Honors Concentration
Linguistics concentrators with strong interests in linguistic research
and a strong academic record are encouraged to consider an Honors
Concentration in Linguistics. The Honors Concentration is intended to
provide students with an in-depth research experience, and students
who are considering graduate study (in linguistics or another
discipline) are especially encouraged to participate in the honors
program.
The Honors Thesis
The highlight of the honors concentration is the honors thesis, which
reports on original research conducted under the supervision of a
Linguistics faculty member. Students select their own thesis advisor,
based on their specific research interests. Many students are
introduced to faculty's research specializations through coursework,
but further information is also available on
faculty webpages;
students may also wish to consult Research and
Internship Opportunities. Attending talks and other
department events serves as
another introduction to linguistics research at Michigan.
Once a faculty member has agreed to serve as thesis advisor, student
and advisor work closely together to identify a thesis topic of mutual
interest. Students should begin this process in their junior year;
especially if the thesis involves experimentation or conducting
surveys, it is often necessary to spend time in the summer months
organizing what needs to be done in order to complete the project on
time. Ideally prior to the end of their junior year, honors students
should fill out the Linguistics Thesis Declaration; students also
declare an Honors Concentration in Linguistics with the College of LSA
Honors Office. Students may elect Linguistics 495 and 496 when
writing the honors thesis, but are not required to do so.
Honors theses by students graduating in Winter term commencement are
due on April 1, and otherwise are due one month before the date of
commencement. The thesis is read and evaluated independently by the
thesis advisor and by a second reader jointly selected by the student
and advisor. Students completing a double concentration may seek
Linguistics honors with or without honors in their other concentration
(or vice versa). Double concentrators who select joint honors may
choose to write a single thesis under the supervision of a joint
honors committee, consisting of the thesis advisors from both
programs. (It is the responsibility of the student to establish the
joint committee.) In this case, the advisor from the other
concentration serves as the second reader.
All honors thesis submitted in a given academic year are eligible to
compete for the Matt Alexander Award, awarded for the best honors
thesis in Linguistics at that year's Graduates Reception during
commencement weekend.
Honors Concentration Requirements
The Honors Concentration in Linguistics requires completion of the
requirements for the concentration and, in addition, a senior honors
project leading to the honors thesis. The thesis must receive an
"honors" evaluation by the thesis readers (the thesis advisor and
second reader). Honors concentrators must also meet the requirement
set by the College of LSA of a cumulative GPA of 3.4 or higher through
graduation.
Recent Honors Theses
2006-2007
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The Doctor’s Orders: Prescription of Eighteenth-Century Grammarians and the Implications for the Written Language. 2007 Recipient of the Matt Alexander Award for the best honors thesis in Linguistics
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by Sehar Azad
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Syntactic Models for Coordination in English and Latin
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by Edward Cormany
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The Restaurant Workplace as a Discourse Community: A Case Study of Language Contact and Communication Ideology
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by Louann Fang
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The Etymology, Use and Perception of Taboo Language
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by Alexa Feldman
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Compound Interest: Applying a Serialization Phrase Structure to Hindi Verbal Compounds
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by Dave Kush
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German in the Diaspora: Commonalities in Emigrant Dialects
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by Caitlin Light
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Where Do Leading Questions Lead?: Working Toward a Linguistic Definition of Leading in Courtroom Discourse
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by Joseph F. Sawka
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2005-2006
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Incorporating Reference Time into a Binding Approach to
Sequence of Tense
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by
Charles Crissman
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Contact, Malta: The ‘Language Question’ and its Implications for Linguistics Scholarship
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by Kellan Cummings
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A Non-Absolutive and Unified Movement Analysis of Hindi
Passives and Ergatives
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by
Nayana Dhavan
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Linguistic Motivations Behind ‘Incorrect’ Pronoun Forms in English Coordinate NPs
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by
Jori Lindley
|
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A Sociolinguistic Case Study on Bilingual Education in Honduras
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by
Julia Malette
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Phonological Transfer in Second Language Acquisition
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by
Erika Picciotto
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2004-2005
| Resultatives gone minimal
| by Natasha Abner
|
| The Acquisition of the English Article System by Advanced Korean Learners of English
| by Sunny Park
|
| Nasals and Nasalization in American English: Implications for Theories of Coarticulation
| by Samantha Sefton
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| Running head: Speaker Awareness and Prosodic Disambiguation
| by Nina Simms
|
| Sounding Male or Female Online: Perceived Indexes of Gender in Online Communication
| by Dara Smith
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| French and English Journal Article Abstracts from General and Applied Lingusitcs: A Comparative Study
| by Sarah Van Bonn
|
2003-2004
| The Role of Coarticulation in the Origin of Canadian Raising
| by Erika Alpert
|
| Simply Accented or Simply Incomprehensible: A Study of the Factors Involved in the
Perception of Accented Speech
| by Eriko Atagi
|
| A Linguistic Account for Cult Phenomena
| by Aaron Isley
|
| An OCP-Based Description of Nasal Harmony in Optimality Theory
| by Max Montesino
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| The Syntax, Semantics, and Early Acquisition of One
| by Keli Rulf
|
2002-2003
| Does subcategorization frequency influence eye movements in a passive listening paradigm?
| by Jessica Cooke
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| A Study of the Acquisition of Variable Vowel Systems Among African American Children
| by Kathleen Shaw
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