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From the Director | From the Graduate Director |Colloquium Series | Graduate Corner |Faculty Profile | Faculty Activity | Student ActivityAlumni Corner | In MemoriamFall Orientation!An orientation meeting for new students (only) with the Program and Graduate Directors will be held Wednesday, August 22, 2007 at 3:30 p.m. Location TBA. There will also be a full orientation and welcome reception for all (new students, Program faculty and returning students) will be held Friday, August 24, 2007 at 3:30 p.m. Location TBA. From the Program Director (top)Last fall (2006) the Linguistics Program welcomed 10 new students to the program. They are listed below (in Student Activity) with their background and interests. We also welcomed Dr. Barbara Schulz as a new core faculty member. She is a tenure-track assistant professor in the Department of English, specializing primarily in SLA. (See the Faculty Profile below for more about Barbara). This spring we were happy to hire Elaine Chun, PhD, University of Texas, who specializes in sociolinguistics. Last summer unfortunately also saw some departures. Sadly, Darrell Dernoshek, consulting faculty member and associate professor of Spanish, passed away at much too young an age. (An obituary of Darrell appears at the end of the issue.) Mariana Souto-Manning, consulting faculty member and assistant professor in the Department of Instruction and Teacher Education in the College of Education, returned to the University of Georgia. Two emeritus faculty members moved to different states: Bruce Pearson now resides in Bloomington, Indiana, and Carol Myers-Scotton has taken a position at Michigan State University. We wish them luck in their research pursuits! Starting with the past academic year, the Linguistics Program was given its own graduate assistantships. We had two positions for graduate teaching assistants. In the coming year there will be three positions. These resources from the College make it possible for the Program to provide full support and valuable experience in teaching linguistics courses for advanced students. With additional support from the College, Lara Lomicka-Anderson and Barbara Schulz have lined up a great list of speakers for the Linguistics Program colloquium series in the coming year: The list of speakers includes Ray Jackendoff (Tufts), Bonny Norton (British Columbia), David Poeppel (Maryland), John Rickford (Stanford), Hidekazu Tanaka (York), and Mike Tanenhaus (Rochester). Look for more information on the Program website. During past year, the Program continued its cooperation with the Honors College. In addition to LING 300: Introduction to Language Sciences taught by Dorothy Disterheft, the Program also offered two other courses for Honors College credit: LING 530: Language Change, also taught by Prof. Disterheft and LING 405: Native and Non-Native Language Acquisition, taught by Barbara Schulz. Next fall, our new colleague, Elaine Chun, is welcoming honors students into LING 440 / ENGL 455: Language in Society. Dorothy Disterheft and the curriculum committee have been working hard this year. Among other course changes the following new Linguistics courses were added: LING 341: Ethnography of Communication, LING 545: Anthropological Approaches to Narrative and Performance, LING 472: Introduction to Technology in Language Teaching, LING 314: Spanish Phonetics & Pronunciation. Another course, LING 546: Japanese Language in Society, is also going through the approval process. Since the appearance of the last issue of Babble, two new 600-level courses, available to graduates and advanced undergraduates have been added or moved to this level: LING 627: Introduction to Semantics, LING 650: Introduction to Morphology. Of interest to graduate students are the changes to degree requirements. Our graduate director, Eric Holt, has instituted the following revisions: For the non-thesis MA, the enhanced paper is no longer required, only three extra courses. The PhD qualifying exam procedure has now been altered to allow students to exempt from the any of the areas of the exam (phonology, syntax, special field). All students now also submit a qualifying paper (see more below). At the end of my term on June 30, I will be stepping down as Linguistics Program Director and will be succeeded by Robin Morris. Join me in wishing her success!
A note from the Graduate Director (top)We are very pleased that you have joined us for this phase of your professional training, and are delighted that you are such an active group that is interested in contributing to and enhancing your experience here. The activity of GSLING, Professional Development Workshops, conference presentations, and more, are excellent signs of potential and accomplishment. This will add to the training we can offer you, that is, the broad and diverse range of coursework and perspectives that our graduates often especially appreciate in their later academic or other positions - in fact, it is this very type of training that helps them land these jobs, as well as the varied opportunities for financial support in the classroom, writing centers, labs, and other positions. Keep up the good work! We are in the process of updating and making some changes to the LING website, and any feedback or suggestions you might have would be most appreciated. Likewise, suggestions are also welcome regarding the recruitment and orientation processes. See the Graduate Corner for additional updates and information. On behalf of the entire faculty, I wish you all the very best for the summer, upcoming year, and beyond. ––D. Eric Holt
Colloquium Series (top)The 2005-2006 Linguistics Program Colloquium Series attracted a wide range of scholarship to USC. Some of the talks have been co-sponsored by the Linguistics Program and other departments. For detailed information about the talks, please refer to the 2005-06 Colloquia webpage. Following is a recap of the 2005-2006 colloquia.
Hard Data Cafe, Department of Psychology
The 2006-2007 Colloquium Series got off to a great start, and ended just as impressively. For more details, visit the 2006-07 Colloquia webpage, and see below:
Thanks to the Department of Anthropology and the Language and Literacy Program in the College of Education for their support this year.
Graduate Corner (top)Update on revisions to the MA and PhD programs:
The Linguistics Program is pleased to have
been able to provide funding for conference travel during the past
year. More than 10 students presented at or attended twelve
conferences, at the regional, national and international levels. Well
done! Individual citations are found in individual student listings in
the Student Activity section of this
issue of Babble.
Awards and Honors
(top)
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GSLING Spring Colloquium (top)
May 2nd, 2007, Russell House
Session 1 – Chair: Amber McKenzie
9:00 Wing Yan
Wong
Chinese Perceptions of Politeness in English:
A Study of Requests
9:25 Anna
Mikhaylova
L2 Nonword Recognition and the Phonotactic Constraints
9:50 Linnea
Minich
The Use of Irregular Verbs by U.S. College Students
Session 2 – Chair: Henry Yum
10:30 Stacy Warnick
Causal and Nonfinite Verbal Variations and their
Implications for ‘have … to’ Constructions
10:55 Stephen L. Mann
Benefactive Alternation: Further Support for a Movement
Account of Double Object Constructions
11:20 Minta Elsman
The “Double Modal”: Dialectal Variant or Latent Modal
Structure?
11:45 Eun Young Shin
Resultative Formation as a Lexical Rule
Session 3 – Chair: Sara-Elizabeth Blair
1:15 Eun
Hee Lee
Object-To-Subject Raising in Korean
1:40 Carlos
Gelormini Lezama
The Subject of Spanish Impersonal Sentences
2:05
Analía Gutiérrez
Split Intransitivity in Spanish: Towards an Analysis of
Syntactic and Semantic Accounts
2:30 Linnea
Minich
The Classification of Sound Emission Verbs
Session 4 – Chair: Suzanne Freynik
3:10 Jeremy
Graves
A-Prefixing: Then and Now
3:35 Paul
Carroll
Scandinavian Influence on English
4:00 Lori
Donath
Nerds in Nerdland: The Discursive Emergence of Identity
and the Transition into an Engineering Community of Practice
4:25
Stephen L. Mann
Dolly Parton She Is Not: Indexing Region, Gender, and
Sexuality in Drag Queen Performances
L2 NONWORD RECOGNITION AND THE PHONOTACTIC
CONSTRAINTS
Anna Mikhaylova
University of South Carolina
Research shows that by adulthood monolingual speakers become constrained by rules of their native language (L1) in their processing of both native and non-native sounds, words and structures (Hale et.al., 1998). Speakers tend to mispronounce and misinterpret novel or borrowed words consistently adapting them to the L1 constraints. Whether fluent bilinguals (speakers of two or more languages) always process foreign/second language (L2) material through the constraints of their L1 has a practical implication for the study of second language acquisition. Researchers disagree on whether L2 speakers stay forever impervious to certain contrasts or constraints of the non-native language (Brown, 1998; Larson-Hall, 2004) or whether learning and the resulting high proficiency in L2 makes them sensitive to the constraints of L2 in addition to the constraints of their L1 (Cook, 1991; Van Heuven et.al., 1998; Jared & Kroll, 2001; Paradis, 2006).
