General Linguistics

The doctoral study of general linguistics opens for the students a way to know and understand the functioning of language both in its general form and in the form of concrete material.

Through the language to the mind, through the mind to the language.

The doctoral study proceeds either via non-specialized branch or in a specialized way: Experimental and applied linguistics. Specialization Experimental and Applied Linguistics is focused on the deeper acquisition of soft and hard skills in the areas of experimental and formal approaches to natural language (it is organized by main academic departments with linguistic orientation: Department of Czech language, Department of linguistics and Baltic languages, Department of English and American studies, Department of Romance studies and Department of German studies). In the specialization, the program is much more focused on formal and data-oriented approaches to linguistic data from natural languages (approaches to the semantic or dialectal variation of linguistic data, their statistical modeling, or to corpus linguistics used as a source of primary generalizations, etc.). The specialization aims both at theoretical frameworks but to practical issues too (e.g. questions connected to the ethical aspects of experimental research in linguistics a.o.). In the specialized branch, students acquire much more formalized and natural sciences oriented description of the natural language.

The students will be introduced to modern as well as traditional linguistic methods and their application. The objective of the doctoral follow-up study of general linguistics is to enlarge the knowledge, principles, and methodologies the students have acquired either in the master program of general linguistics or of another philological subject.

It is therefore intended for those feeling a need to deepen and enlarge their knowledge, particularly with the prospect for their future scientific career, but also for any other career requiring the understanding of the functioning of language and thinking connected with it.

The students follow an individual study plan, framed up by their supervisor and oriented toward a concrete methodological development and linguistic analysis. The study is single-subject only.

Practical training

An integral part of the study is publishing papers (in the extent given by the individual study program) and teaching at least one term course.

Further information

http://www.phil.muni.cz/jazyk

The graduates are prepared for an academic career in philological subjects on Czech and foreign universities and academies of sciences. In the course of the study the students are required to publish several papers and attend European and Czech conferences. Therefore, they are also prepared for working up a larger amount of information and for being able to present themselves convincingly on international forums. Generally, they are prepared to lead their own independent scientific inquiry, both in basic and applied research. In addition, they are required to lead a certain minimal number of their own courses, making them prepared also for teaching.

Deadline for submitting applications: August 1 - November 30

Deadline for submitting documents for the admission procedure: December 15.

Documents for the admission procedure:

• signed CV;
• list of publishing activities (if any);
• doctoral thesis project.

Documents for the admission procedure must be inserted into the e-application (rubric “Documents”) by 15 December. Applicants are required to include their full name and application number on all attached documents.

Recommendation: Applicants are advised to contact a potential supervisor before submitting their application in order to consult the research focus and its possible guidance (an external supervisor is also possible).

If applying for full-time study, applicants are advised to choose the combined form of study as a second preference in addition to this preferred form in their application.

The entrance examination takes the form of an oral discussion over the doctoral thesis project.

Notice: A poof of completion of a Master’s degree programme (officially certified copy of the diploma, in the case of education obtained abroad also the so-called recognition) shall be submitted by the accepted applicants upon enrolment in the studies. For the entrance examination, a proof of completion of a Master’s degree programme is not required.

Criteria for evaluation

• Pass/fail line: 75 points (out of 100).