I'm in the early stages of planning my linguistics dissertation, and I've become completely obsessed with looking at other people's titles for inspiration. And I keep coming back to one that lives in my head rent-free: Rebecca Tollan dissertation title "Cross-Linguistic Effects of Subjecthood, Case, and Transitivity in Syntax and Sentence Processing."
Like, can we just appreciate how perfectly that title works? It tells you exactly what she studied (subjecthood, case, transitivity), how she studied it (cross-linguistically, looking at both syntax AND processing), and it sounds incredibly smart without being pretentious. It's specific but not narrow. It's academic but still readable. It's GOALS.
I'm trying to figure out my own title for my thesis on code-switching in bilingual communities, and I keep coming back to Tollan's structure as a model. Maybe something like "Sociopragmatic Factors and Identity Construction in Spanish-English Code-Switching Among Miami Adolescents"? It's a mouthful, but it follows that same pattern: phenomenon + context + population.
For anyone else title-struggling: go find Rebecca Tollan dissertation title and just STUDY it. Notice how she includes both the theoretical concepts (subjecthood, case) AND the methodological approach (cross-linguistic, syntax AND processing). It's not just what she studied—it's HOW she studied it. That's the secret sauce.
What dissertation titles do you all use as inspiration?
Like, can we just appreciate how perfectly that title works? It tells you exactly what she studied (subjecthood, case, transitivity), how she studied it (cross-linguistically, looking at both syntax AND processing), and it sounds incredibly smart without being pretentious. It's specific but not narrow. It's academic but still readable. It's GOALS.
I'm trying to figure out my own title for my thesis on code-switching in bilingual communities, and I keep coming back to Tollan's structure as a model. Maybe something like "Sociopragmatic Factors and Identity Construction in Spanish-English Code-Switching Among Miami Adolescents"? It's a mouthful, but it follows that same pattern: phenomenon + context + population.
For anyone else title-struggling: go find Rebecca Tollan dissertation title and just STUDY it. Notice how she includes both the theoretical concepts (subjecthood, case) AND the methodological approach (cross-linguistic, syntax AND processing). It's not just what she studied—it's HOW she studied it. That's the secret sauce.
What dissertation titles do you all use as inspiration?
