The following courses are required of all students in the MA/PhD program. Students entering with an MA degree from another institution may petition to have coursework taken for that MA degree apply to the PhD degree at Pitt.
Courses required to be taken in the first year:
| Course | Description | Semester |
| 2578 | Phonetics | Fall |
| 2773 | Morphology | Fall |
| 2144 | Research Methods | Fall |
| 2579 | Phonology | Spring |
| 2777 | Syntax | Spring |
One course in sociolinguistics/language change is also required and can be taken at any time:
| Course | Description |
| 2267 | Sociolinguistics |
| 2680 | Historical Linguistics |
| 2253 | Language Contact |
All students must also complete one advanced level core course (such as Advanced Phonology or Advanced Morphology), which must be approved by their advisor.
General and Descriptive Linguistics PhD Requirements
- Field Methods
- One additional advanced core course in Phonology, Morphology or Syntax
- A 3000-level advanced seminar in Phonology, Morphology or Syntax
- One additional course in sociolinguistics/language change
- Linguistic Typology
Applied Linguistics ARCO PhD Requirements
- LING 2146 Second Language Acquisition
- A language pedagogy course
- Either LING 2945 Psycholinguistics or a course in First Language Development
- A seminar in Applied Linguistics such as 2147 or 2149
- Statistics for Research in Linguistics
Hispanic Linguistics ARCO PhD Requirements
- 2392 History of Spanish
- Spanish Sociolinguistics or 2394
- Spanish Dialectology
- Other requirements:
- Entrance requirement: minimum of Advanced Low Proficiency in Spanish as measured by an OPI or equivalent.
- In core courses, students are encouraged to work on topics in Hispanic linguistics and to use Spanish sources.
- All theses and long papers must have a significant Hispanic element, and a significant number of sources in Spanish.
- Students may wish to focus on Applied Spanish Linguistics or Spanish Sociolingusitics, but these are not official ARCOs. The following are suggested courses:
- Applied Spanish Linguistics: Education of Linguistic Minorities, Second Language Acquisition, Approaches and Methods of TESOL, Techniques and Procedures of TESOL.
- Spanish Sociolinguistics: Education of Linguistic Minorities, Language Contact, Discourse Analysis, Variation Analysis.
Sociolinguistics ARCO PhD Requirements
- Sociolinguistics (if not already taken)
- Field Methods
- Sociological Theory I
- Sociological Theory: Post-classical
- Statistics for Research in Linguistics
- Two of the following:
- Discourse Analysis
- Language Contact
- Sociology of Language
- Variation Analysis