Concentrations and lines of research
The Graduate Program in Linguistics is organized around four concentrations:
- Applied Linguistics;
- Psycholinguistics;
- Sociolinguistics and Dialectology;
- Linguistic Theory and Analysis.
Concentrations and lines of research
The Graduate Program in Linguistics is organized around four concentration areas, which involve distinct lines of research. These concentration areas of study and lines of research are the result of a strategic planning process undertaken by the program in 2009.
AREA: APPLIED LINGUISTICS
Line of research 1: Mother tongue and foreign language teaching and learning
This line of research addresses the social uses of language under socio-historical and socio-cognitive perspectives. The main goals are the study of language teaching and learning processes, in written and oral forms and in interface with other semiosis; the practice of linguistic analysis; the creation and evaluation of teaching materials; teacher education; linguistic-educational policies; and the assessment practices in school contexts.
Professors:
Dr. Audrei Gesser
Dr. Adair Bonini
Dr. Adja Balbino de Amorim Barbieri Durão
Dr. Ana Paula de Oliveira Santana
Dr. Leandra Cristina de Oliveira
Dr. Marcos Antonio Rocha Baltar
Dr. Maria Inêz Probst Lucena
Dr. Mary Elizabeth Cerutti-Rizzatti
Dr. Rodrigo Acosta Pereira
Dr. Rosângela Hammes Rodrigues
Dr. Rosely Perez Xavier
Dr. Sérgio Romanelli
Dr. Werner Ludger Heidermann
Line of research 2: Brazilian Sign Language
This line is oriented toward research in different linguistic fields that focus on the Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) and that have direct or indirect application in bilingual education and in the social inclusion of Deaf people. Among the themes under this perspective are: a) the relation between sign language, culture, and identity of Deaf people; b) development of linguistic theories and descriptive studies from data of visual-spatial languages; c) sign language acquisition; d) teaching of sign language as L1 and as L2; e) Portuguese teaching as L2 for Deaf students; f) sign language writing; and g) bilingual education for the Deaf.
Professors:
Dr. Audrei Gesser
Dr. Marianne Rossi Stumpf
Dr. Ronice Müller de Quadros
Dr. Tarcísio de Arantes Leite
Line of research 3: Language: discourse, written culture, and technology
This line of research includes studies about uses of language from/for applied language research in the fields of education, clinic, and other contexts of Applied Linguistics. Under this perspective, it privileges studies on discourse analysis, written culture, and on educational technologies. Regarding discourse analysis, the studies have discourses and speech genres as objects of study. Regarding written culture, the topics of interest are: graphocentrism in contemporary societies; literacy theories; relations between (il)literacy and social mobility; uses of writing in different economic and sociocultural surroundings and in different chronologies; writing domains and appropriation of knowledge. As for language in educational technologies, studies are centered on: distance learning; educational communication with the use of multiple technologies; and semiotics in the audiovisual media.
Professors:
Dr. Adair Bonini
Dr. Ana Paula Santana
Dr. Atílio Butturi Junior
Dr. Marcos Antonio Rocha Baltar
Dr. Mary Elizabeth Cerutti-Rizzatti
Dr. Rodrigo Acosta Pereira
Dr. Rosângela Hammes Rodrigues
Dr. Sandro Braga
AREA: PSYCHOLINGUISTICS
Line of research 4: Language acquisition and processing
This line of research is developed for testing theories of first and second language acquisition and of the learning of the writing system, through data observation, description and subsequent explanation. Regarding language processing, it investigates, through experimental psycholinguistic and neurosciences, how, in its distinct phases, acoustic signs, visual-spatial signs or other signs are transformed into meanings on one hand, and how meanings are transformed into sounds and visual-spatial signs on the other hand. Still on the learning of the writing system, new literacy methodologies and the development of reading and writing competencies are investigated.
Professors:
Dr. Ana Cláudia de Souza
Dr. Cristiane Lazzarotto-Volcão
Dr. Leonor Scliar Cabral
Dr. Mailce Borges Mota
AREA: SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND DIALECTOLOGY
Line of research 5: Language Policies
The line of research in Language Policy includes a series of authors linked to the continental European sociolinguistics (Kloss, Kremnitz, Vellverdù, Marcellesi, Calvet) and to the Anglo-Saxon tradition, especially Fishmann, Ferguson, and Haugen. It developed from the 1960s, focusing on the formation of new states arising after decolonization and on the matters associated to plurilingualism, with special theoretical contribution from the ex-colonies (Gupta, Hammel). With time, it has broadened its research focus: currently, it covers plurilingualism and its management; the constitution of national languages; linguistic rights and the minorization of languages; linguistic education, especially in bilingual or multilingual contexts; among other phenomena pertaining to the relationship between power, State, citizenship, nationalities, identities, and languages.
Professors:
Dr. Cristine Görski Severo
Dr. Fábio Luiz Lopes da Silva
Dr. Gilvan Müller de Oliveira
Line of research 6: Linguistic variation and/or change
This line includes descriptive studies of linguistic variation and/or change on different grammar levels of Portuguese in spoken (VARSUL, ALERS, ALIB databases), and written (plays, letters, student text productions) forms, as well as in situations of linguistic contact. These studies follow different approaches in geolinguistics and sociolinguistics, under a formal and functional perspective. It is expected that empirical evidence and theoretical-methodological reflections regarding the analysis of language in use can support hypotheses about the Brazilian and the European varieties of the Portuguese language.
Professors:
Dr. Cristine Görski Severo
Dr. Edair Maria Gorski
Dr. Felício Wessling Margotti
Dr. Izete Lehmkuhl Coelho
Dr. Leandra Cristina de Oliveira
Dr. Marco Antônio Martins
AREA: LINGUISTIC THEORY AND ANALYSIS
Line of research 7: Speech under a perceptual-acoustic-articulatory point of view, and the phonological models
This line of work develops studies on phonetics from perceptual, acoustic or articulatory approaches, especially focused on mother tongue and/or foreign language speech. It investigates inter-phonology: under construction sound systems of distinct foreign languages, focused on Brazilian Portuguese native speakers. It also studies distinct phonological models and their interfaces, such as classic structuralism, SPE, Feature Geometry, and other more dynamic models.
Professors:
Dr. Cristiane Lazzarotto-Volcão
Dr. Izabel Christine Seara
Line of research 8: Cognition and Use
Within this line, we undertake research that takes into account the cognitive, pragmatic-communicative, and socio-cultural dimensions of the grammatical phenomena. The adopted methodology aims to integrate studies of the linguistic system and of the language in use. The addressed topics are: emergency and crystallization of grammatical categories; interaction between functional and structural forces; lexical structure and its relation to cognition; and the cognitive base of grammar structures. Cognition, in interface with language, can be understood both as neural correlates of the linguistic processing and as a source of interactional processes. Research projects on methodological and epistemological aspects of the interface between language and cognition will also be developed.
Professors:
Dr. Ana Paula Santana
Dr. Edair Maria Gorski
Dr. Heronides Maurílio de Melo Moura
Dr. Izabel Christine Seara
Dr. Leandra Cristina de Oliveira
Dr. Tarcísio de Arantes Leite
Line of research 9: Grammar and its interfaces: description, analysis, and theory
Studies of grammatical phenomena in natural languages, at the morphological, syntactic, and semantic levels, both from a formal perspective and from an empirical-descriptive and experimental perspective. It also includes studies on new perspectives of Portuguese language in the classroom.
Professors:
Dr. Marco Antônio Martins
Dr. Nubia Saraiva Ferreira
Dr. Sandra Quarezemin