Research degrees in Linguistics
About the PhD programme
The Department is one of the leading Linguistics research departments in the UK (top-ranked in recent REF assessment exercises, ). The Department's research encompasses both the structure of language and its use within speech communities and different social contexts.
We have a lively programme of seminars, reading groups, PhD training workshops, and invited guest lectures. Graduate students also receive advanced training in research methodology and specific areas of linguistics from the department's own research training workshops and from advanced core training in linguistics. The Department also works closely with other linguistics in the School, who have specific interests in French, German and Hispanic languages.
Students have access to the major academic libraries and resources in London, in addition to our own study facilities. The Department has a purpose-built suite of linguistics laboratories and recording studio. The laboratory is fully stocked with state-of-the-art recording and transcribing equipment, a comprehensive range of public corpora and software for analysing language and dedicated workstations for graduate students and research fellows.
Research areas
Our specific areas of interest are: syntax, semantics and morphology; prosody, tone and intonation; the structure of spoken language; psycholinguistics and experimental approaches; dialect syntax; and sociolinguistics including variationist, interactional and discourse-analytic approaches.
Current research projects include work on phi-theory, nominal and pronominal structure, definiteness, experimental morphosemantics, dialect retention and change, indexicality and speech perception, language and the media and urban youth language. Please see our web-page for more information about our Research Groups
The application process
The Linguistics Department attracts the very best PhD candidates, and competition for places and for funding is at the highest level. In order to determine whether our PhD Programme is the right fit for you, and what kind of supervision and financial awards might be appropriate for you, please visit our web-page advising on how to prepare your application and complete and submit our Applicant query form We will then contact you to advise on the best course of action. This stage must be completed before a formal application is submitted.
It is essential to contact a potential supervisor to discuss your proposed PhD project before you apply for admission. We normally do not accept students who have not yet secured agreement from a potential supervisor. Please see our web-page for information on our academic staff and their research areas of interest
PhD students normally begin their studies in September/October. There are no set deadlines for applying for a research degree, but we would recommend you apply no later than June. However, if you are applying for a funded place you will need to submit by the funding deadline - please see the further information section below for information about our funding awards and their deadlines. Full- and part-time study is available. Please select the entry point below for either full-time or part-time study to access the on-line PhD application system.
Contact
For more information please get in touch with the PhD Programme Administrator, at sta-pgr@qmul.ac.uk
Further information
Applicants are advised that, prior to making their application, they should view the information provided about the Dept of Linguistics PhD programme and its applications process, entry requirements and the application documentation required for entry on the Department of Linguistics, PhD web-page