MPhil Linguistics Syllabus Mumbai University

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DEPRTMENT OF LINGUISTICS
University of Mumbai

Syllabus for the M.Phil . Programme in Linguistics
(Revised - 2017 -18)


M.Phil programme in Linguistics is a two-year research oriented programme. It consists of a
dissertation and coursework consist ing of three papers of 6 credits each, as follows:

Paper I : Linguistic Analysis (6 credits)
Paper II: Quantitative & Qualitative Methods in Linguistics (6 credits)
Paper III: Theoretical Perspective s in Cotemporary Linguistics (6 credits)
_____________________________________________________________________
Total Credits: 18

Total credits of the coursework are 18. The coursework will be conducted over two semesters
(one academic year), and each paper of 6 credits will consist of 9 0 hours of teaching. The
students may also audit courses from the various programmes of the Department.
Every student admitted to the M.Phil . programme in Linguistics is required to complete the
coursework as per the University rules .

Admission and Eligibility
Eligibility for admission : M.A. in Linguistics (or Equivalent) with minimum 55% for open
category students and 50% for reserved category students.
Admission procedure : The Department will conduct an Entrance Test for the applicants for
the M.Phil programme which will be followed by an interview by the admission committee
of the De partment. During the interview the candidates are expected to discuss their research
interest/ area. Intake capacity for the M.Phil programme is as per the University rules.
The allocation of the supervisor for a selected student shall be decided by the a dmission
committee of the Department, in accordance with the existing rules and guidelines of the
University.

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Syllabus for the coursework for the M.Phil . programme in
Linguistics
(To be implemented from 2017 -18)

Paper I : Linguistic Analysis

This course uses inquiry -oriented pedagogy to introduce the fundamentals of research in
Linguistics. The course seeks to enable the student to negotiate the arc from data to theory -
building. The course discusses general principles of linguistic analysis wh ich can be applied
to different sub -disciplines of Linguistics. It also looks to introduce different aspects of
academic writing. Included as part of the course is an introduction to softwares useful in
research , such as Praat, LaTeX etc.

Unit 1: Introduction to R esearch:
a. Preliminaries: What is research? Why research? What do we research? Notion of
research area, research topic & research questions. Discovering research
questions. Notion of trans -disciplinary research. Characteristics of a rational
inquiry. Notion of a critical understanding.
b. Research Design: I ssues in planning research, writing a research hypothesis, key
areas of research proposal.
c. Ethics in research .

Unit 2: Developing inquiry ability : Pattern finding, hypothesizing/conjecturing, justifying,
explaining, generalizing, classifying, and evaluating.

Unit 3: Data in Research :
a. Preliminaries: What is data? Notion of judgement data, importance of negative data,
methods of data collection.
b. Sources of Research: Distinction between primary & secondary sources, evaluating
secondary sources, use of surveys, experiments, corpora, official statistics and
historical sources .
c. Data Elicitation: Field work for language description - choosing an informant,
working with an informant, data elicitation as experimentation, transcribing data,
ethics of fieldwork; population samples, surveys and interviews, creating and using
corpora , experiments.
d. Data Management, creating searchable data banks.

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Unit 4: Introduction to Experimental Research : Notion of experimental research. Need for
experimental research in Linguistics. Characteristics of a good experimental design. Types of
experim ental designs: randomized experiments, quasi -experiments, pre -experiments.
Analysing experimental designs using quantitative methods. Applications of experimental
research in Linguistics.

Unit 5: Foundations of Data Analysis : Constructing and supporting a linguistic analysis,
classifying and representing linguistic structures, modeling in language sciences, various
kinds of analysis: variationist, discourse, historical etc. Introduction to softwares useful for
linguistic analysis.

Unit 6: Writing in Resea rch: characteristics of academic research, research forms: repor t,
assignment, dissertation/ thesis. Writing style in research: manuals of style. Software(s) for
typesetting. Ethics of writing: avoiding plagiarism.