This experiment tests if illegal English non-words with sound clusters impossible for English (such as dvest which contains a cluster impossible for English words) but which are at the same time legal for Russian (which means there are words that contain dv in Russian), are sooner recognized as such than those nonwords that do not violate constraints of either L1 or L2 (such as flind). The participants (test group of 20 fluent Russian-English bilinguals and control group of 23 native speakers of English) performed a lexical decision task. The stimuli consist of 96 words (48 critical items and 48 distracters). All critical items have the same structure (CCVCC) with one-to-one grapheme-phoneme correspondence and are controlled for frequency and neighborhood density.
Our hypothesis that illegal monosyllabic non-words (dvest, snovk ) would be recognized by both the native speakers and L2 speakers more accurately and faster than legal non-words (flind) was supported for both groups. Since word processing is incremental, we also hypothesized that nonwords with word-initial violations of English phonotactic constraints (dvest) would be detected earlier than those with illicit consonant clusters at the word end (snovk). This hypothesis was supported for the bilinguals, with no significant difference for native speakers. Lastly, as expected, both groups had significantly lower accuracy and took longer to process legal non-words, which confirming the results of Rastle et.al. (2002). Native English speakers, as expected, had faster processing times, and better accuracy than the bilingual group.
The results of the experiment and the debriefing session suggest that at the level of phonological processing, bilinguals seem well aware of the information that is impossible in L2 and thus reject illegal items before accessing the lexical knowledge. Longer reaction time and lower accuracy for legal nonwords might be explained by the necessity to access lexical knowledge and in order to make a lexical judgment.
REFERENCES
Brown, Cynthia A. (1998) The role of the L1
grammar in the L2 acquisition of segmental structure. Second
Language Research 14, 136-193
Cook, Vivien. (1991). The poverty-of-the-stimulus argument and
multi-competence. Second Language Research, 7(2), 103-117.
Halle, P., Segui, J., Frauenfelder, U., & Meunier, C. (1998).
Processing of illegal consonant clusters: A case of perceptual
assimilation? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception
and Performance, 24, 592–608.
Jared, Debra. & Kroll, Judith F. (2001). Do bilinguals activate
phonological representations in one or both of their languages when
naming words? Journal of Memory and Language 44,
2–31.
Larson-Hall, Jenifer. (2004). Predicting perceptual success with
segments: a test of Japanese speakers of Russian. Second Language
Research 20, 33-76
Paradis, C. (2006). The unnatural /Cju/ (< foreign /Cy/) sequence on
Russian loanwords: A problem for the perceptual view. Lingua 116,
976-975
Rastle, Kathleen, Harrington, Jonathan & Coltheart, Max. (2002).
358,534 nonwords: the
ARC nonword database. Quarterly Journal of Experimental
Psychology, 55A, 1339-1362.
Van Heuven, Walter J. B., Dijkstra, Ton, & Grainger, Jonathan.
(1998). Orthographic neighborhood effects in bilingual word
recognition. Journal of Memory and Language 39, 458–483.
CAUSAL AND NONFINITE VERBAL VARIATIONS & THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR HAVE … TO CONSTRUCTIONS
Stacy J. Warnick
University of South Carolina
English causative constructions often
involve a causative matrix verb followed by an NP and full VP
(1a). Two key elements in interpreting such constructions are the
choice of causative verb and its complement structure. Goldsmith
(1984) outlines key differences between three primary English
causatives: get, have, and make.
Extending arguments from Shibatani (1973), Goldsmith focuses on the
degree of willpower each verb assigns to the causee, and the amount of
force the matrix subject may impose to achieve the targeted
effect. At opposite ends of the spectrum, make most
strongly implies imposition of the matrix subject’s will upon the
causee, while get suggests the matrix subject must persuade
the causee and subsequently the causee undertakes
the target action of his/her own volition.Somewhat in the middle, have
suggests the will of the causee is irrelevant, either
because of a power imbalance between the matrix subject and causee, or
because the two share equal stakes in achieving the target
action. These differences help explain different circumstances
under which each verb may be used (see (2a) – (2f)).
Syntactically, an important alternation in these and other causative
verbs lies in each one’s ability to take a to+infinitive or
bare infinitive complement. Hamawand (2003) identifies this as
key to understanding the different meanings Goldsmith outlines.
Building on Langacker (1987) he argues bare infinitives denote a
single, coherent complement clause which correlates with “greater
structural and conceptual integration into the main clause” (2003:
195). The focus is on the matrix subject’s action to bring about
the effect of the entire complement clause. By contrast, to-infinitives
introduce a second complement, focusing the causee and allotting it two
separate roles, both as the target upon which the matrix subject acts
and as the entity which undertakes the complementizing action.
Hyde (2000) offers a somewhat different approach: while agreeing that a
separated subject reading is possible with some to-infinitive
constructions, he argues for a distinction between simple PP to-infinitive
complements (3a) and those which take a small clause to-infinitive
(3b). Crucial to his proposed small clause structure is the
presence of an abstract verb, which shares in the burden of assigning
meaning to clauses constructed thusly as opposed to those which take a
simple PP to-infinitive.
This small clause approach, in conjunction with Goldsmith’s conceptual
distance assertions, is useful in understanding alternations found with
causal verbs that can take either a bare infinitive or to-infinitive.
Goldsmith discusses help and its ability to take either,
illustrating how this alternation carries the different degree of
matrix subject and causee involvement/volition as described
above. This can also be applied to the have … to causative
construction found in some Southern American English dialects.
Speakers with this construction also have the standard have+bare
infinitive construction; the to+infinitive construction is
identified as primarily appropriate in such situations as when the
causer is employed by the causee. Understanding have…to as
a small clause to-infinitive construction can explain its
utility as a means of expressing politeness in formal circumstances.
(1) a. Dudley made [causative matrix verb] his dog [NP] get off the couch [full VP complement].
(2) a. Elizabeth got/*made/*had
her mother to let her stay up late.
b. Gretchen got/made/had
her husband to clean the stovetop.
c. Joan had her brother pick up an extra
bottle of milk.
d. Mrs. Thrustle made the
children stay after school and clean the erasers.
e. *?Mr. Malone got his
secretary to retype the paper.
f. *I had the terrorist
put down the gun.
(Goldsmith 1984: 118)
(3) a. Agnesi expected [PP to [VP
PROi [V’ win [XP the race]]]]
b. Agnesi expected [sc herselfi (abstract
verb) [PP to [VP PROi [V’ win [XP the race]]]]]
REFERENCES
Butters, Ronald, and Settler, K.
1986. Existential and causative have … to. American
Speech. 61(2): 184-90.
Davies, William D. and Dubinsky, Stanley. 2004. The
Grammar of Raising and Control. Oxford: Blackwell
Publishing.
Dixon, R. M. W. 1991. A New Approach to English
Grammar. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Dubinsky, Stanley and Baba, J. 2000. A Novel Semantic Rule
for Causee Marking and Its Pedagogical Applications in Japanese. Journal
of the Association of Teachers of Japanese. 34(1): 1-24.
Duffley, Patrick J. and Fisher, Ryan. 2005. Verb + to +
infinitive vs. verb + to + gerund-participle: a preliminary
exploration. Langues et Linguistique. 31: 33-61.
Goldsmith, John. 1984. Causative; Verbs in English. In Papers from the
Parasession on Lexical Semantics, David Testen,Veena Mishra, and Joseph
Drogo (eds), 117-30. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.
Hamawand, Zeki. 2005. The construal of salience in atemporal complement
clauses in English. Language Sciences. 27: 193-213.
Hyde, Brett. 1999. The structures of the to-infinitive. Lingua.
100: 27-58.
