Workshop on Innovations in Cantonese Linguistics 2012

Tiffany writes:
The Workshop on Innovations in Cantonese Linguistics, the first North American conference devoted to Cantonese Linguistics, was held at The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. ROP299 students, Tiffany Chung and Josephine Tong, along with Naomi had the opportunity to present their research on “Classifier variation and change in Toronto Heritage Cantonese”; and took part in the plentiful sessions as well as workshops throughout the weekends of March 16^th to 17^th, 2012.

Photo Credit: May Chan

Naomi, Josephine and Tiffany talking about the HLVC project and Cantonese Classifiers

Aside from all the linguistics substance, we have also managed to tour around the campus, eat at a Cuban café, and travel around town.

At The Ohio Union, sitting on the bench there is the university’s mascot- Brutus Buckeye.

Photo Credit: Tiffany Chung

More Photos are available on the WICL events webpage.

NWAV40 (2011)

NWAV (New Ways of Analyzing Variation) celebrated its 40^th birthday this year in its birthplace, Georgetown University in Washington, DC.  Many of us made the trek down to present and to partake of the plentiful sessions, workshops and panels. Presenting were LeAnn Brown on trans and cis speakers, LeAnn Brown and Sali Tagliamonte on the role of narratives in linguistic change, Jack Chambers on homogeneity in Canadian English, and Matt Hunt Gardner on social accounts of the Canadian Shift, as part of the New Perspectives of Vowel Shifting panel. Sali and three of her undergraduate students, Jingwei Chen, Julia Chin and Ruth Maddeaux, presented a poster on experiential learning through sociolinguistics. Along for the ride were Bridget Jankowski, Jim Smith, Derek Denis, and UofT alumni Laura Baxter, Jacqueline Peters, Maddie Shellgren and Holly Young.  Uof T alumni presenting were Alex D’Arcy and Rebecca Roeder.

As well as taking in all that linguistic content, some of us managed to see some of the Washington sights including the Smithsonian and the fatal staircase from The Exorcist. 

Photo by Bridget Jankowski

Undergraduate Research

Linguistics students Victoria Peter and Lianna Wang (ROP299 with Diane Massam) and Tiffany Chung and Josephine Tong (ROP299 with Naomi Nagy) and Jingwei Chen, Julia Chin and Ruth Maddeaux (ROP399 with Sali Tagliamonte) presented their research work at the Undergraduate Research Fair in the Great Hall, Hart House on Thursday March 8th, 2012.

The posters were entitled "The Grammar of Nothing: Null Arguments in Niuean", "Classifiers in Toronto Heritage Cantonese" and "Sociolinguistics as Experiential Learning: Curriculum Development in the Teaching and Learning Interface".

Pictured are Vicki and Lianna with Diane, Julia and Ruth with Naomi, and Tiffany and Josephine, also with Naomi.

Tiffany and Josephine also presented their research at TULCon and, with Naomi, are about to present it at the Workshop on Innovations in Cantonese Linguistics at Ohio State University.
The ROP 399 project was presented at NWAV 2012 at Georgetown University.

Photo credits: Diane Massam

Lounging

Students learn and teach in the Department Lounge.

Nadia and Beth talk phonology while Ailis sorts papers. (Photo credits: Matt Gardner)

Smiling sociolinguists: Samantha, Shannon and Erin study their data.