Readings :
Abbi, A. (2001). A manual of linguistic field work and structures of Indian languages (Vol.
17).Lincom Europa.
Archer, D., Aijmer, K., & Wichmann, A. (2012). Pragmatics: An advanced resource book for
students . Routledge.
Carnie, A. (2011). Modern Syntax: A Coursebook . Cambridge University Press.
Ender, A., Leemann, A., & Wälchli, B. (Eds.). (2012). Methods in contemporary linguistics
(Vol. 247). Walter de Gruyter.
Gonzalez -Marquez, M. (Ed.). (2007). Methods in cognitive linguistics (Vol. 18). John
Benjamins Publishing.
Haegeman, L . (2009). Thinking syntactically: a guide to argumentation and analysis . John
Wiley & Sons.
Harrington, K., Litosseliti, L., Sauntson, H., & Sunderland, J. (2008). Gender and language
research methodologies . Palgrave M acmillan.
Hatim, B., & Munday, J. (2004). Translation: An advanced resource book . Psychology Press.
Heine, B., & Narrog, H. (Eds.). (2015). The Oxford handbook of linguistic analysis . Oxford
Handbooks in Linguistics.
Hewings, A., & Hewings, M. (2005). Grammar and context: An advanced resource book .
Psychology Press.
Hyland, K. (2006). English for academic purposes: An advanced resource book . Routledge.
Labov, W. (1972). Some principles of linguistic methodology. Language in society , 1(1), 97 -
120.
McEnery, T., Xiao, R., & Tono, Y. (2006). Corpus -based language studies: An advanced
resource book . Taylor & Francis.

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Ng, B. C., & Wigglesworth, G. (2007). Bilingualism: An advanced resource book . Taylor &
Francis.
Paltridge, B., & Phakiti, A. (Eds.). (2015). Research methods in applied linguistics : A
practical resource . Bloomsbury Publishing.
Perry, T. A. (1980). Evidence and argumentation in linguistics . Walter de Gruyter.
Podesva, R. J., & Sharma, D. (Eds.). (2014). Research methods in linguistics . Cambridge
University Press.
Richards, K., Ross, S ., & Seedhouse, P. (2012). Research methods for applied language
studies:[an advanced resource book for students] . Routledge.
Schütze, C. T. (2016). The empirical base of linguistics: Grammaticality judgments and
linguistic methodology (p. 244). Language Sc ience Press.
Thieberger, N. (Ed.). (2012). The Oxford handbook of linguistic fieldwork . Oxford University
Press.
Wasow, T., & Arnold, J. (2005).Intuitions in linguistic argumentation. Lingua , 115(11),
1481 -1496.
Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (Eds.). (2009). Methods for critical discourse analysis . Sage.

Online Resources :
http://www.schoolofthinq.com/
http://www.iiserpune.ac.in/~mohanan/inquiry -think.htm
https://sites.google.com/site/eplsmohanans/
https://wiki.nus.edu.sg/display/aki/

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Paper II: Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in Linguistics

This course introduces the students to quantitative and qualitative research methods. The
course also aims at familiarizing students to various softwares (such as R) which serve as an
aid to q ualitative and quantitative analysis.

Unit 1.Preliminaries : Distinction between qualitative and quantitative data, methods of data
analysis: qualitative and quantitative research, triangulation, use of multi -strategy research

Unit 2. Basics of Qualitative Research :
a. Concepts of qualitative research: Theory, hypothesis, methodology and method.
b. Central paradigms of research: Ontological, epistemological and methodological
issues. Strategies to acquire qualitative knowledge: case studies, phenomenology,
ethnography, grounded theory method, action research, discourse analysis,
phenomenography, narrative approach , multi -modal analysis etc.
c. Methods to acquire qualitative data: Using written and historical material, interview,
focus group, observation etc.
d. Analysis and interpretation of qualitative data, trustworthiness of a qualitative
analysis.