Shibatani, Masayoshi. 1973. The grammar of causative
constructions: a conspectus. In Masayoshi Shibatani (ed.), The
Grammar of causative constructions, 1-40. New York: Academic
Press.
BENEFACTIVE ALTERNATION: FURTHER CONSIDERATION OF LEVINSON’S ACCOUNT OF DOUBLE OBJECT CONSTRUCTIONS
Stephen L. Mann
University of South Carolina
The dative alternation (DA) has been a frequent object of syntactic analysis. The focus of these analyses has been the syntactic representation and the constraints on its application (lexical, morphophonological, syntactic, semantic, and/or discursive). A recent study by Levinson (2005) provides empirical support for a movement analysis of DA that contrasts with the many in situ accounts that have been recently posited. Levinson suggests different thematic roles to explain the lack of parallelism in (1) and (2). Mary is a recipient, and London is a directional. She suggests discursive motivation for DA as well as syntactic constraints on movement.
Contrary to other movement accounts of dative alternation, Levinson suggests that DA is underlyingly the DP-DP variant, and the DP-PP variant is the result of movement, as shown in (3). For Levinson, therefore, (1a) is derived from (1b). There is only one grammatical variant in the directional construction, so (2a) represents both the underlying and surface forms.
Levinson focuses solely on the to-dative, but concludes her paper with a prediction that her analysis should “extend to other DP-PP alternations” (167). In response to her prediction, I consider parallel benefactive structures, as in (4) and (5). These benefactive pairs reveal a similar pattern. In (4), John is the intended recipient of a sweater, comparable to Mary being the recipient of the letter in (1). (5b) is ungrammatical, because John will not receive the chores. There is no (and could never be) transfer of possession. I also consider Levinson’s diagnostics, specifically wh-words, British do-ellipsis, and scope freezing.
A movement account of DA is preferred to a base-generated approach, because it accounts for the semantic equivalence of the DP-PP and DP-DP variants. According to most accounts, there is no semantic difference between the members of the pair in (1) or in (2). The semantic approach to constraints is preferable, because it does not assume a speaker’s abstract diachronic knowledge of verbal etymology (Germanic vs. Latinate), as suggested in some accounts of constraints on DA (e.g., Pinker (1989)). It also explains interspeaker variation in the use of DA with verbs like donate (explained by Levinson) and transmit. In (6a), John will physically receive the fax. (6b) is only interpreted as grammatical if a physical written message is transmitted. If the message is oral, the sentence is marginally grammatical at best. I consider transmit rather than donate, because it appears to be more widely accepted as grammatical in dative alternation constructions. I also consider suggest, which allows either a to-dative or a for-dative.
The primary beneficial outcome of this study is support for Johnson’s (1991) claim that all DP-PP alternations (not just the to-dative) are syntactically similar and share motivations and constraints. As a result, first language (L1) learners of English only have to acquire one structure rather than the myriad structures posited by other researchers. Future research will need to examine the L1 order of acquisition of the DA variants to further test Levinson’s hypothesis that DA is underlyingly DP-DP.
(1) a. John sent the letter to Mary.
(Levinson 2005)
b. John sent Mary the letter.
(2) a. John sent the letter to London.
(Levinson 2005)
b.*John sent London the letter.
(3) a. Recipient PP: [a letteri [to
Mary [tv ti]VP ]RecP ]FP
b. Recipient DP: [Mary [APPLRec [tv a letter]VP
]RecP ]RecP
(4) a. I knitted a sweater for John.
b. I knitted John a sweater.
(5) a. She did the chores for John.
b. *She did John the chores.
(6) a. I transmitted the fax to John.
b. ?* I transmitted the message to John.
REFERENCES
Johnson, Kyle. 1991. Object positions.
Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 9.577-636.
Levinson, Lisa. 2005. ‘To’ in two places and the dative alternation.
University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 11.155-68.
Pinker, Stephen. 1989. Learnability and cognition: the acquisition of
argument structure. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
THE “DOUBLE MODAL”: DIALECTAL VARIANT OR LATENT MODAL STRUCTURE?
Minta Elsman
University of South Carolina
Double modal (DM) structures such as I might could get it for you are employed by speakers of Southern American and African American English. These structures appear to counter-exemplify standard accounts of English syntactic structure which (i) allow only one tensed element per clause and (ii) locate modal auxiliaries only in the tensed position.
Several attempts have been made to analyze DM structures within these standard assumptions. Such analyses have variously proposed that: (i) the second modal is a bare infinitive (Marrano 1997; van Gelderen 2003), (ii) the first modal is an adjunct (Battistella 1991; 1995); or (iii) the first modal is a specifier (Turner 1981) of the second. These accounts are all contradicted by the tense-like behavior exhibited by both modals (1-3). The iteration of aspect and negation within DMs (4) has also been interpreted as evidence that they are single lexical items (Di Paolo 1987), but the seperability of these structures (1-3) contradicts this claim.
Another aspect of these structures not adequately explained by any analysis is the prominence of might and may in the initial position. McDowell (1987) argues that epistemic may, must and might are non-lexical operators that move from INFL to Comp at LF, as evidenced by the failure of these modals to govern empty categories (5) and to participate in inversion (6). McDowell’s claim that deontic modals remain in INFL implies that only may, must and might can take scope over the entire sentence. However, Brewer (1979) argues that deontic modals are semantically bifunctional, indicating both (i) the relationship between the subject and non-modal predicate and (ii) the speaker’s commitment to the truth of the entire proposition. For example, in (7), can expresses a relationship of ability between the subject and the predicate take me. The fact that can also indicates the speaker’s view of the probability of his or her brother providing a ride is evidenced by the incompatability of the modalized clause with the speaker’s overt evaluation I’m not sure. Syntactic evidence for a bifunctional analysis of deontic modals comes from the fact that they behave like control verbs with respect to voice asymmetry (8) (Brewer 1979), but as raising verbs with respect to expletive insertion (9) (Barbiers 2006).
Given the evidence that lexical modals simultaneously scope between the subject and predicate (7, 8) and above the entire sentence (7, 9), I expand McDowell’s analysis with the claim that deontic modals are complex elements, generated within vP (where they specify the subject-predicate relationship) and containing a null epistemic operator that moves to Comp at LF to take scope over the entire clause. I argue that may, must, and might, now grammaticalized as operators, are employed as alternate (pronounced) operator components of deontic modals, resulting in the formation of DM structures. This analysis, set within the parameters of the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995), accounts for both the patterns of variation exhibited by interrogative, negated, and iterative DMs (1-9), and the contradictory behavior of single deontic modals (8, 9).
(1) Inversion:
a. Should
we might cancel the trip?
[Mishoe
& Montgomery 1994: 11]
b. Might can
you do this later?
[Boertien 1986:
298]
(2) Tagging:
a. He must wouldn’t
steal, would he?
[Boertien 1986: 299]
(3) Negation:
a. I was afraid you might
couldn’t find it [this address].
b. I thought maybe . . . I might
not could understand
you. [Di Paolo 1987: 216-217]
(4) Iteration (Negation and Aspect)
a. He mighta
should’ve gotten home by now.
b. He might not couldn’t
refuse.
[Di
Paolo 1987: 217]
(5) John must wash his car every day, and Peter must
__ too.
*’It is necessarily
the case that John washes his car every day, and it is necessarily
the case that Peter
does so
too.’
[McDowell 1987: 230-243]
(6) May it rain later?
*‘Is it possible
that it will rain
later?’
[Battistella 1991:
61]
(7) A: Do you need a ride to the party tomorrow?
B: *I’m not sure, my
brother can take me.
(8) a. The doctor tried to examine John ≠ John tried
to be examined by the doctor.
[Davies & Dubinsky 2004:
5]
b. He can beat
the champion ≠ The champion can be beaten
by him. [Brewer 1979: 63]
(9) a. There seems
to be a man in the room.
b. There must
be a solution to this problem on my table this morning. [Barbiers
2002: 7]
REFERENCES
Battistella, Edwin. 1995. The
syntax of the double modal construction. Linguistica
Atlantica 17.19-44.
