Study plan

The final state exam consists of two parts: the doctoral exam and defence of the Ph.D. thesis. These parts do not take place at the same time. Students must enrol for the Ph.D. exam in the fifth or sixth term of their Ph.D. studies. The exam takes place in front of a board of examiners, always during the regular exam period (i.e. either in June, or in January). Three months prior to the exam (i.e. either in March, or in October), the student will contact a supervisor of their study specialization, who will assign the student three groups of topics. For each of them, the student will prepare a presentation lasting fifteen minutes. Two of the groups of topics will then be presented in an oral form in front of the board of examiners (the choice
of two out of three groups of topics is the competence of the board and will take place shortly before the beginning of the exam). The aim of the doctoral state exam is to prove students’ ability to present in an oral form selected topics from linguistic disciplines corresponding with the profile of the thesis and with an orientation of the Ph.D. group, in the activities of which the student actively participates. The aim of the exam is to check the ability of the Ph.D. student to interpret language phenomena, to reflect critically present-day sources, to participate in discussion and to resent their arguments in a way focused on facts.
The aim of the Ph.D. theses is to work independently on a specific linguistic topic in an innovative way. PhD. students in their theses reflect present-day state of knowledge of the particular issues, on this basis clearly formulate the topic of their thesis, suggesting adequate methods of research, collect the data, evaluate them and analyses them critically, in the conclusions summarize the obtained results, putting
them into a wider context of the particular discipline and clearly
formulate, in what respect the thesis enlarges, deepens, specifies or corrects the present-day knowledge.
Defence of the Ph.D. thesis consists of the following points: presentation of the Ph.D. student by the supervisor, presentation of main points of the thesis by the Ph.D. student, presentation of thesis reports, reaction to the reports, discussion. After the discussion, the board votes and gives a mark.

A key part of study requirements in the Ph.D. study programme relates to preparation and work on the Ph.D. thesis, which is a complex scholarly work based on original research. Compulsory activities of a Ph.D. student are stated in an individual study plan. Besides compulsory
courses they include independent creative work and presentation of its results – during the studies, active participation in at least one scholarly conference is required as well as publishing at least one study in a scholarly periodical. Ph.D. students are also required to participate in conferences of Ph.D. students organized by the particular institution. Other scholarly activities within the institution may include e.g. teaching, editorial work, participation e.g. in organizing conferences. As a part of the Ph.D. study programme, a stay at a university or at other research institution abroad is recommended, with
regard to the particular topic, providing a possibility to consult with foreign scholars and to carry out searching in current scholarly sources.

Required courses of the Ph.D. study programme include four types of courses. Courses directly relating to proper completing of the programme, such as Theses (CJDY17), Ph.D. exam(CJDY16) and Doctoral dissertation (CJDY18).
Another type of courses is Publication I (CJDY14), Presentation I (CJDY13), A study stay/internship abroad I(CJDY15) and Ph.D. Day I, II (CJDY11, CJDY12). Students should try to participate in international conferences focused on topics dealt with in the Ph.D. theses. They should attempt to publish their own research in scholarly periodicals and to participate actively in meetings within the particular institution (conferences of Ph.D. students). These activities should lead students to learn how to defend results of their research work within the academic community.

The third type of courses includes Doctoral seminars I - VIII
(CJDY03-10). At the Department of Czech Language, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, these courses are organized in three simultaneously-running groups, in which students focused within their Ph.D. theses on diachronic research of language, on generative grammar and on corpus linguistics. The work consists of tasks assigned to students by the supervisor of the particular group and of invited lectures by Czech and foreign experts.

The fourth type of courses includes Philosophy of Language (CJDY01) and Foreign Language (CJDY02).

The remaining number of credits (90) includes courses supporting activities of students relating to publishing and elective courses offered by other philological departments.

Defended theses
Mgr. Jakub Machura, Ph.D. (učo ). Automatické doplňování a korekce interpunkce v češtině, https://is.muni.cz/auth/th/qebgq/;

Mgr. et Mgr.Lucie Janků, Ph.D. (učo ), The Nanosyntax of Czech Nominal Declension, https://is.muni.cz/auth/th/qebgq/;

Mgr. et Mgr. Ondřej Mrázek, Ph.D. (učo 383957), Strojové zpracování starších biblických textů, https://is.muni.cz/auth/th/in9zq/;

Kateřina Najbrtová (učo 145034). Korpusová analýza přejímání valenčních rámců u adjektiv derivovaných sufixem -telný, https://is.muni.cz/th/145034/ff_d/;

Olga Navrátilová (učo 109306). Slovosled posesivních zájmen ve staré češtině, https://is.muni.cz/th/109306/ff_d/;

Jana Nová (učo 106015). Běžná mluva nejmladší generace v západočeském pohraničí, https://is.muni.cz/th/106015/ff_d/;


Suggestion of theses topics:

1. Clitic climbing ve staré češtině

2. Syntaktické funkce staročeského supina

3. Automatická detekce vybraného typu gramatických chyb v českých textech

4. Nanosyntaktická analýza vybraného jevu v češtině a jeho porovnání s
ostatními slovanskými jazyky

5. Analýza vybraného jevu v rámci Government Phonology.