Unit 3. Basics of Quantitative Methods :
a. Introduction to R: Functions and arguments, vectors, factors, data frames, conditionals
and loops, writing little functions.
b. Descriptive Statistics: Introduction to univariate statistical analysis, condensing the
data: basic statistics, cross -tabulation, scales and correlation, testing the difference of
means.
c. Inferenti al Statistics: I ntroduction to statistical i nference, proba bility, sampling,
distribution of random variables, correlation and regression, correlation and causality,
hypothesis testing, significance testing, confidence interval, effect size and principles
of meta -analysis.
d. Multivariate Analysis: Family of regress ion analysis, a nalysis of variance, cluster and
classification analysis.

Readings :
Diez, D. M., Barr, C. D., & Cetinkaya -Rundel, M. OpenIntro Statistics, 2012. (On-line)
http://www.openintro. org/stat/textbook. php .
Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (Eds.). (2011). The Sage handbook of qualitative research .
Sage.

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Gries, S. T. (2013). Statistics for linguistics with R: A practical introduction . Walter de
Gruyter.
Heigham, J., & Croker, R. (Eds.). (2009). Qualitative research in applied linguistics: A
practical introduction . Springer.
Johnson, K. (2011). Quantitative methods in linguistics . John Wiley & Sons.
Lazar, J., Feng, J. H., & Hochheiser, H. (2017). Research methods in human -computer
interaction . Morgan Kaufmann.
Litosseliti, L. (2017). Research methods in linguistics . Bloomsbury Publishing.
Marczyk, G., DeMatteo, D., & Festinger, D. (2005). Essentials of research design and
methodology . John Wiley & Sons Inc.
Metsamuuronen Jari. (2017). Essentials of research methods in human sciences . Vols. 1 -3.
Sage.
Walliman, N. (2015). Social research methods: The essentials . Sage.

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Paper III: Theoretical Perspectives in Contemporary Linguistics

This course introduces the students to the recent developments in linguistic theory. Any two
sub-discipline of Linguistics are to be chosen by the student.

Option 1: Phonology
Acoustic analysis
Co-articulation
Phonological systems
Phonological processes
Phonological domains
Markedness and economy

Readings:
Johnson, Keith (2003) Acoustic and Auditory Phonetics, 2nd Edition. Blackwell Publishers.
Ladefoged, P. (1996). Elements of acoustic phonetics . University of Chicago Press.
McCarthy, John. 2008. Doing Optimality Theory. Blackwell.
Mohanan, T. & Mohanan, K.P. 2011. Exploring Patt erns in Language Structure: Beginning
Linguistic Inquiry . https://sites.google.com/site/eplsmohanans/
Roca, I., & Johnson, W. (1999). A course in phonology . Wiley -Blackwell.
Roca, I., & Johnson, W. (1999). A workbook in phonology . Wiley -Blackwell.


Option 2: Morphology
Morphology -Grammar inte rface: Inflectional categories, Nominalization, Cliticization
Morphology -Lexicon interface: Word -formation processes, compounding etc.
Morphology -Semantics interface

Readings:
Baerman, Matthew. (ed.). 2015. The Oxfor d handbook of i nflection. Oxford University Press.
Corbett, Greville. 2012. Features. Cambridge University Press.
Harley, H., & Noyer, R. (1999). Distributed morphology. Glot international , 4(4), 3 -9.
Harley, H., & Ritter, E. (2002). Person and number in pronouns: A feature -geometric
analysis. Language , 78(3), 482 -526.
Lieber, R. (2004). Morphology and lexical semantics . Cambridge Uni versity Press.
Lieber, Rochelle and Pavol Štekaue. ( Eds). (2014). The Oxford handbook of derivational
morphology. Oxford University Press.

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Lieber, Rochelle and Pavol Štekaue. ( Eds) (2011). The Oxford handbook of compounding .
Oxford University Press.


Option 3: Syntax
Contemporary theories related to syntactic phenomena such as Agreement, Binding,
Causativization, Case -systems, Complex predicates, Passivization, Finiteness,
Questions, Nominalization, Raising and Control etc.