Brewer, Nicola M. 1987. Modality and factivity: One
perspective on the meaning of the English modal auxiliaries.
Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Leeds (United Kingdom).
Chomsky, Noam. 1995. The Minimalist Program.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
Di Paolo, Marianna. 1989. Double modals as single lexical
items. American Speech 64.195-244.
Marrano, Ann Marie. 1997. The syntax of modality: A comparative study
of epistemic and root modal verbs in Spanish and English. Doctoral
dissertation, Georgetown, University, Washington, D.C.
McDowell, J. 1987. Assertion and modality. Ph.D.
dissertation. University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
Turner, Kathleen. 1981. A unified description of the systematic
nature of double modals. Master’s thesis. University of Alabama.
Van Gelderen, Elly. 2003. Asp(ect) in English modal
complements. Studia Linguistica, 57(1). 27-43.
A-PREFIXING: THEN AND NOW
Jeremy Graves
University of South Carolina
One of the most noticeable peculiarities of certain Southern American dialects is the presence of an unstressed initial /ə/ before present participles in –ing, as in such phrases as I’m a-going to the store. Due to its conspicuousness, this feature has received much attention in studies of dialects in the Southeast, and in particular that of the Appalachian Mountain region. In all of these studies, the most hotly debated issue regarding the a-prefix (as Wolfram 1980 names it), is the question of its semantic value. Does it indicate a meaning different from that of non-prefixed forms? The suggested answers to this question are similar for the most part, offering terms such as “intensity of action,” “duration,” and “indefiniteness” among others to account for an apparent semantic difference between prefixed and non-prefixed forms. Most conclude in some form or another that while the prefixed forms do not indicate any meaning that is not expressed by the progressive in general, there are certain instances in which the prefix seems more likely to occur. However, the majority of these studies are sociolinguistic in nature and as such rely on present day examples of speech from which they draw their conclusions. The purpose of this paper will be to examine the occurrence of the a-prefix from a historical standpoint in order to determine how the prefix has developed morphologically, syntactically, and especially semantically.
Using the Corpus of English Dialogues, courtesy of Merja Kÿto, Uppsala Universitet, and a collection of correspondence written by Southern plantation overseers, courtesy of Michael Montgomery, I have compiled a corpus spanning from 1560-1864. Using this corpus, I have stratified attestations of the a-prefix along the lines of occurrence with time adverbials such as now, then, as, when, while, verbs of motion such as go, come, fall, and the simple occurrences of a form of be followed by the prefix, followed by the participle. I compared prefixed forms with none prefixed forms in the same environments, and these data show that by the late sixteenth century there was little or no specialized use for the prefixed form. It is, therefore, simply a variant of the regular, nonprefixed present progressive, and has been since at least the late sixteenth century.
REFERENCES
Dietrich, Julia 1981. The Gaelic Roots of
a-prefixing in Appalachian English. American Speech 56, 314.
Feagin, Crawford 1979. Variation and Change in Alabama English: A
Sociolinguistic Study of the White Community. Washington, D. C.:
Georgetown University Press.
Hackenberg, R. 1972 A sociolinguistic description of Appalachian
English. Georgetown University dissertation.
Jespersen, Otto Van. 1954 A Modern English Grammar on Historical
Principles, vol. 4. George Allen & Unwin. London.
Jespersen, Otto Van. 1923 Growth and Structure of the English
Language. D. Appleton & Company. New York.
Joos, Martin. 1964. The English Verb. University of Wisconsin
Press.
Miles, Celia. 1980. Selected Verb Features in Haywood County,
North Carolina.
Mittendorf, Ingo and Poppe, Erich. 2000. Celtic Contacts of the
English Progressive? In Tristram, Hildegard L. C., ed. The Celtic
Englishes II. Universitätsverlag.
Palmer, F. R. 1988. The English Verb. Longman.
Pearson, Bruce L. 1977. Introduction to Linguistic Concepts.
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Poppe, Erich. 2003. Progress on the Progressive? A Report. In Tristram,
Hildegard L. C., ed. The Celtic Englishes III.
Universitätsverlag.
Quirk, Randolph, Greenbaum, Sidney, et. al. 1985. A Comprehensive
Grammar of the English Language. Longman.
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs. 1972. The History of English Syntax.
Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
Visser, F. Th. 1973. An Historical Syntax of the English Language.
III, second half. E. J. Brill. Leiden.
Wolfram, Walt. 1980. A-prefixing in Appalachian English Locating
Language in Time and Space, ed. By William Labov, 107-42. New
York: Academic Press.
Wolfram, Walt. 1988. Reconsidering the Semantics of a-prefixing American
Speech 63, 3, 247-53.
DOLLY PARTON SHE IS NOT: INDEXING REGION, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY IN DRAG QUEEN PERFORMANCES
Stephen L. Mann
University of South Carolina
In an earlier paper (Mann 2006), I examine a drag queen hostess’ use of expletives in an on-stage performance to play on the crossing of genders, to add humor, and to (re)enforce group solidarity. I continue that discussion in the current study by expanding the scope of my analysis to include consideration of regional background and sexuality.
The data were collected at a gay bar in
the southeastern United States whose weekly talent show attracts a
diverse audience. Building on Barrett (1998), I analyze the hostess’
style shifting among several varieties of American English: southern US
English, gay men’s English (Barrett 1997; Leap 1996), stereotyped white
women’s English, emcee style, and southern belle style. I consider her
style shifting within the context of the performance frame (Bauman
1977). I then focus on specific segments of the show and provide an
analysis of the hostess’ style choice within each segment.
Speakers have metacommunicative knowledge of frames. They can recognize
the linguistic and non-linguistic cues – what Goffman (1974) calls keys
– that signal the end of one frame and the beginning of the next. The
weekly talent show is situated within a performance frame. The
performance as a whole is keyed with music, but there are several
identifiable segments of the show each contained within its own
subframe. These segments are often keyed linguistically.
Announcements of upcoming events, which are given at the beginning, middle, and end of the show, function as the linguistic equivalents of an overture, an entr’acte, and exit music. Announcements are given by either the DJ or the hostess in emcee style, a variety distinguished by consistently raised volume, monotone pitch, and set phrases (e.g., the vocative ladies and gentlemen).
The monologue and audience involvement segments of the show are keyed by a shift to southern belle style, which is a hybrid of southern US English and stereotyped white women’s English. This style is distinguished by a higher, more dynamic pitch and lexical items that are characteristic of southern women’s speech (e.g., the vocative honey). The hostess uses knowledge of the perceived connection of southern belle speech with solidarity characteristics such as friendliness, caring, and trustworthiness to gain the trust of individual audience members. By doing so, she is able to make them more willing to participate in various interactive portions of the show. She also uses the southern belle style to reinforce the Dolly Parton-esque persona that she is trying to project.
This paper examines a drag show at multiple levels of performance. There is the full performance frame that is situated within the larger context of the bar activities. There are also clearly defined segments of the performance, each in its own subframe. The most specific level of analysis is the style used for each individual utterance. The style that keys a segment is not the only style that is used. As Barrett (1998) has shown, style shifting is the unmarked choice in drag performances as linguistic choices are constantly being evaluated.
REFERENCES
Barrett, Rusty. 1997. The "homo-genius"
speech community. Queerly phrased: language, gender, and sexuality, ed.
by Anna Livia and Kira Hall, 181-201. New York: Oxford University Press.
─. 1998. Markedness and styleswitching in performances by African
American drag queens. Codes and consequences: choosing linguistic
varieties, ed. by Carol Myers-Scotton, 139-61. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Bauman, Richard. 1977. Verbal art as performance. Rowley, MA: Newbury
House Publishers.
Goffman, Erving. 1974. Frame analysis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press.
Lakoff, Robin. 1975. Language and woman’s place. New York: Harper and
Row.
