Applicants to Master’s and Doctoral degrees are not affected by the recently announced cap on study permits. Review more details
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguists are interested in questions such as the following:
Linguistics is a highly interdisciplinary field which combines research methods from the humanities and the social, natural, and mathematical sciences.
Research in the Department covers a broad range of topics, with substantial coverage of syntax, semantics, morphology, phonetics, phonology, and pragmatics. We approach these topics from several different research traditions and backgrounds, with particular strengths in formal-theoretical linguistics, experimental and field linguistics, acquisition, and computational approaches to the study of communicative behaviour. These research areas intersect and overlap considerably, and faculty and students are often simultaneously involved in more than one area. This is part of the attention paid to interfaces between traditional subfields of linguistics and methodological traditions (e.g., laboratory phonology, gesture and speech and learning), one of the great strengths of the Department.
The Department also has a strong commitment to the study of Languages of the Americas, with particular focus on First Nations Languages of Canada, in the areas of documentation and theoretical research, something for which it is well known. Research is not restricted to Languages of the Americas, however; the department also has a long history of work on African languages and there is ongoing research on languages within the Indo-European, Japonic, Sino-Tibetan, and Uralic families as well as Korean.
Our linguists focus on data in all its forms – not just fieldwork, but also high-quality research in labs with cutting-edge resources and tools, such as those found and developed in the Communication Dynamics Lab, the Interdisciplinary Speech Research Lab, the Language and Learning Lab, the Speech In Context Lab, and the Phonological CorpusTools working group.
Students in the Department of Linguistics are given the opportunity to head out into the field and get their hands dirty. Many of the members of our department, from undergrads and grad students to post-docs and faculty members, work directly with language consultants to describe, analyze and revitalize the languages of the world.
Linguists in the department have active working relationships with scholars from many different disciplines and from across the UBC campus, across the country, and across the world.
Our students are actively engaged in research from the moment they enter the department, and they have an excellent track record of publishing and presenting their work at national and international conferences.
The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies establishes the minimum admission requirements common to all applicants, usually a minimum overall average in the B+ range (76% at UBC). The graduate program that you are applying to may have additional requirements. Please review the specific requirements for applicants with credentials from institutions in:
Each program may set higher academic minimum requirements. Please review the program website carefully to understand the program requirements. Meeting the minimum requirements does not guarantee admission as it is a competitive process.
Applicants from a university outside Canada in which English is not the primary language of instruction must provide results of an English language proficiency examination as part of their application. Tests must have been taken within the last 24 months at the time of submission of your application.
Minimum requirements for the two most common English language proficiency tests to apply to this program are listed below:
Overall score requirement: 90
Reading
22
Writing
21
Speaking
21
Listening
22
Overall score requirement: 6.5
Reading
6.0
Writing
6.0
Speaking
6.0
Listening
6.0
Some programs require additional test scores such as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or the Graduate Management Test (GMAT). The requirements for this program are:
The GRE is optional.
All applicants have to submit transcripts from all past post-secondary study. Document submission requirements depend on whether your institution of study is within Canada or outside of Canada.
A minimum of three references are required for application to graduate programs at UBC. References should be requested from individuals who are prepared to provide a report on your academic ability and qualifications.
Many programs require a statement of interest, sometimes called a "statement of intent", "description of research interests" or something similar.
Students in research-based programs usually require a faculty member to function as their thesis supervisor. Please follow the instructions provided by each program whether applicants should contact faculty members.
Permanent Residents of Canada must provide a clear photocopy of both sides of the Permanent Resident card.
All applicants must complete an online application form and pay the application fee to be considered for admission to UBC.
| Fees | Canadian Citizen / Permanent Resident / Refugee / Diplomat | International |
|---|---|---|
| Application Fee | $114.00 | $168.25 |
| Tuition * | ||
| Installments per year | 3 | 3 |
| Tuition per installment | $1,838.57 | $3,230.06 |
| Tuition per year (plus annual increase, usually 2%-5%) | $5,515.71 | $9,690.18 |
| Int. Tuition Award (ITA) per year (if eligible) | $3,200.00 (-) | |
| Other Fees and Costs | ||
| Student Fees (yearly) | $1,116.60 (approx.) | |
| Costs of living | Estimate your costs of living with our interactive tool in order to start developing a financial plan for your graduate studies. | |
Applicants to UBC have access to a variety of funding options, including merit-based (i.e. based on your academic performance) and need-based (i.e. based on your financial situation) opportunities.
The Department of Linguistics guarantees funding of $25,500 plus the cost of tuition per annum for the first two years of the MA program and the first five years of the Ph.D. program to all students accepted to our graduate programs.
Please note that as a condition for receiving this funding you will be expected to apply for any scholarships you are eligible for, either UBC-internally or from your home country.
Funding packages are made up of scholarships, research assistantships, and teaching assistantships depending on individual students, year of study, and the financial resources of the department.
All applicants are encouraged to review the awards listing to identify potential opportunities to fund their graduate education. The database lists merit-based scholarships and awards and allows for filtering by various criteria, such as domestic vs. international or degree level.
Many professors are able to provide Research Assistantships (GRA) from their research grants to support full-time graduate students studying under their supervision. The duties constitute part of the student's graduate degree requirements. A Graduate Research Assistantship is considered a form of fellowship for a period of graduate study and is therefore not covered by a collective agreement. Stipends vary widely, and are dependent on the field of study and the type of research grant from which the assistantship is being funded.
