes phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicography, historical reconstruction, linguistic typology, and comparative grammar. Prerequisite: ASIAN 401.

ASIAN 498 Special Topics (1-5, max. 15) VLPA Offered occasionally by permanent or visiting faculty members. Topics vary, but may include topics of linguistic interest. Offered: AWSp.

SLAV 470 Special Topics in Slavic Linguistics (3-5, max. 15) VLPA Special topics in Slavic linguistics. Course offerings based on instructor's specialty and student demand.

Language-Specific

ARAB 457 Arabic Grammatical Texts (3) VLPA Introduction to concepts and terminology of Arabic grammar and lexicography through readings from scholars such as Sibawayh, Ibn Aqil, and Ibn Manzur. Prerequisites: ARAB 423.

CHIN 342 The Chinese Language (5) VLPA Nature and structure of the Chinese language, covering structural characteristics, genetic and typological affiliation, standard Mandarin and Chinese dialects, Chinese writing system, history of the Chinese language, and cultural aspects. Prerequisite: either CHIN 103, CHIN 113, or CHIN 134; recommended: either CHIN 201, CHIN 211, or CHIN 234.

GERMAN 496 History of Germanic Philology (5) VLPA Introduction to the works of outstanding scholars in the field of Germanics.

GERMAN 498 Studies in the German Language (1-6, max. 15)

JAPAN 342 The Japanese Language (5) VLPA Survey of the nature and structure of the Japanese language, covering genetic and typological affiliations, writing systems, lexicon, and features of Japanese sentence structures. Prerequisite: either JAPAN 311 or JAPAN 334, which may be taken concurrently.

JAPAN 343 Japanese Language in Society (5) VLPA/I&S Survey of issues in Japanese language use. Areas covered include dialectical variation, language attitudes, gender differences, and pragmatics. Prerequisite: either JAPAN 311 or JAPAN 334, which may be taken concurrently.

Latin & Greek

CLAS 101 Latin and Greek in Current Use (2) VLPA Designed to improve and increase English vocabulary through a study of the Latin and Greek elements in English, with emphasis on words in current literary and scientific use. No auditors. Knowledge of Latin or Greek is not required. Credit/no credit only. Offered: AWSpS.

RUSS 451 Structure of Russian (5) VLPA Descriptive analysis of contemporary standard Russian. Detailed phonetic transcription, discussion of major Great Russian dialects as well as variations in popular speech, examination of common roots and productive derivational elements in Russian words, and elementary principles of syntax. Prerequisites: either RUSS 303 or RUSS 350; LING 200. Offered: W.

SPLING/SPAN 404 Dialects of World Spanish (5) Introduction to dialectical variants of Spanish. Considers standardization and the real academia; variation and change; pragmatics and politeness; Spanish in contact; sound, word formation, and grammar variation. Taught in Spanish. Prerequisites: either SPAN 301 or SPAN 314; either SPAN 323, LING 200, or LING 400. Offered: jointly with SPAN 404.

SPLING/SPAN 406 Advanced Spanish Grammar (5) VLPA Problems of Spanish grammar. Differences from English grammar. Techniques for the effective teaching of Spanish. Prerequisites: either SPAN 303, SPAN 316 or 330; SPAN 323. Offered: jointly with SPAN 406.

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Linguistics Dissertation Research Topics

Published by Carmen Troy at January 9th, 2023 , Revised On August 11, 2023

Introduction

It is crucial to select a topic to conduct a dissertation and have a proper analysis of the chosen topic. This study will highlight various aspects of linguistics. The relation between English pronunciation with linguistics has been identified throughout the study. Linguistics has a significant influence on English pronunciation and grammar, especially in evaluating the changes that occur after comprehending the science of language.

Linguistic and English pronunciation has been interlinked in many ways in the study. This topic is selected to understand the different dimensions of linguistics, and various issues have been identified. A proper explanation has been stated for linguistics that will develop the concept of the impact of English pronunciation and other related aspects of linguistics.

You may also be interested in dissertation topics on literature , English 101 , history , philosophy , and sociology .

2022 Linguistics Dissertation Research Topics

Topic 1: an assessment of the importance of vocabulary building for the students in order to succeed and give better results for the english language and the role of teachers within it..