Leap, William L. 1996. Word's out: gay men's English. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press.
Mann, Stephen L. 2006. The Use of Expletives in Drag Queen
Performances. Paper presented at Lavender Languages and Linguistics
XIII, Washington, DC.
Faculty Profile: Barbara Schulz (top)
Research Interests
My primary area of specialization is second language (L2) acquisition
but I am interested in how we acquire an L2 for purely linguistic
reasons. I consider the utterances produced by non-native speakers to
be language, so I think that they fall within the range of linguistic
theory and should be describable within this research tradition. I
sincerely believe that interlanguages (i.e., the language systems used
by L2 learners) can inform us about how language is acquired, how it is
represented and how it is processed in the human mind. However, this
does not mean that I assume interlanguages to be equivalent in nature
to primary languages, as I regard this to be one of the intriguing but
as yet unanswered questions addressed within the field of L2
acquisition.
Current Projects
(a) Memory retrieval mechanisms
- It seems to be the case that native speakers have two different retrieval mechanisms at their disposal when they need to resolve syntactic dependencies. One of them appears to be length-sensitive an thus might rely on a search strategy that requires the parser to check every item contained in working memory. The second one, on the other hand, seems to be length-*in*sensitive and might therefore rely on more semantic cues in its search for the right element, making it unnecessary to check all elements that are currently stored in working memory. The question that then arises is, whether L2 speakers use the same retrieval mechanisms for the same parsing operations as native speakers do, and to what extent differences in memory retrieval mechanisms might account for differences in the linguistic behavior of L2 learners.
(b) The use of indirect negative evidence in L2 acquisition
- It is not uncommon for L2 learners to have a grammar that appears not to be restrictive enough in that it allows more constructions than the target language does (i.e., the interlanguage grammar forms a superset of the target language grammar). In such cases, positive input cannot inform the learner that his/her grammar is not target-like, and the question arises as to how learners come to realize that their grammar is too lenient. One proposal on how L2 learners overcome the superset-subset problem is that they make use of indirect negative evidence. They expect to encounter, in their input, all syntactic constructions that their grammar can generate and notice which ones actually never occur. On the basis of this non-occurrence, they then conclude that this construction must be ungrammatical. This learning mechanism, however, would predict that constructions that are grammatical in the target language but are at the same time so rare that a learner hardly ever encounters them should also be flagged as ungrammatical. Currently, I am testing this prediction in collaboration with a group of students by looking at parasitic gap constructions in English.
Faculty Activity (top)
Anne
Bezuidenhout
(sabbatical leave AY 2006-07)
Grants (with Robin Morris):
- Bezuidenhout, A. & Morris, R. (co-PIs). Research & Productive Scholarship grant to work on the processing of parenthetical expressions. Cintia Widmann RA.
Papers:
- Bezuidenhout, A. (2006). Language as internal, in E. Lepore & B. Smith (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press, chap. 5, pp. 127-139.
- Bezuidenhout, A. (2006). The coherence of contextualism, Mind & Language 21: 1-10.
- Bezuidenhout, A. (2006). VP-ellipsis and the case for representationalism in semantics, ProtoSociology 22: 136-164.
- Bezuidenhout, A. (2005). Indexicals and Perspectivals, Facta Philosophica 7: 3-18.
Book reviews:
- Bezuidenhout, A. (2006). Review of Searle, J. Language and Consciousness, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, in Language 82(4): 930-934.
Encyclopedia entries:
- Bezuidenhout, A. (2005). Entries for ‘The Semantics/Pragmatics boundary’; ‘Expression meaning vs. utterance/speaker meaning’ and ‘Non standard language use’, The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2nd edition, Editor in Chief, Keith Brown, Elsevier Publishers.
Presentations:
- Bezuidenhout, A. (2006). Towards a unified account of perspective shifting in conversation, paper presented for the Wake Forest University Philosophy Colloquium series, November 16, 2006.
- Bezuidenhout, A. (2006). 'Lectures on contextualism', series of invited lectures for a short course at Norwegian University of Science & Technology, Trondheim, Norway, September 25-29, 2006.
- Bezuidenhout, A. (2006). 'The problem of irrelevance and the minimalist-contextualist debate in semantics', invited response to paper by Kent Johnson, presented at the SSPP meetings in Charleston, SC, April 13-15, 2006.
- Bezuidenhout, A. (2006). 'Presupposition and assertoric inertia', invited talk given to the Institute for the Philosophy of Language, The New University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal, March 3, 2006.
- Bezuidenhout, A. (2006). 'Presupposition and assertoric inertia', presented at the joint SCSP/NCPS meetings in Columbia, SC, February 17-18, 2006.
(includes entries since 2004, when his information was last reported in Babble)
Grants
- Research and Productive Scholarship ($18,000): “Reducing Cortical Atrophy and Improving Functional Outcomes in Post-Hemispherectomy Children” (co-PI & mentor for consulting faculty member Stella de Bode).
- NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant ($11,936): “Continuity Hypotheses Revisited: English L2 Acquisition of Bulgarian Nominal Domain” (co-PI, Mila Tasseva)
- NSF Grant for panel at 2005 LSA Annual Meeting and workshop at 2005 LSA Linguistic Institute ($18,696): “The grammar of Raising and Control” (co-PI, Wm. Davies)
Awards
- Russell Research Award for Humanities and Social Sciences.
- Finalist, Mungo Graduate Teaching Award.
Edited volume
- 2006 (with William Davies) Guest edited issue (9.2) of Syntax: A journal of theoretical, experimental and interdisciplinary research 9.2; a special issue featuring articles based on a symposium at the 2005 LSA annual meeting, “New Horizons in the Grammar of Raising and Control”.113 pp.
Refereed journal article
- 2006 (with William Davies). The place, range, and taxonomy of Control and Raising. Syntax: A Journal of Theoretical, Experimental, and Interdisciplinary Research 9(2).1-7.
Book chapter
- 2007 (with William Davies). On the existence (and distribution) of sentential subjects. In Gerdts, Moore, and Polinsky (eds.), Festschrift for David Perlmutter. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Journal Editing
- 2007-present. Editorial Board member, Syntax and Morphology section of Language and Linguistics Compass (peer-reviewed survey articles from across the entire discipline), Blackwell Publishing.
- Book Review Editor for Language, Journal of the Linguistic Society of America.
Papers in conference proceedings
- 2007 (to appear). Parasitic gaps in restrictive and appositive clauses. Proceedings of IATL 22 (July 2006), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. http://atar.mscc.huji.ac.il/~english/IATL/
- 2006 (with Shoko Hamano). Control into Adverbial Predicate PPs. Japanese/Korean Linguistics 14. Stanford: CSLI, Stanford University, pp. 177-188.
Paper in working papers volume
- 2006 (with Shoko Hamano). A window into the syntax of Control: Event opacity in Japanese and English In Anastasia Conroy, Chunyuan Jing, Chizuru Nakao and Eri Takahashi (eds.), University of Maryland Working Papers in Linguistics (UMWPiL) 15. College Park MD: UMWPiL.
Encyclopedia entry
- 2005 (with William Davies). Encyclopedia entry on “Control and Raising” in Keith Brown (ed.-in-chief), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (2nd Edition), vol. 3, 131-138. Oxford: Elsevier Ltd (ISBN 0-08-044299-4).
Refereed conference papers
- 2007 On the syntax of exhaustive Control and the calculus of events. LSA Annual Meeting, Anaheim, CA. January 2007.
- 2006 Parasitic gaps in restrictive and appositive clauses. Israeli Association of Theoretical Linguistics, Jerusalem. July 2006.
- 2006 (with Shoko Hamano). Some Japanese adverbial phrases: A grammatical puzzle. Southern Japan Seminar, Coral Gables FL. March 2006.
- 2005 (with Shoko Hamano). A window into Case and Control: Japanese adverbial predicate PPs. Southeastern Conference on Linguistics (SECOL). North Carolina State University. April 2005.
