The Master’s Program in Language Sciences was created in 1998, offering areas of concentration in Theory and Analysis of Languages and Linguistics Applied to Teaching. In 2001, the Program expanded to Palhoça, offering the area of concentration in Language and  Information Technology. In 2002, a new curriculum was implemented aiming to align the Program with the National Graduate System (SNPG/CAPES). The program was agglutinated into a unique concentration area named Language, Media and Discursive Processes, and three research lines: Discursive Analysis of Semantic Processes, Textualities and Discursive Practices, and Language, Culture and Media. An Evaluating Committee from CAPES, composed by Dr. Sírio Possenti (UNICAMP) and Dr. Dermeval da Hora Oliveira (UFPB), evaluated the proposal in February 2003. The Arts/Linguistics Committee accredited the Course in January 2004. The Ministry of Education recognized the course on December 21, 2004. The first admissions to the Capes Curriculum took place in the first semester of 2004. In 2007, the course participated of its first triennial evaluation, maintaining the concept 3.

In 2007, the Graduate Program in Language Sciences (PPGCL) elaborated, and then submitted to CAPES in 2008, the project for the Doctoral Program in Language Sciences. The concentration area was called Textual, Discursive and Cultural Processes, with three research lines: Textuality and Discursive Practices, Discursive Analysis of Semantic Process, and Language and Cultural Processes (more recently rearranged in two research lines: Text and Discourse, and Language and Culture). On December 2, 2008, the Evaluating Committee from CAPES, composed by Dr. Diana Luz Pessoa de Barros (UPM) and Dr. Célia Marques Telles (UFBA), evaluated the Program. The CAPES Technical Consulting Council approved the project on December 10, 2008, and the Ministry of Education recognized the Doctoral Program (Ordinance number 589 of June 18, 2009). The first admissions to the Doctoral Program occurred in mid-2009, with the classes starting in July. In 2010 and 2013, the PPGCL obtained the concept 4 from CAPES through the evaluation of the triennia 2007-2009, and 2010-2012. By December 31, 2015, 316 Masters’s and 35 PhDs degrees had been awarded by PPGCL.