Please note:

To view the current Academic Calendar, go to www.sfu.ca/students/calendar.

Department of Linguistics | Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Simon Fraser University Calendar | Spring 2025

Linguistics

Master of Arts

The areas of specialization in this program are: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, computational linguistics, documentation and linguistic analysis of North American Indigenous Languages, historical and comparative linguistics, first and second language acquisition, neurolinguistics, psycholinguistics.

Admission Requirements

Applicants must satisfy the university admission requirements as stated in Graduate General Regulations 1.3 in the SFU Calendar. Students must also demonstrate adequate linguistics preparation. Those with little or no academic linguistics preparation may not obtain program admission or admission as a qualifying student.

Program Requirements

This program offers a thesis option, project option, and course work option for a minimum of 35 units.

Students must complete

LING 880 - Advanced Linguistic Research for Professional Development (3)
LING 890 - Graduate Seminar I (1) *
LING 891 - Graduate Seminar II (1) *

and requirements for one of the options below

Thesis Option

LING 898 - MA Thesis (18)

and 12 additional graduate units**

Project Option

LING 893 - Linguistics MA Project (6)

and 24 additional graduate units***

Course-based Option

and 30 additional graduate units***

* LING 890 and LING 891 should be completed in the first year of program enrollment.

** Only one directed research course allowed. At most three units can come from outside the Department of Linguistics at Simon Fraser University with the approval of the student's supervisor and graduate chair.

*** Only one directed research course allowed. At most six units can come from outside the Department of Linguistics at Simon Fraser University with the approval of the student's supervisor and graduate chair.

Accelerated Master's

SFU students accepted in the accelerated master’s within the Department of Linguistics may apply a maximum of 10 graduate course units, taken while completing the bachelor's degree, towards the upper division electives of the bachelor's program and the requirements of the master's degree. These graduate courses must be passed with a grade of B (3.0) or better in order to be used towards the requirements of the master's degree. Students may apply for the Accelerated MA once they have completed 90 units with a 3.67 or greater CGPA. For more information go to: https://www.sfu.ca/gradstudies/apply/programs/accelerated-masters.html and http://www.sfu.ca/linguistics.html.

Program Length

Students are expected to complete the program requirements in six terms.

Academic Requirements within the Graduate General Regulations

All graduate students must satisfy the academic requirements that are specified in the Graduate General Regulations, as well as the specific requirements for the program in which they are enrolled.