- 2005 (with William Davies). New horizons in the Grammar of Raising and Control. LSA Annual Meeting, Oakland, CA. January 2005. (3 hour symposium consisting of opening and closing remarks by the organizers and 5 invited 30 minute papers)
- 2004 (with Shoko Hamano). Control into Adverbial Predicate PPs. Japanese/Korean Linguistics Conference (J/KL), University of Arizona. November 2004.
- 2004 (with Shoko Hamano). Obligatory control in Japanese manner adverbials. Control verbs in cross-linguistic perspective. Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Typologie und Universalienforschung (ZAS), Berlin. May 2004.
Invited talks
- On the forms and functions of Control (and Raising). Linguistic Society of Korea International Summer Conference. Seoul. July 2006.
- On the distribution of parasitic gaps in appositive clauses and restrictive modifiers. Korean Generative Grammar Circle, invited lecture. Dongguk University, Seoul. July 2006.
- Observations on Case and Control in Japanese and English. Seoul National University, invited lecture. July 2006.
- Sentential (and other non-nominal) subjects. 2006 SMOG International Conference on Linguistics, invited forum lecture. The Society of Modern Grammar, Daegu Catholic University, Korea. July 2006.
- Case and Control in Japanese (and English). University of Kentucky, Department of English, invited lecture. March 2006.
Locally presented colloquia and other lectures
- (with William Davies) Factors governing the existence and distribution of sentential subjects in English. Hard Data Café, Psychology Department, University of South Carolina, September 2004.
- Child language: Its nature, its development, and interacting with it. Edventure Museum staff training, Columbia, SC, May 2004.
- Discussant at roundtable, Foreign Languages through Distance Education, Southern Conference on Slavic Studies, Spring 2006.
- Language Planning in Bosnia and Herzegovina: the 1998 Bihać Symposium. Slavic and East European Journal Vol. 46, Number 2, Summer 2002.
In preparation:
- New media: Sõna Vocabulary Assistant. Interactive cross-platform tool for language learners. Currently being tested by students in 1st- and 3rd-year Russian courses; final release slated for spring 2007.
- Book chapter: The Balkans, to be co-authored with Dr. Robert Greenberg, for publication in Sociolinguistics Around the World, Routledge, 2008.
- Textbook: Mastering Russian Participles. Currently developing proposal for submission to publishers.
- A Bibliography of English Etymology, 1599-1999, with some additions for later years. With Ari Hoptman and Martha Mayou. Edited by Anatoly Liberman with the assistance of Ari Hoptman. Vol. 1 of An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007. (In Press)
- Old High German kx and the Mechanism of Germanic Consonant Shifts. Berkeley Germanic Linguistics Roundtable, Berkeley, April 2006.
- Appointed to the editorial board of the journal NOWELE North-Western European Language Evolution.
- Book chapter: Optimality Theory and language change in Spanish. Optimality-Theoretic Advances in Spanish Phonology. Fernando Martínez-Gil and Sonia Colina, eds. Benjamins, 2006. 378-396. Includes appendix Bibliography on Optimality Theory and language variation and change in Spanish. 396-398.
- Conference presentations:
- Intersecting Paradigms: Preposition + Article Contraction and Leveling in Medieval Castile, 52nd Meeting of the International Linguistic Association, New York City, March 30-April 1, 2007. (With Minta M. Elsman.)
- An OT Analysis of Preposition + Article Contraction (and Leveling) in Medieval Castile, Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics (GURT): Small words: Their history, phonology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and acquisition. Washington, DC, March 8-11, 2007. (With Minta M. Elsman.)
- Invited lectures:
- Insights from phonological theory for historical variation and change, and vice versa. California State University, Long Beach, Department of Linguistics, March 12, 2007.
- What linguistic theory can help us understand about the development of Spanish. California State University, San Bernardino. (2006)
- Appointment: Associate editor, Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, to begin publication in 2007-2008.
Articles in Refereed Books and Journals
- Lomicka, L., & Lord, G. (in press). Foreign Language Teacher Preparation and Asynchronous CMC: Promoting Reflective Teaching. To appear in the Journal of Technology and Teacher Education.
- Lomicka, L. (2006). Understanding the other: Intercultural exchange and CMC. In N. Arnold and L. Ducate. (Eds): Calling on CALL: From theory and research to new directions in foreign language teaching, pp. 211-236.
- Ducate, L., & Lomicka, L. (2005). Exploring the Blogosphere: Uses of Weblogs in the Foreign Language Classroom. Foreign Language Annals, 38 (3), pp. 410-421.
- Arnold, N., Ducate, L., Lomicka, L., & Lord, G. (2005). Using Computer-mediated Communication to Establish Social and Supportive Environments in Teacher Education. CALICO Journal, 22(3), Special Issue on Computer-Mediated Communication, pp. 537-566.
Conference Presentations
- “Peer and Expert Communities of Practice in Teacher Education.” Paper presented at CALICO, Honolulu, HI, May 2006 with Nike Arnold and Lara Ducate.
- “Bringing it to the Table: A Roundtable Discussion on Current Issues in Modern Language Education in the Carolinas.” Paper presented at SCFLTA, Columbia, SC, March 2006 with Darrell Dernoshek and Lara Ducate.
Articles Under Review
- Virtual Communities of Practice in Teacher Education
- Social presence in virtual communities of foreign language (FL) teachers
Articles In Preparation
- An Investigation of Classroom Community in Language Teacher Education through Blended Learning
- Building Identity: From Blog Readers to Blog Writers
Books
- From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English. Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation.
- The Academic Study of Ulster-Scots: Essays for and by Robert J. Gregg. Cultra: Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. Smyth, Anne, Michael Montgomery, and Philip Robinson. 2006.
Articles and Chapters
- "Notes on the Development of Existential They." American Speech 81: 132-45.
- "The Morphology and Syntax of Ulster Scots," English World-Wide 26: 295-328.
- "`Hit'll Kill You or Cure You, One'": The History and Function of Alternative one." Language Variation and Change in the American Midland, ed. by Thomas E. Murray and Beth Lee Simon, xx. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 151-62.
- Section editor for Language, and author of seven entries for the Encyclopedia of Appalachia, including "Moonshine Terminology," "Joseph Sargent Hall and Appalachian Speech," "Cratis Williams and Appalachian Speech," "Speech Play," "Place Names," and "Overview." Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.
Appointment
Senior Associate Editor, American Speech.
Grant
• Reynolds, J.F., Principal Investigator, (2007). USC Research Opportunity Program Grant – Category II ($10.000). “Reconstructing Families in a Restructured Market: Childhood, Care-giving, and New Immigrant Families in a Rural Iowa Meatpacking Community.”
Articles in refereed books & journals
- Duranti, A. and Reynolds, J. (forthcoming). “Phonological and cultural innovations in the speech of Samoans in Southern California.” To appear in Beyond Yellow English: Toward a Linguistic Anthropology of Asian Pacific America, Angela Reyes & Adrienne Lo, (eds.). Oxford University Press.
- Reynolds, J. F. (forthcoming). “Shaming the shift generation.” To appear in Native American Language Ideologies: Language Beliefs, Practices, and Struggles in Indian Country, Margaret Field & Paul V. Kroskrity, (eds.). Tuscon: University of Arizona Press.
- Reynolds, J. F. (2007). “‘Buenos Días/((Military Salute))’: The natural history of a coined insult.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 40(4).
Articles under review
- Reynolds, J. F. & Orellana, M. F. (under review). “When the subaltern must speak: Immigrant youth as translators and interpreters Language & Communication.
- Orellana, M. F. & Reynolds, J. F. (under review). “Cultural Modeling: Leveraging bilingual skills for school paraphrasing tasks.” Reading Research Quarterly.
Encyclopedia entries
- Reynolds, J. F. (forthcoming). “Childhood and Adolescence in Latin American Societies and Cultures” to appear in The Chicago Companion to the Child, Richard Shweder, (ed.).