Graduate programs may have Teaching Assistantships available for registered full-time graduate students. Full teaching assistantships involve 12 hours work per week in preparation, lecturing, or laboratory instruction although many graduate programs offer partial TA appointments at less than 12 hours per week. Teaching assistantship rates are set by collective bargaining between the University and the Teaching Assistants' Union.
Academic Assistantships are employment opportunities to perform work that is relevant to the university or to an individual faculty member, but not to support the student’s graduate research and thesis. Wages are considered regular earnings and when paid monthly, include vacation pay.
Canadian and US applicants may qualify for governmental loans to finance their studies. Please review eligibility and types of loans.
All students may be able to access private sector or bank loans.
Many foreign governments provide support to their citizens in pursuing education abroad. International applicants should check the various governmental resources in their home country, such as the Department of Education, for available scholarships.
The possibility to pursue work to supplement income may depend on the demands the program has on students. It should be carefully weighed if work leads to prolonged program durations or whether work placements can be meaningfully embedded into a program.
International students enrolled as full-time students with a valid study permit can work on campus for unlimited hours and work off-campus for no more than 20 hours a week.
A good starting point to explore student jobs is the UBC Work Learn program or a Co-Op placement.
Students with taxable income in Canada may be able to claim federal or provincial tax credits.
Canadian residents with RRSP accounts may be able to use the Lifelong Learning Plan (LLP) which allows students to withdraw amounts from their registered retirement savings plan (RRSPs) to finance full-time training or education for themselves or their partner.
Please review Filing taxes in Canada on the student services website for more information.
Applicants have access to the cost estimator to develop a financial plan that takes into account various income sources and expenses.
31 students graduated between 2005 and 2013: 3 graduates are seeking employment; for 1 we have no data (based on research conducted between Feb-May 2016). For the remaining 27 graduates:
These statistics show data for the Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics (PhD). Data are separated for each degree program combination. You may view data for other degree options in the respective program profile.
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Applications | 53 | 66 | 84 | 61 | 92 |
| Offers | 3 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 3 |
| New Registrations | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 2 |
| Total Enrolment | 32 | 34 | 34 | 31 | 32 |
Students in research-based programs usually require a faculty member to function as their thesis supervisor. Please follow the instructions provided by each program whether applicants should contact faculty members.
These videos contain some general advice from faculty across UBC on finding and reaching out to a supervisor. They are not program specific.
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2020 | Dr. Osa Gomez del Campo focused on how Spanish speakers use discourse markers to coordinate conversations. She proposes a dynamic model of interaction that shows how speakers use these words to coordinate, and sometimes impose, knowledge and intentions. Her work is relevant for models of interaction, and the comparison and teaching of languages. |
| 2020 | Dr. Ozburn examined generalizations about which sounds in some languages can be exempt from a process called HARMONY, in which vowel sounds within a word must match in some aspect of how they are pronounced. She argues that traditional treatments of such exemptions are inadequate, and provides a new theoretical analysis. |
| 2020 | Dr. Crippen studied the endangered Tlingit (CLING-kit) language of Alaska, BC, & Yukon. He showed that its complex verb has an internal structure that is fundamentally the same as whole sentences in other languages. His work fits Tlingit into the larger theory of human language structure and supports its revitalization within the Tlingit community. |
| 2020 | Dr. Weber examined the structure of words in Blackfoot, a First Nations language. They proposed a model of the correspondence relations between representations of the meaningful parts of language and representations of speech sounds. This research contributes to our understanding of linguistic structure in words of all languages more generally. |
| 2020 | Dr. Fry compared language analyses derived by humans and machines. He demonstrated that unsupervised machine learning is able to generate language analyses that are comparable to those generated by humans. His research adds to the growing dialogue that machine learning has become a useful tool for theoretical linguists. |
| 2019 | Dr. Keough examined how experience with speech-related airflow affects whether we use it to discriminate between sounds. She showed that while adults can use airflow cues even in novel situations, the ability likely arises through developmental experience. Her work helps us understand how interactions with the world shape our perception of speech. |
| 2019 | Dr. Heim studied the role of intonation in Canadian English for the negotiation of shared beliefs. He discovered that the shape of the sentence melody correlates with the interpretation of the speaker's confidence and their response expectation. This study sheds a new light on how speakers encode their attitudes and intentions in conversation. |
| 2019 | Dr. Gambarage studied the determiner systems of the Nata (Bantu) and Lilloet (Salish) languages. He concluded that common semantic features of definiteness and specificity found in other well-studied languages are missing in these languages. His work opens up the notion of existence as it relates to the article systems of these languages. |
| 2019 | Dr. Lam investigated how post-childhood linguistic experience affects the way bilingual adults perceive speech sounds. In a Cantonese word identification experiment, Cantonese speakers who grew up in Canada used different listening strategies from those who grew up in Hong Kong. These results advance our understanding of bilingual competence. |
| 2018 | Dr. Black studied how children and adults detect linguistic patterns in streams of sound. She found that both pre-existing knowledge and factors related to cognitive development, such as executive function, impact this learning process in different ways. This work contributes to our understanding of low-level mechanisms driving language acquisition. |
Linguistics covers the core areas of phonetics, phonology, semantics, and syntax with the possibility of specializing in First Nations languages, African languages, first language acquisition, and experimental linguistics as well as specialized interaction with other disciplines such as art, computer science, music, philosophy, and psychology in the cognitive systems stream.
Departments/Programs may update graduate degree program details through the Faculty & Staff portal. To update contact details for application inquiries, please use this form.
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