Research Aim: This research study aims to investigate how certain practices followed by the teachers of English literature can lead to positive outcomes within students in terms of creativity and fluency of English language speaking. Therefore, another aim of this study is to explore the significance of vocabulary building for the peers to succeed and provide better results in terms of speaking the English language as well as the fundamental role played by teachers within it.

Topic 2: An examination of vocabulary Acquisition and the role of parents.

Research Aim: This study aims to examine the use of language at home and its impact on children’s linguistic abilities. It will also investigate the facts on how many homes with children in the UK do not have a single book. Furthermore, this study will present different insights and recommendations for improving the vocabulary and language abilities of children.

Topic 3: A comparative study between Dialectic tone and changing languages.

Research Aim: This study will examine the field of applied linguistics with the incorporation of stereotypes. A comparative study will be conducted between dialectic tone and changing languages, and results will be obtained from these two groups. This study will collect data from the previous literature and make extensive use of it on the subject of regional accents.

Topic 4: Assessing the nature of political oppression and its influence on the language used in media.

Research Aim: Recognition of the essential link between language and politics may be established back to historical Greek and Roman rhetorical treatises. Because of the critical significance that political language played in state affairs. This study aims to find the influence of political oppression on the language used in media. It will also focus on the history of PDA and some socio-political issues that occurred due to oppression and aggressive language.

Topic 5: Significance of eye tracking technology for improvements in the applied linguistics department- A review of the literature.

Research Aim: Eye-tracking has grown into an effective tool in scientific study, making its way into fields such as the applied linguistics department, opening the doors for new discoveries and situations. This study will focus on the significance of eye tracking technology for improvements in the applied linguistics department and how it has filled the gaps to help encourage the development of innovative methodologies. We will review previous literature for this research to get a better understanding of eye tracking technology and its significance.

Linguistic Research Topics

Topic 1: linguistics: a tool to help in understanding the pronunciation development.

Research Aim: The paper aims to research linguistics as a tool that will help understand the importance of pronunciation development. Linguistics has been very useful in developing pronunciation that has benefitted the power of vocabulary. Therefore, this research wants to understand pronunciation development amongst the children of Australia through linguistics.

Topic 2: Comprehending the science of language through linguistics

Research Aim: The paper has the aim of researching and understanding the science of language through linguistics. Linguistics is considered to be the science of the English language. Linguistics are scientists that apply scientific techniques to comprehend the function and kind of language. Therefore, this research will only focus on understanding linguistics, the science of language, and the scientific methods to determine its functions and nature.

Topic 3: Linguistics and phenomenology: Inseparable parts in language

Research Aim: The research aims to understand the inter-relation between linguistics and phenomenology. Linguists consider linguistics and phenomenology inseparable because phenomenology is the study of the structure that enhances language related to linguistics. Therefore, the research will be focusing on the relationship that links phenomenology together.

Topic 4: Study of phonetics as a part of linguistics

Research Aim: The paper aims to research the study of phonetics being a crucial part of linguistic. Phonetics is the study of sound, which helps in understanding language. Phonetics is also an integral part of linguistics that helps understand the language and the different ways of pronouncing it. Therefore, the main focus will be studying phonetics to be an integral part of language and linguistics.

Topic 5: Linguistics: In shaping the future direction of grammar

Research Aim: The aim is to excavate the importance of linguistics in shaping the future direction of grammar. Grammar is an essential part that helps enhance both writing and vocabulary skills; hence, linguistics helps build the concept of grammar and its correct use. So, the study will focus on the importance of pf linguistics in developing grammar.

Topic 6: Understanding dialects through linguistics

Research Aim: The focus of the paper will be given on understanding dialects of linguistic. Dialects are the diversity of language used by different speakers, and linguistics helps in understanding the dialects of various regions and areas. Comprehending dialects will help improve the language, and the local language speakers of Australia enhance the western language. Hence, the aim is to understand different dialects through linguistics.

Topic 7: Linguistics: English pronunciation has impacted age groups

Research Aim: The primary purpose is to determine the impacts that the English language has on different age groups of Australia. The English language affects other age groups of Australia, and the aged population faces difficulty in comprehending and speaking the English language compared to the young population. Hence, the paper’s main focus will be given on the impacts that are cast on different age groups in Australia because of the English language.

