MA in Linguistics

15 cu course work plus thesis

Applications are invited from September to January 15 for September 1 program start. The application deadline is January 15. Applications submitted after the deadline will not be considered. 

The MA in Linguistics is an in-person program and does not offer remote options. Upon admission, each student is automatically considered for available funding, which may include scholarships, teaching fellowships, and bursaries. However, we do not guarantee funding for graduate students as the Department funding is limited.

Two concentrations, namely, Applied Linguistics and General Linguistics, are available in this 2-year thesis-based program. These two concentrations differ in their core course requirements.

The required courses for the Applied Linguistics Concentration include

  • Ling 803 Advanced discourse analysis,
  • Ling 818 Topics in Second language studies,
  • Ling 819 Bilingualism and Multilingualism,
  • Ling 820 Topics in Applied Linguistics, and
  • one elective course. 

The required courses for the General Linguistics Concentration include

  • Ling 804 Research Methods in Linguistics,
  • Ling 815 Topics in Language Structure,
  • Ling 816 Studies in the Grammar of Non-Indo-European Languages or Ling 817 Topics in Typology and Areal Linguistics, and
  • two elective courses.

Please do not apply to both concentrations. Change of research concentration may be requested and approved after admission.

Completion of 5 courses (over 2 years) related to different branches of Applied or General Linguistics as well as completion and defense of an MA thesis based on an original study are required. Graduate students pursue original research on national and minority languages and linguocultures of Saskatchewan and Canada, as well as the research on languages and language teaching throughout the world.

In particular, we are interested in research projects related to sociolinguistics, language contact, language maintenance in Canada and abroad, bilingualism/multilingualism, immigrant and heritage languages of Canada, Indigenous languages of the Americas, computational linguistics, morphology, syntax, phonetics, TESOL, second/ foreign/ native language acquisition, and other areas listed below. Students can also make inquiries about other possible areas of language-related studies.

Areas of research projects for an MA thesis may include:

  • Anthropological linguistics
  • Bilingualism/multilingualism
  • Core fields in linguistics: Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, and Semantics
  • Computational linguistics & corpus linguistics
  • Discourse analysis and pragmatics
  • Empirical & experimental linguistics
  • Immigrant, heritage, and minority language maintenance in Canada and abroad
  • Indigenous languages of the Americas
  • Language and culture interactions
  • Language contact
  • Language documentation and description
  • Second/additional/foreign/child language teaching, and language assessment
  • Sociolinguistics
  • Tense & aspect
  • Typological/areal linguistics
  • Languages: Doukhobor Russian, English, French, German, Inuktitut, Media Lengua, Michif, Russian, Shiwiar, Spanish, Swabian, Upper Tanana
  • Language families: Algonquian, Chicham, Dene, Inuit, Quechuan, Romance
Examples of recent topics chosen by students include:

Canadian bilingualism and family language policy among African Immigrants in Saskatchewan, COVID vocabulary in Russian and Canadian English, the stop system in Achí, Voice onset time in L2 Spanish (L1 Nahuatl), comparative analyses of 'unified' vs. 'community' language in Ecuadorian Quichua, historical research on gender-neutral pronouns in English, computational parsers and online verb conjugators for underdocumented languages, discourse markers in Portuguese, sexist discourse in presidential speeches, corpora analyses of Korean technical terms, intonation in Cuenca Spanish, extracurricular activities in university language classes, language attitudes of Ukrainian speakers in Saskatchewan, maintenance of Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Ukrainian and Farsi in the families of immigrants in Saskatchewan, Doukhobor Russian language and culture, language attitudes and ethnic identity of Iranian immigrants in Saskatchewan, politeness system in Farsi, non-verbal communication in aquatic environments, discourse analysis of texts describing depression, language requirements of international students in Saskatchewan, euphemisms in medical communication, and non-verbal communication tools in ESL classrooms.

See admission requirements and application instructions at http://grad.usask.ca/programs/linguistics.php.

Please note that research proposals containing plagiarism will be rejected. Applicants are encouraged to run their proposals through a plagiarism checker (e.g. https://www.turnitin.com/products/ithenticate) before submitting it.

MA TESOL

(Not Available)

The MA TESOL graduate program IS CURRENTLY NOT AVAILABLE and we will not be accepting applications. Students who wish to pursue research in the area of English as a Second or Additional Language are encouraged to consider the Applied Linguistics concentration in the MA Linguistics program.

Contact

Graduate Chair

Jesse Stewart

Application Administrative Support

Anna McKenzie

Graduate Administrative Assistant

Nadine Penner