1. The focus of the Special Doctoral Programme in Language and Linguistics

This special doctoral programme invites PhD students from all language areas within the Faculty of Humanities. Its focus is on basic linguistic research, above all language as system, preferably from a cross-linguistic or diachronic perspective. This implies that the research questions of the thesis must have a firm anchoring within the traditional areas of grammar (morphology and syntax), phonology, semantics and pragmatics.

There are several reasons why a doctoral programme of this kind should have a well-defined focus. One reason is that it simplifies supervision and creates conditions for good group cohesion because all participants will have common interests. Of course, among the PhD students there will be those with comparative linguistic focus, particular language focus, and language didactic focus. What unifies them is that they use similar methods and thematic research questions concerning the language or languages on which they focus.

In addition, the courses provided by the programme will be focused and relevant. Because the number of courses given within this special doctoral programme is limited, it is important that the PhD students feel that the courses are relevant for their dissertation work.