Readings :
Boeckx, Cedric (ed). (2011). The Oxford book of linguistic minimalism. Oxford.
Everaert, M., & Van Riemsdijk, H. (Eds.) (2006). The Blackwell companion to syntax,
(Volume s I-V). Blackwell.
Ramchand, G., & Reiss, C. (Eds.). (2007). The Oxford handbook of linguistic interfaces .
Oxford University Press.



Option 4: Semantics & Pragmatics
Lexical Semantics
Extensional Semantics
Intensional Semantics
Micro -Pragmatics: Pragmatic Principles, Speech Acts, Conversational Analysis etc.
Macro -Pragmatics: Intercultural Pragmatics, Metapragmatics, Societal Pragmatics etc.

Readings:
Chierchia, G. (2013). Logic in grammar: Polarity, free choice, and intervention . OUP
Oxford.
Geeraerts, D. (2010). Theories of lexical semantics . Oxford University Press.
Heim I. & Kratzer A. (1998). Semantics in generative grammar . Oxford: Blackwell.
Horn L. & Ward G. (2004) The Handbook of pragmatics . Oxford: Blackwell.
Mey, J. L. (1985). Whose language? A study in linguistic pragmatics (Vol. 3). John
Benjamins Publishing.
Portner P. & Partee B. (2002) Formal Semantics : The essential readings . Oxford: Blackwell.
Verschueren, J. & Ostman, J. (2009). Handbook of p ragmatic highlights, volumes 1 -10. John
Benjamins.
Online Resource: Semantic Archive http://www.semanticsarchive.net/

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Option 5: Discourse Analysis
Discourse -grammar interaction
Argumentation
Narrative in everyday life
Power and inequality in discourse
Critical Discourse Analysis
Discourse and ideology

Readings:
Chouliaraki, L., & Fairclough, N. (1999). Discourse in late modernity: Rethinking critical
discourse analysis . Edinburgh University Press.
Fairclough, N. (2013). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language . Routledge.
Van Dijk, T. A. (1993). Principles of critical discourse analysis. Discourse & society , 4(2),
249-283.
Van Dijk, T. A. (2015). Critical discourse stu dies: A sociocognitive approach. Methods of
Critical Discourse Studies , 63-74.
Van Dijk, T. A. (Ed.). (2011). Discourse studies: A multidisciplinary introduction . Sage.
Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (Eds.). (2009). Methods for critical discourse analysis . Sage.
Wodak, R. (1996). Disorders of discourse . Longman.



Option 6: Language in Societ y
Variationist Linguistics
Interactional Sociolinguistics
Linguistic Ethnography

Readings:
Ammon, U. (Ed.). (2006). Sociolinguistics: an international handbook of the science of
language and society (Vol. 3). Walter de Gruyter.
Coupland, N. (2007). Style: Language variation and identity . Cambridge University Press.
Fought, C. (Ed.). (2004). Sociolinguistic variation: Critical reflections . Oxford : OUP .
Gumperz, J. J. (1982). Discourse strategies: Studies in interactional sociolinguistics 1 .
Cambridge: CUP .
Hymes, D. (2003). Foundations in sociolinguistics: An ethnographic approach . Psychology
Press.
Tagliamonte, S. (2012). Variationist sociolinguistics: Change, observation, interpretation
(Vol. 40). John Wiley & Sons.

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Wodak, R., Johnstone, B., &Kerswill, P. E. (2011). The SAGE handbook of sociolinguistics .
Sage Publications.



Option 7: Paradigms in Multilingual Studies
Language contact
Language shift
Language retention & attrition
Language obsolescence

Readings:
Blommaert, J. (2013). Ethnography, superdiversity and linguistic landscapes: Chronicles of
complexity (Vol. 18). Multilingual Matters.
Dorian, N. C. (Ed.). (1992). Investigating obsolescence: Studies in language contraction and
death (No. 7). Cambridge University Press.
Schmid, M. S., Köpke, B., Keijzer, M., & Weilemar, L. (Eds.). (2004). First language
attrition: Interdisciplinary perspectives on methodological issues (Vol. 28). John
Benjamins Publishing.
Piller, I. (2016). Linguistic diversity and social justice: An introductio n to applied
sociolinguistics . Oxford University Press.
Ritchie, W. C., & Bhatia, T. K. (2013). The handbook of bilingualism and multilingualism .
Blackwell Publishing.
Singleton, D., Fishman, J. A., Aronin, L., & Laoire, M. Ó. (Eds.). (2013). Current
multilingualism: A new linguistic dispensation (Vol. 102). Walter de Gruyter.