- Orellana, M. F., Dorner, L. M., and Reynolds, J. F. (2006). “Children.” In James Loucky, Jeanne Armstrong & Larry J. Estrada (Eds.), Immigration in America Today: An Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Inc.
Book reviews
- Reynolds, J. F. (2007). Book review in American Anthropologist 109(3). Language, Culture, and Society, edited by Christine Jourdan and Kevin Tuite
- Reynolds, Jennifer F. (2006). Book review in American Ethnologist 33(4). Armies of the Young: Child Soldiers in War and Terrorism, by David M. Rosen.
Refereed conference papers
- Reynolds, J. F. “Mayan Youth Patas Arriba: What Antonero Maya Kids Make of Latin American Modern Childhoods.” Paper to be presented in a panel titled “Children, race and ethnicity in Latin America and among Latinos in the US” at the Latin American Studies Association 2007 Congress, Montréal, Canada, September 5-8, 2007.
- Reynolds, J. F. “Antonero Kids’ Performance of Royal “Palabras” (Words/Speeches).” Paper to be presented in a panel I co-organized with Amy Kyratzis and Ann-Carita Evaldsson, titled “Multilingualism, Register-/Code-Switching, and Identity in Children’s Peer Play Interactions” at the 10th International Pragmatics Conference, Göteborg, Sweden. July 8-13 2007.
- Reynolds, J. F. “Mayan kids socialization to and through language in a world patas arriba (up-side-down): What Menchú, Pan-Mayas, and Antonero youth teach us about reconstructing Guatemalan Mayan childhoods.” Paper to be presented at the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, San José, California. November 15-19, 2006.
- Discussant in a roundtable titled, “Working Ethics for Visual Research” at the Visual Research Conference sponsored by the Society for Visual Anthropology in San José, CA. November 14-18, 2006.
- Reynolds, J. F. “I went to the doctor to get a shot for- ¿Cómo se dice ‘tuberculosis?”: Examining the social and interactional dynamics of child interpreter-mediated medical interactions.” Paper presented at the 8th Hispanic Health Issues Conference of the South Carolina Hispanic/Latino Health Coalition, Columbia, SC. October 12 & 13, 2006.
Invited presentations
- Reynolds, J. F. (2006). “The Power of Puros Pericos (Little Parrots): Antonero Maya kids talking back, negotiating authority, and subverting caregiver/peer hierarchies.” An invited talk for the Department of Sociology and Anthropology Colloquium Series, co-sponsored with the Women’s Studies Program at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, April 28, 2006.
- Schulz, B. (2006). “Wh-scope marking in English interlanguage grammars: Transfer and processing effects on the second language acquisition of complex wh-questions.” Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Hawai‘i. (http://people.cas.sc.edu/schulzb/academics/diss.html)
- Schulz, B. (2006). “Evidence for wh-scope marking in advanced Japanese-English interlanguage” In D. Bamman, Magnitskaia Tatiana & C. Zaller (Eds.), BUCLD 30 Proceedings. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla.
- Schulz, B. (2006). “Wh-scope marking in German-English and Japanese-English interlanguage grammars: An investigation of clustering syntactic properties.” In K. U. Deen, J. Nomura, B. Schulz & B. D. Schwartz (Eds.), Proceedings of the inaugural GALANA conference. Storrs: UConnWPL.
Work-in-progress
- Under contract with Cambridge University Press to write a book on Middle Class African American English, to appear in 2010.
- Under Review (Revise and Resubmit). African American English and the Middle Classes: Exploring the other end of the continuum. For Journal of Sociolinguistics.
Publications
- Accepted. African-American English in the college curriculum: Ideological and Pedagogical Issues. For Increasing language diversity in linguistics courses: Practical approaches and materials. Marianna di Paolo and Arthur Spears, eds. Ohio State University Press.
- Accepted. Gullah negation: A variable analysis. For American Speech.
- To appear. Review of American English: Dialects and Variation (Language in Society, 25), 2nd edition. Wolfram, Walt and Natalie Schilling-Estes. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. In Journal of Sociolinguistics.
- To appear. Gullah. In Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Ellen Johnson and Michael Montgomery, eds. University of North Carolina Press.
- 2007. Book Notice of Lisa Green’s African American English: A linguistic introduction. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. In Language 82.4. 948.
- 2006. Labov, William, Sharon Ash, Maya Ravindranath, Tracey Weldon, Maciej Baranowski, and Naomi Nagy. Listeners’ sensitivity to the frequency of sociolinguistic variables. In The University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 12: 2. Maya Ravindranath and Michael Friesner, eds. 105-129.
- 2005. Gullah Gullah Islands. American Voices:
How dialects differ from coast to coast. Walt Wolfram and Ben
Ward, eds. Malden and Oxford: Blackwell. 178-182. (Reprint of Weldon,
2002. Gullah Gullah Islands. Language Magazine. February
edition. 31, 33-34).
Presentations
- 2005. “Listeners’ sensitivity to the frequency of
sociolinguistic variables.” William Labov, Sharon Ash, Maya
Ravindranath, Tracey Weldon, Maciej Baranowski, and Naomi Nagy. New
Ways of Analyzing Variation (in English) (nwav(e)), NYC, New York.
Grants:
- 2004-2006. Research collaborator, “The evaluative
component in linguistic change and variation.” National Science
Foundation (NSF). #0426061. $274,000. Principal Investigator: Dr.
William Labov, (Linguistics) The University of Pennsylvania.
Co-research collaborator: Dr. Naomi Nagy, (English) The University of
New Hampshire.
Professional Activities:
- 2007. Interviewed by the Post and Courier newspaper (Charleston, S.C.) for an article on accents. Appeared May, 2007.
- 2006. Co-author of a summary statement on African American Vernacular English for the California Curriculum Commission, with William Labov (lead author), H. Samy Alim, Guy Bailey, John Baugh, Lisa Green, John Rickford, and Walt Wolfram.
- 2006. Abstract reviewer for New Ways of Analyzing Variation in English (nwav(e) 35) conference.
- 2006. Panel participant for New Faculty Orientation Session on “Success at USC”
We also look forward to the arrival of Elaine
Chun (University of Texas), who specializes in
sociolinguistics. Likewise, Nina Moreno (Georgetown
University), will join SPAN in the fall in the area of pedagogy and
second language acquisition.
Student Activity (top)
Welcome to new students Nikki Anderson, Paul Carroll, Linnea Minich, Stephanie Glotfelty, Analía Gutiérrez, Amber McKenzie, Jeremiah Pitts, Maya Repchenko, Wing Wong, and in the spring semester, Alana English.
Sara-Elizabeth Blair
-
Thesis: "We Speak Different Cultures: Intercultural Communication in an ESL Classroom".
-
Presentations:
- "Why Isn't This Working? Putting Theory to Practice in the ESL Classroom." Carolina TESOL Winter Conference. Winston-Salem, NC, February, 2007.
- "Intercultural Communication in the Diverse TESOL Classroom." TESOL 2007 Graduate Student Forum, Seattle, WA, March 20, 2007.
-
Employment: This fall I will begin teaching Spanish at Whitefield Academy in Louisville, KY, and continue to work in community-based volunteer organizations teaching ESL in the immigrant community.
Carla Breidenbach
- Defended her dissertation November 1, 2006 and graduated in December 2006.
- Deconstructing Mock Spanish: A Multidisciplinary Analysis of Mock Spanish as Racism, Humor, or Insult
- Presentation: Three phonological variables of Mock Spanish accents: (rr), (i:), and (d). Spanish in the US conference, George Mason University and the University of Maryland, College Park, March 15-18, 2007.
- Employment: Asst. Professor of Spanish, College of Charleston
Craig Callender
- Completed his dissertation and graduated in December 2006.
- A Consonant Strength and Length Analysis of West Germanic Gemination
- Publication:
- ‘The Progression of West Germanic Gemination.’ Interdisciplinary Journal for Germanic Linguistics and Semiotic Analysis. (Under review).