Topic 8: Linguistics helping aged people to understand English pronunciation

Research Aim: The research paper aims to study how linguistics helps the aged people of Australia to understand English pronunciation. The aged people of Australia face difficulty communicating because of their poor English accent, which can be mitigated through linguistics. So, the study will be focused on linguistics that helps the aged people of Australia to understand English pronunciation.

Topic 9: Linguistics: A medium of understanding the theoretical goals

Research Aim: The purpose of the study is to understand linguistics being the medium of comprehending the theoretical goals. Theoretical goals mean what theory is implied in the text. Linguistics helps in understanding the theory relevant to the text and its aim. Therefore, the aim is to define and understand linguistics being the medium of comprehending the theoretical goals.

Topic 10: Understanding human speech through linguistics

Research Aim: The purpose of the paper is to comprehend human speech through linguistics. Human speech is beneficial for defining and understanding different speeches of a human through linguistic.

Topic 11: Linguistics: A medium of understanding literary context

Research Aim: The aim is to explain linguistics being the medium of comprehending the literary context. Linguistic helps in understanding the literary context studied by the students of Australia to grasp the meaning of the language.

Topic 12: Understanding the importance of phenomenology through linguistics

Research Aim: The study will focus on the importance of phenomenology through the perspective of linguistics. Understanding the structure of language is very important to enhance language, which is only possible through linguistics.

Topic 13: English Literature and linguistics

Research Aim: The focus of the study is on English literature and linguistics. English literature and linguistics help in understanding how much language is structured through linguistics.

Topic 14: Setting the standard of language pronunciation through linguistics.

Research Aim: The research paper will emphasize determining the standard of language pronunciation through linguistics. The importance and standard of the English language and its pronunciation are possible through linguistics.

Topic 15: Linguistics developing sense about the English language

Research Aim: The research paper describes linguistics helping in growing the idea and sense of the English language. Linguistics is very helpful in understanding the concept of the English language.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How to find linguistic dissertation topics.

To find linguistic dissertation topics:

• Examine language areas of interest.
• Research recent linguistic debates.
• Explore language acquisition, variation, or change.
• Analyze cultural or societal impacts on language.
• Consult experts, journals, and conferences.
• Select a topic aligning with your passion and research goals.

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While pursuing the MA in Linguistics online, you’ll be able to personalize your degree by selecting a specialization. That way, you can focus your studies on the topics that align with your interests and goals. Whether you are looking to advance your career or explore new job opportunities in the field of linguistics, our online master’s degree in linguistics can provide the training and credentials you need to lead with excellence and integrity.

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How Much Research Is Being Written by Large Language Models?

New studies show a marked spike in LLM usage in academia, especially in computer science. What does this mean for researchers and reviewers?

In March of this year, a  tweet about an academic paper went viral for all the wrong reasons. The introduction section of the paper, published in  Elsevier’s  Surfaces and Interfaces , began with this line:  Certainly, here is a possible introduction for your topic. 

Look familiar? 

It should, if you are a user of ChatGPT and have applied its talents for the purpose of content generation. LLMs are being increasingly used to assist with writing tasks, but examples like this in academia are largely anecdotal and had not been quantified before now. 

“While this is an egregious example,” says  James Zou , associate professor of biomedical data science and, by courtesy, of computer science and of electrical engineering at Stanford, “in many cases, it’s less obvious, and that’s why we need to develop more granular and robust statistical methods to estimate the frequency and magnitude of LLM usage. At this particular moment, people want to know what content around us is written by AI. This is especially important in the context of research, for the papers we author and read and the reviews we get on our papers. That’s why we wanted to study how much of those have been written with the help of AI.”

In two papers looking at LLM use in scientific publishings, Zou and his team* found that 17.5% of computer science papers and 16.9% of peer review text had at least some content drafted by AI. The paper on LLM usage in peer reviews will be presented at the International Conference on Machine Learning.

Read  Mapping the Increasing Use of LLMs in Scientific Papers and  Monitoring AI-Modified Content at Scale: A Case Study on the Impact of ChatGPT on AI Conference Peer Reviews  

Here Zou discusses the findings and implications of this work, which was supported through a Stanford HAI Hoffman Yee Research Grant . 