Option 8: Indo -Aryan Diachrony
Principles of Language Change : Phonological, Morphological, Syntactic and Semantic
change; Grammaticalization
Methods in Diachronic Linguistics : Reconstruction, using written manuscripts, scripts
and principles of writing systems, tracing the language change through synchronic
descriptions of related languages.
Diachrony of Indo -Aryan languages : Indo-Aryan language family; stages of Indo-
Aryan language family and their structural properties - Old Indo-Aryan , Middle Indo-
Aryan and Modern Indo-Aryan; P aths of language change in Indo-Aryan languages.
Contact -induced change in Indo -Aryan.

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Readings:
Bubenik, V. (1998). A Historical Syntax of Late Middle I ndo-Aryan (Apabhram sha) (Vol.
165). John Benjamins Publishing.
Bubenik, V. (1996). The structure and development of Middle Indo -Aryan dialects (Vol. 8).
Motilal Banarsidass Publishers.
Deo, A shwini . (2006). Tense and aspect in Indo -Aryan languages: Variation and diachrony
(Doctoral dissertation, Stanford University).
Hewson, J., & Bubenik, V. (1997). Tense and aspect in Indo -European languages: Theory,
typology, diachrony (Vol. 145). John Benjamins Publishing.
Hewson, J., & Bubenik, V. (2006). From case to adpos ition: The development of
configurational syntax in Indo -European languages (Vol. 280). John Benjamins
Publishing.
Jain, D., & Cardona, G. (Eds.). (2007). The Indo -Aryan Languages . Routledge.
Lowe, J. J. (2015). Participles in Rigvedic Sanskrit: The syntax and semantics of adjectival
verb forms . OUP Oxford.
Pischel, R. (1981). A grammar of the Prākrit languages . Motilal Banarsidass
Speyer, J. S. (1886). Sanskrit syntax . EJ Brill.


Option 9: Schools of Linguistic Thought
Formal approaches such as Structural Linguistics, Generative Linguistics etc.
Functional Approaches such as Ethnographic Linguistics, Cognitive Linguistics,
Usage -based Models.

Readings:
Beaugrande, R. De. ( 1991 ). Linguistic Theory: The discourse of fundamental works. London:
Longman Linguistic Library.
Bybee, J. (2010). Language, usage and cognition . Cambridge University Press.
Givón, T. (1995). Functionalism and grammar . John Benjamins Publishing.
Hoenigeswald H ( Ed.). (1979). The European background of American Linguistics. Forest:
Dordrecht
Hymes, D. (2003). Ethnography, linguistics, narrative inequality: Toward an understanding
of voice . Taylor & Francis.
Joseph, J.E. , Love, Nigel & Taylor, J. (2001). Landmarks in Linguistic thought . New York:
Routledge.
Joseph, J.E. (2002). From Whitney to Chomsky: Essay in the history of American Linguistics .
Amsterdam: John Benjamin Publishing Company.

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Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1999). Philosophy in the flesh: The embodied mind and its
challenge to western thought . Basic books.
Stein er, P. (Ed.). (1982 ). The Prague School: Selected Writings, 1929 -1946 . Austin:
University of Texas Press.
Toman, J. (1995). The magic of a common language: Jakobson, Mathesius, Trubetzkoy, and
the Prague Linguistic Circle . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.


Option 10: Translation Studies
Translation in socio -cultural perspective
Translation and power especially with respect to linguistic minorities
Cognition in translation
Translation and democracy

Readings:
Chesterman, A. (2016). Memes of translation: The spread of ideas in translation theory (Vol.
123). John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Gambier, Y., & Van Doorslaer, L. (Eds.). (2010). Handbook of translation studies . John
Benjamins Publishing.
Munday, J. (2016). Introducing translation studies: Theories and applications . Routledge.
Niranjana, T. (1992). Siting translation: History, post -structuralism, and the colonial context .
Univ ersity of California Press.
Venuti, L. (Ed.). (2012). The translation studies reader . Routledge.



