<p>I graduated with a BA and then, after working for two years, wanted to come back to study philosophy (my degree was in economics). I spent three non-degree semesters catching up in philosophy (and raising my grades). I was fortunate enough to get into a very solid MA program and will be attending next fall--I'm very excited.</p>
<p>Here's the problem--in my third semester I took a second course in semantic theory (through the department of linguistics), and absolutely loved it. Whereas doing philosophy seems, well, lateral, when doing semantics I have some sense of purpose, some sense that I am progressing towards something; it A) has a scientific element, to the extent that we treat linguistic intuitions almost as observed data (to then be reverse engineered into our formal system) and B) has real-world applications, like helping google improve their natural language algorithms (to interpret searches). In other words, I really want to do semantics.</p>
<p>If I count my two logic courses, my course in the philosophy of language, my extra course in semantics, and another half-course I plan to take at the MA level, I'll have a total of 5 full linguistics courses by the time I finish my MA (my undergrad minor was in linguistics). Would this be adequate preparation to be admitted to a PhD program in linguistics? Alternatively, how flexible would a philosophy department be to my wanting to focus on semantics?</p>
<p>Any suggestions would be great!</p>
<p>I have no answers for you, so I hope someone who does will chime, especially since my response will bump this to the top.</p>
<p>I will say two things: 1.Philosophy majors are well-respected in fields that demand logic, analytical thought, and abstract thinking, and 2. Even though linguistics is not the study of actual languages, you’ll need at least one foreign language. The two linguists I know are computational linguists, but they know the grammatical structures and rules of several languages. Linguists who work for companies like Google are likely computational linguists, and you’ll need a strong background in computer science for that.</p>
<p>My guess (and it’s just that) is that you could indeed make the transition from philosophy to linguistics if you choose your MA courses with an eye toward it. If your MA is thesis-based, try to wrangle a way to connect it with your growing interest in linguistics.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for the reply. That’s exactly what I was thinking, actually. Computational linguistics. To be honest, I had hoped that I could count a programming language as my foreign language, but that clearly makes little sense …their development wasn’t nearly as … organic! </p>
<p>(I don’t have an overwhelming background in compsci by any means–I have two half courses, one in C++ and one in Java, but I really enjoyed the courses I took in compsci and would be open to filling out my record this summer or next).</p>
<p>I also have two semantics courses, two courses in logic, a course in the philosophy of language, a course in formal methods of linguistics (set theory), and a course in syntax. So I’ve made at least a start towards working at the intersection of
(philosophy-)linguistics-compsci. </p>
<p>As for the MA, it is considered course-based, but there is a significant research element. We spend the entire summer writing a ~50 page research paper that needs to contribute something novel. More importantly, it can stem from work you did during the year and, fortunately for me, there is a professor at the school I’ll be attending whose areas of specialization are philosophy of language, semantics, pragmatics; and he often (historically speaking) teaches a course at the intersection of the two subjects. There is also a research group in philosophy/linguistics, which he heads up, so that might be another opportunity.</p>
<p>If you’re serious about getting into computational linguistics then you need to be able to talk to the Comp Sci people. Having two courses in Computer Science is not enough. Load up on as much as is reasonable.</p>