How did you determine whether AI wrote sections of a paper or a review?

We first saw that there are these specific worlds – like commendable, innovative, meticulous, pivotal, intricate, realm, and showcasing – whose frequency in reviews sharply spiked, coinciding with the release of ChatGPT. Additionally, we know that these words are much more likely to be used by LLMs than by humans. The reason we know this is that we actually did an experiment where we took many papers, used LLMs to write reviews of them, and compared those reviews to reviews written by human reviewers on the same papers. Then we quantified which words are more likely to be used by LLMs vs. humans, and those are exactly the words listed. The fact that they are more likely to be used by an LLM and that they have also seen a sharp spike coinciding with the release of LLMs is strong evidence.

Some journals permit the use of LLMs in academic writing, as long as it’s noted, while others, including  Science and the ICML conference, prohibit it. How are the ethics perceived in academia?

This is an important and timely topic because the policies of various journals are changing very quickly. For example,  Science said in the beginning that they would not allow authors to use language models in their submissions, but they later changed their policy and said that people could use language models, but authors have to explicitly note where the language model is being used. All the journals are struggling with how to define this and what’s the right way going forward.

You observed an increase in usage of LLMs in academic writing, particularly in computer science papers (up to 17.5%). Math and  Nature family papers, meanwhile, used AI text about 6.3% of the time. What do you think accounts for the discrepancy between these disciplines? 

Artificial intelligence and computer science disciplines have seen an explosion in the number of papers submitted to conferences like ICLR and NeurIPS. And I think that’s really caused a strong burden, in many ways, to reviewers and to authors. So now it’s increasingly difficult to find qualified reviewers who have time to review all these papers. And some authors may feel more competition that they need to keep up and keep writing more and faster. 

You analyzed close to a million papers on arXiv, bioRxiv, and  Nature from January 2020 to February 2024. Do any of these journals include humanities papers or anything in the social sciences?  

We mostly wanted to focus more on CS and engineering and biomedical areas and interdisciplinary areas, like  Nature family journals, which also publish some social science papers. Availability mattered in this case. So, it’s relatively easy for us to get data from arXiv, bioRxiv, and  Nature . A lot of AI conferences also make reviews publicly available. That’s not the case for humanities journals.

Did any results surprise you?

A few months after ChatGPT’s launch, we started to see a rapid, linear increase in the usage pattern in academic writing. This tells us how quickly these LLM technologies diffuse into the community and become adopted by researchers. The most surprising finding is the magnitude and speed of the increase in language model usage. Nearly a fifth of papers and peer review text use LLM modification. We also found that peer reviews submitted closer to the deadline and those less likely to engage with author rebuttal were more likely to use LLMs. 

This suggests a couple of things. Perhaps some of these reviewers are not as engaged with reviewing these papers, and that’s why they are offloading some of the work to AI to help. This could be problematic if reviewers are not fully involved. As one of the pillars of the scientific process, it is still necessary to have human experts providing objective and rigorous evaluations. If this is being diluted, that’s not great for the scientific community.

What do your findings mean for the broader research community?

LLMs are transforming how we do research. It’s clear from our work that many papers we read are written with the help of LLMs. There needs to be more transparency, and people should state explicitly how LLMs are used and if they are used substantially. I don’t think it’s always a bad thing for people to use LLMs. In many areas, this can be very useful. For someone who is not a native English speaker, having the model polish their writing can be helpful. There are constructive ways for people to use LLMs in the research process; for example, in earlier stages of their draft. You could get useful feedback from a LLM in real time instead of waiting weeks or months to get external feedback. 

But I think it’s still very important for the human researchers to be accountable for everything that is submitted and presented. They should be able to say, “Yes, I will stand behind the statements that are written in this paper.”

*Collaborators include:  Weixin Liang ,  Yaohui Zhang ,  Zhengxuan Wu ,  Haley Lepp ,  Wenlong Ji ,  Xuandong Zhao ,  Hancheng Cao ,  Sheng Liu ,  Siyu He ,  Zhi Huang ,  Diyi Yang ,  Christopher Potts ,  Christopher D. Manning ,  Zachary Izzo ,  Yaohui Zhang ,  Lingjiao Chen ,  Haotian Ye , and Daniel A. McFarland .