Option 11: Computational Linguistics
Building linguistic resources
Parallel texts and multilingual language processing
Speech synthesis and analysis
Applications such as sentiment analysis, question -answering, dialogue systems etc.

Readings:
Clark, A., Fox, C., & Lappin, S. (Eds.). (2013). The handbook of computational linguistics
and natural language processing . John Wiley & Sons.
Eijck J.V. and Unger , C. (2010 ). Computational semantics with functional programming.
Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
Hausser, R. R. (2012 ). .Foundations of C omputational Linguistics: Human –computer
communication in natural language . Springer.
Manning, C. D., Raghavan, P. & Schutze , H. (2008 ). Introduction to information retrieval.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Option 12: Educational Linguistics
Language education in multilingual classrooms
Educational policy in multilingual societies
Language in non -formal and informal education
Cognition and language pedagogy

Readings:
Daswani, Chander ( Ed). (2001). Language e duca tion in multilingual India. New Delhi:
UNESCO.
Denham, Kristin & Anne Lobeck. (eds). (2010). Linguistics at school: Language awareness
in primary & secondary education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Robinson, P., & Ellis, N. C. (Eds.). (2008). Handbook of cognitive linguistics and second
language acquisition . Routledge.
Skutnabb -Kangas, Tove. (2008). Linguistic genocide in education or worldwide diversity and
human rights? Delhi: Orient Longman.
Spolsky, Bernard & Francis M . Hult. (2007 ). The handbook of educational linguistics. UK:
Wiley -Blackwell.
Van den Branden, Kris, Bygate , Martine & Norris , John M . (2009 ). Task -based language
teaching: A reader. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.



Option 13: Forensic Linguistics
Language in law
Forensic stylistics
Trial discourse
Language as evidence

Readings:
Coulthard, M., Johnson, A., & Wright, D. (2016). An introduction to forensic linguistics:
Language in evidence . Routledge.
Coulthard, M., & Johnson, A. (2010). The Routledge handbook of forensic linguistics .
Routledge.
Gibbons, J. (2003). Forensic linguistics: An introduction to language in the justice system .
Wiley -Blackwell.
McMenamin, G. R. (2002). Forensic linguistics: Advances in forensic stylistics . CRC press.

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Evaluation System

The evaluation for the Coursework for M.Phil. programme will be done on the basis of
continuous and internal assessment in the following manner:


Paper Title Evaluation System Marks

Paper I Linguistic Analysis: The evaluation of this course will be
done on the basis of two Term
Papers based on the content of the
course , submitted by the students at
the end of the coursework.
50 marks for each
Term Paper
(Total Marks: 100)
Paper II Quantitative and
Qualitative Methods
in Linguistics : The evaluation of this c ourse will be
done on the basis of a Practical
Journal or a Term Paper submitted
by the student at the end of the
coursework.
100 marks
Paper III Theoretical
Perspectives in
Contem porary
Lingu istics : The evaluation of this course will be
done on the basis of two Term
Papers based on the content of the
course submitted by the students at
the end of the coursework.
50 marks for each
Term Paper
(Total Marks: 100)
Total Marks 300

Topics for the Term Papers and regular tasks for the Journal will be assigned by the
concerned teacher. All evaluation regarding the coursework will be done by the concerned
teacher of the course and one other me mber of the examination panel. The passing marks for
each of the paper are 55%. Only after passing in all the three papers the student will be
permitted to write the dissertation.
The dissertation should be at least of 25,000 words and should be submitted in accordance
with the rules of the Univer sity. The dissertation would be evaluated out of 200 marks (150
marks for the written dissertation and 50 marks for viva -voce). The dissertation will be
graded as per the existing guidelines of the University.
_____________________________