- Presentations:
- ‘Sound Law, Residue and Lexical Diffusion in Middle German Dialects.’ Presented at the Universität des Saarlandes English Linguistics Colloquium Series. Saarbrücken, Germany (January 2007).
- ‘A Consonant Strength and Length Reanalysis of West Germanic Gemination.’ presented at the Universität des Saarlandes Linguistics Colloquium Series. Saarbrücken, Germany (May 2006).
- ‘Sonority, Consonant Length and West Germanic Gemination.’ Presented at the Berkeley Germanic Linguistics Roundtable. Berkeley, CA (April 2006).
- Employment: Lecturer in English and Linguistics, Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, Germany.
Lori Donath
- Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) certificate, May 2007
- Negotiation of Form in Story-retelling Activities Among Adult Non-Native Speaker (NNS) Pairs. Second Place Winner in the oral presentation category of Language, Media, & Information Technology, Graduate Student Day, April 2007
- Nerds in Nerdland: The Discursive Emergence of Identity and the Transition into an Engineering Community of Practice, Invited Talk, Augusta State University, February 2006
Stephanie Glotfelty
- Areas of linguistic interest: Historical and Sociolinguistics (specifically history of the English language) and TESOL.
- I am from Springfield, VA (right outside of Washington, DC). I graduated from The College of William & Mary (Williamsburg, VA) in 2006 with a B.A. in English Literature and Secondary Education. My major areas of interest in linguistics are in the history of the English language, historical- and sociolinguistics, mainly concerning English and German, and TESOL.
Angie Green
- "ITA Competency: The Five Job Minute Interview." Carolina TESOL, Winston Salem, NC. February 15-17, 2007.
- Employment: ESL teacher in Laurens, SC school district
Analía Gutiérrez
- Education
- 2003- Licenciada en Letras, Linguistics Specialization (with Honors diploma) Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Universidad de Buenos Aires.
- 2002 - Profesora en Enseñanza Media y Superior en Letras Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Universidad de Buenos Aires.
- 2005- Diploma en enseñanza de español como lengua segunda y extranjera. Laboratorio de Idiomas. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Universidad de Buenos Aires.
- Research experience
- Linguist assistant for the interdisciplinary research project “Endangered Languages, Endangered Peoples in Argentina: Mocovi, Tapiete, Vilela, and Wichi in their ethnographic context” (University of Buenos Aires- Department of Linguistics, Max Planck Institute), as part of the Program for the Documentation of Endangered Languages (DoBeS) supported by The Volkswagen Foundation (2002-2005).Dir: Dr. Lucia A. Golluscio.
- Articles
- 2006- “Los vilelas del Chaco: desestructuración cultural, invisibilización y estrategias identitarias” Marcelo Domínguez, Lucía Golluscio y Analía Gutiérrez. Indiana 23, Berlín: Instituto Iberoamericano.
- Research interests:
- Syntax, morphology, phonology, language and cognition, first and second language acquisition, indigenous languages and language attrition.
Stephen Mann
- 2007. “Dolly Parton She Is Not: Indexing Region, Gender, and Sexuality in Drag Queen Performances.” Lavender Languages XIV, Washington, DC.
- 2006. “The Use of Expletives in Drag Queen Performances.” Lavender Languages XIII, American University, Washington, DC.
- 2006. “The Use of Expletives in Drag Queen Performances.” University of South Carolina Graduate Student Day, Columbia, SC.
- Recipient, Graduate School Centennial Fellowship, 2007.
- Recipient, Carol Myers-Scotton Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Linguistics Program, April 2007.
Nikki (Anderson) Mattson
- I am from Pennsylvania and I completed my B.A. with a major in French and a minor in English at Messiah College in PA. My areas of interest for my MA are ESL and SLA.
Amber McKenzie
Is from Columbia, SC, with a BA in Spanish from USC, and is studying for the MA with interests in SLA and Spanish linguistics.
Anna Mikhaylova
- Conference presentations:
- L2 influence on L1 intuitions of Russian-English late bilinguals. September 9, 2006. The First Slavic Linguistics Society Conference, Bloomington, IN.
- “Second Language Influence on Native Language Intuitions of Russian-English Bilinguals.” University of South Carolina Graduate Student Day 2006, Columbia, SC.
- "Markers of Ethnic Identity and the Role of Language." TESOL/Applied Linguistics Graduate Student Conference 2005, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC.
- Publication:
- 2006. Second Language Influence among Russian-English Late Bilinguals: Experimental study. Journal of Ryazan State University. Fall issue.
Linnea Minich
- My BA is in English from Covenant College, Lookout Mountain, Georgia. My areas of interest are syntax, phonology, and discourse analysis.
Robert Moonan
- defended his dissertation March 23, 2007.
- A cultural script analysis of an English-Thai bilingual speaker’s nominative usage of mommy in English yes/no question formation
- Michael Montgomery Award for Excellence in Teaching: April 2007
Mayya Repchenko, from Ukraine,
- Academic degrees:
- B.A. in English, Ternopil National Pedagogical
University. June, 2004.
- Thesis: Teaching English at schools specialized in studying foreign languages.
- B.A. in English, Ternopil National Pedagogical
University. June, 2004.
- Specialist Degree in English, German, World
Literature, Ternopil National Pedagogical University. June, 2005.
- Thesis: Linguistic peculiarities of the narrative technique in the novels 'A Farewell to Arms' and 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' by E. Hemingway.
- M.A. in English Philology, Chernivtsi National
University. June, 2006
- Thesis: Pragmatic semantics of the narrative (Author's modality).
- Current grant: Fulbright Scholarship to pursue MA in Linguistics at USC.
- Current fields of interest: Sociolinguistics, pragmatic semantics, language and national identity, language standardization, TESL.
Mila Tasseva-Kurktchieva
- defended her dissertation November 10, 2006.
- Continuity Hypotheses Revisited: English L2 Acquisition of Bulgarian Noun Phrases
- 2007, Bruce Pearson Award for Outstanding Research
- 2006, Dean's Award for Excellence in Graduate Studies, The Graduate School, University of South Carolina
- Publications
- Edited proceedings volume:
- 2006. (with James Lavine, Steven Franks and Hana Filip). Proceedings of FASL 14: The Princeton Meeting. Ann Arbor, MI: Michigan Slavic Publications.
- Refereed conference proceedings volume papers:
- 2006. The categorical status of quantifiers in Bulgarian: Evidence for QP over DP. In Proceedings of FASL 14: The Princeton Meeting.
- Edited proceedings volume:
- Conference presentations and invited talks
- What about grammar? Comprehension and production at the initial state of L2 acquisition. Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition (GASLA) 9. Iowa City, IA. May 18-20, 2007.
- Prototypical features and the L2 acquisition of morphology and syntax. Paper presented at the Linguistics Program and the Department of English. George Mason University, Fairfax, VA. February 22, 2007.
- L2 production before comprehension: Morpho-syntax vs. semantics-pragmatics. Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting (LSA). Anaheim, CA. January 4-7, 2007.
- Let's take separate paths: Comprehension and production at the initial stage of L2 acquisition. Paper presented at the Program of Second Language Studies in the Department of Linguistics. Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. December 6, 2006.
- Is morphology one step before syntax? Second Language Research Forum (SLRF) 2006. University of Washington, Seattle, WA. October 6-8, 2006.
- Morphology precedes syntax at the initial stage of L2 Acquisition? Inaugural meeting of the Slavic Linguistic Society. Bloomington, IN. September 6-8, 2006.
- Three categories of quantifiers in Bulgarian. Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting (LSA). Albuquerque, NM. January 5-8, 2006.
- Reviewer
- grant applications for National Science Foundation. 2006
- submissions for Journal of Slavic Linguistics and Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics (FASL) 15. 2006
Cintia Widmann
- Widmann, Cintia & Morris, Robin K. (2006). Phonological information in morphological decomposition in early visual word recognition. Poster presented at the Fifth International Conference on the Mental Lexicon, at McGill,