Stanford HAI’s mission is to advance AI research, education, policy and practice to improve the human condition.  Learn more . 

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The Wonders of American Sign Language (ASL)

Name: Rio Mashimo   Advisor: TA Kanupriya Kale, Prof. Natalie Grothues Class: LING 1000: Language in US Society Semester: Fall 2023 LURA 2024

https://youtu.be/HQ1QwmAQ3Fg?si=OjyYfemLSNuc09jj

In any community, language is the most important method for communicating with others. However, for a deaf person like me, it is difficult to connect with many people and speak in the same ways. This is where American Sign Language (ASL) can help to communicate with others inside and outside of the Deaf community. In this blog, I want to share what I have learned using American Sign Language (ASL), which is used differently in different places, showing how diverse the community is.

American Sign Language isn't the same everywhere and is one of 300 sign languages globally; each sign language owns its own rules. ASL is out of the common from English. It's visual, not written. When using ASL, facial movements aren't just expressions—they show grammar. For example, eyebrow position reveal grammar, while mouth movements give details. Eye gaze and head movements have definitions. Fingerspelling in ASL spells words, not single letters.

ASL is not one large entity, but a group of regional dialects and cultural influences. When I learned some of the ASL, I found out it’s not the same everywhere. During a summer program for hearing loss, I had a chance to meet my peers from Boston. I noticed that we used our American Sign Language (ASL) differently during our interactions. My sign language style is to give details in a slow and relaxed manner, reflective of the West Coast, whereas my friend from Boston has a more dynamic energy, faster movements, and more clear facial expressions, that are more usual on the East Coast. These opposite sign language techniques appealed not only to the linguistic differences in ASL, but also gave me perspective on the cultural influences that have built up our respective communication styles.

As we were discussing different ways of signing American Sign Language (ASL), a friend of mine from Boston noticed something interesting. “Your ASL is similar to Mexican Sign Language,” she observed, highlighting different approaches to American Sign Language (ASL). The idea made me think about why these connections exist. Growing up near Mexico influenced my ASL and I became aware of how signs shared by American Sign Language and Mexican Sign Language show how cultures have an effect on our communication, especially in the case of where we are from or how we express ourselves. Watching how languages develop and change over time has been really interesting and amazing. Also, my friend noticed that I sign differently between “travel”, “slow”, and “name” which are mostly the same as Mexican Sign Language but show how diverse sign languages are in different places. This highlights how complex and varied sign languages can be.

In conclusion, we can see that ASL has many different attractions and is used as an expression of recovery. American Sign language (ASL) may be different from region to region, but the principles are the same without the basic rules and the formations of the signs. Because sign language is a visual language, it is very important to communicate not only with the hands and body, but also with the facial expressions. Learning how people use American Sign Language (ASL) helps us to have a better understanding of the culture, developing our understanding of the unique characters and observations of Deaf people all over the world.

Title Image Credit 

Katelyn C. (2024). Black and white images of the Golden Gate Bridge on the left and Statue of Liberty on the right West sits next to the Golden Gate Bridge and East sits on the right of Statue of Liberty. https://www.startasl.com/sign-language-accents-or-styles/ . 

References 

• Deafies in Drag. (October 2022). Sign Language Accents. YouTube.  https://youtu.be/HQ1QwmAQ3Fg?si=qjiencmI3RacyCfq .

University of Colorado Boulder. (n.d.) Why study ASL and Deaf culture? Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. College of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved from  https://www.colorado.edu/slhs/asl-program/why-study-asl-and-deaf-culture .

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. (n.d.) American Sign Language.  https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/american-sign-language .

Rio Mashimo

I am a freshman majoring in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. I love coffee, reading the Agatha Christie books, and watching dramas in my free time.

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Researchers publish largest-ever dataset of neural connections

A cubic millimeter of brain tissue may not sound like much. But considering that that tiny square contains 57,000 cells, 230 millimeters of blood vessels, and 150 million synapses, all amounting to 1,400 terabytes of data, Harvard and Google researchers have just accomplished something stupendous.   

Led by Jeff Lichtman, the Jeremy R. Knowles Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and newly appointed dean of science , the Harvard team helped create the largest 3D brain reconstruction to date, showing in vivid detail each cell and its web of connections in a piece of temporal cortex about half the size of a rice grain.

Published in Science, the study is the latest development in a nearly 10-year collaboration with scientists at Google Research, combining Lichtman’s electron microscopy imaging with AI algorithms to color-code and reconstruct the extremely complex wiring of mammal brains. The paper’s three first co-authors are former Harvard postdoc Alexander Shapson-Coe, Michał Januszewski of Google Research, and Harvard postdoc Daniel Berger.

The ultimate goal, supported by the National Institutes of Health BRAIN Initiative , is to create a comprehensive, high-resolution map of a mouse’s neural wiring, which would entail about 1,000 times the amount of data the group just produced from the 1-cubic-millimeter fragment of human cortex.  

“The word ‘fragment’ is ironic,” Lichtman said. “A terabyte is, for most people, gigantic, yet a fragment of a human brain — just a minuscule, teeny-weeny little bit of human brain — is still thousands of terabytes.”  

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The latest map contains never-before-seen details of brain structure, including a rare but powerful set of axons connected by up to 50 synapses. The team also noted oddities in the tissue, such as a small number of axons that formed extensive whorls. Because the sample was taken from a patient with epilepsy, the researchers don’t know whether such formations are pathological or simply rare.

Lichtman’s field is connectomics, which seeks to create comprehensive catalogs of brain structure, down to individual cells. Such completed maps would unlock insights into brain function and disease, about which scientists still know very little.

Google’s state-of-the-art AI algorithms allow for reconstruction and mapping of brain tissue in three dimensions. The team has also developed a suite of publicly available tools researchers can use to examine and annotate the connectome.

“Given the enormous investment put into this project, it was important to present the results in a way that anybody else can now go and benefit from them,” said Google collaborator Viren Jain.

Next the team will tackle the mouse hippocampal formation, which is important to neuroscience for its role in memory and neurological disease.

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Four from MIT named 2024 Knight-Hennessy Scholars

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MIT senior Owen Dugan, graduate student Vittorio Colicci ’22, predoctoral research fellow Carine You ’22, and recent alumna Carina Letong Hong ’22 are recipients of this year’s Knight-Hennessy Scholarships. The competitive fellowship, now in its seventh year, funds up to three years of graduate studies in any field at Stanford University. To date, 22 MIT students and alumni have been awarded Knight-Hennessy Scholarships.

“We are excited for these students to continue their education at Stanford with the generous support of the Knight Hennessy Scholarship,” says Kim Benard, associate dean of distinguished fellowships in Career Advising and Professional Development. “They have all demonstrated extraordinary dedication, intellect, and leadership, and this opportunity will allow them to further hone their skills to make real-world change.”

Vittorio Colicci ’22

Vittorio Colicci, from Trumbull, Connecticut, graduated from MIT in May 2022 with a BS in aerospace engineering and physics. He will receive his master’s degree in planetary sciences this spring. At Stanford, Colicci will pursue a PhD in earth and planetary sciences at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. He hopes to investigate how surface processes on Earth and Mars have evolved through time alongside changes in habitability. Colicci has worked largely on spacecraft engineering projects, developing a monodisperse silica ceramic for electrospray thrusters and fabricating high-energy diffraction gratings for space telescopes. As a Presidential Graduate Fellow at MIT, he examined the influence of root geometry on soil cohesion for early terrestrial plants using 3D-printed reconstructions. Outside of research, Colicci served as co-director of TEDxMIT and propulsion lead for the MIT Rocket Team. He is also passionate about STEM engagement and outreach, having taught educational workshops in Zambia and India.

Owen Dugan, from Sleepy Hollow, New York, is a senior majoring in physics. As a Knight-Hennessy Scholar, he will pursue a PhD in computer science at the Stanford School of Engineering. Dugan aspires to combine artificial intelligence and physics, developing AI that enables breakthroughs in physics and using physics techniques to design more capable and safe AI systems. He has collaborated with researchers from Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and DeepMind, and has presented his first-author research at venues including the International Conference on Machine Learning, the MIT Mechanistic Interpretability Conference, and the American Physical Society March Meeting. Among other awards, Dugan is a Hertz Finalist, a U.S. Presidential Scholar, an MIT Outstanding Undergraduate Research Awardee, a Research Science Institute Scholar, and a Neo Scholar. He is also a co-founder of VeriLens, a funded startup enabling trust on the internet by cryptographically verifying digital media.

Carina Letong Hong ’22

Carina Letong Hong, from Canton, China, is currently pursuing a JD/PhD in mathematics at Stanford. A first-generation college student, Hong graduated from MIT in May 2022 with a double major in mathematics and physics and was inducted into Sigma Pi Sigma, the physics honor society. She then earned a neuroscience master’s degree with dissertation distinctions from the University of Oxford, where she conducted artificial intelligence and machine learning research at Sainsbury Wellcome Center’s Gatsby Unit. At Stanford Law School, Hong provides legal aid to low-income workers and uses economic analysis to push for law enforcement reform. She has published numerous papers in peer-reviewed journals, served as an expert referee for journals and conferences, and spoken at summits in the United States, Germany, France, the U.K., and China. She was the recipient of the AMS-MAA-SIAM Morgan Prize for Outstanding Research, the highest honor for an undergraduate in mathematics in North America; the AWM Alice T. Schafer Prize for Mathematical Excellence, given annually to an undergraduate woman in the United States; the Maryam Mirzakhani Fellowship; and a Rhodes Scholarship.

Carine You ’22

Carine You, from San Diego, California, graduated from MIT in May 2022 with bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and computer science and in mathematics. Since graduating, You has worked as a predoctoral research assistant with Professor Amy Finkelstein in the MIT Department of Economics, where she has studied the quality of Medicare nursing home care and the targeting of medical screening technologies. This fall, You will embark on a PhD in economic analysis and policy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She wishes to address pressing issues in environmental and health-care markets, with a particular focus on economic efficiency and equity. You previously developed audio signal processing algorithms at Bose, refined mechanistic models to inform respiratory monitoring at the MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics, and analyzed corruption in developmental projects in India at the World Bank. Through Middle East Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow, she taught computer science to Israeli and Palestinian students in Jerusalem and spearheaded an online pilot expansion for the organization. At MIT, she was named a Burchard Scholar.

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A Penn team’s push to make research more inclusive

Penn’s palliative and advanced illness research (pair) center is working to bring more underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds into their research, and to train ai models to be free from bias..

Research is a driving force of medical progress—but is it truly inclusive of the voices and experiences of those it seeks to help? 

The way research is conducted can often leave out important voices, like people from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds, those who speak languages other than English, or those with limited literacy. Rachel Kohn , an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care and core faculty in Penn’s Palliative and Advanced Illness Research (PAIR) Center , is looking to change that.

Health care research, while indispensable for advancing medical knowledge and improving patient outcomes, has long grappled with a glaring issue: the lack of diversity and inclusivity. “In health care, we aim to leave no one behind. But when certain demographics are excluded or marginalized in research, we're failing to uphold that promise," says Kohn. A study led by Kohn, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine , addresses the underrepresentation and disparities prevalent in research practices.

Working with a group of colleagues through Penn’s Joint Research Practices , Kohn developed a clear goal: to make academic research more inclusive, equitable, and accessible for everyone. What would follow was years of investigation to discuss findings and refine their focus. Subgroups were formed to delve into specific areas to ensure a well-rounded perspective. What Kohn and colleagues have now developed is a set of guidelines covering everything from how participants are paid to how research findings are communicated.

Kohn raises another concern in the field and its impact on diversity, equity, and inclusion in academic research: artificial intelligence, or AI.

AI models don’t begin full of information—they must be fed source material to interpret. What if they are continually fed data that is biased or misinformed?

“Research findings are more and more frequently being fed into AI models to serve as clinical decision support systems for patient care which can have far-reaching effects,” explains Kohn. But concerns are heightened at the possibility of biased data being fed into AI.

“That biased data could propagate into clinical decision support systems, research questions, trial eligibility, risk adjustment, or hospital and quality improvement assessment. One major concern about this process is that clinicians rarely know the source of the data and assume that they should take the decision support recommendation at face value without pausing to consider the algorithm inputs. ‘Algorithmic bias’ is a hugely burgeoning field trying to address this very issue,” explains Kohn.

This story is by Matt Toal. Read more at Penn Medicine News .

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