Iranian Languages and Linguistics Lecture Series

We are excited to share a collaborative Lecture Series organized by the Elahe Omidyar Mir-Djajali  Institute of Iranian Studies (UofT) and our Linguistics Department! 

Come and enjoy the 5 talks that cover a range of linguistic topics regarding Iranian languages! 

Talks include: 

• Professor Simin Karimi (University of Arizona) on Investigating the Structure of Iranian Languages: Current Research and Prospects - January 28th 2022
• Professor Mohammad Dabir-Moghaddam (Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran) on Khorasan: An Untapped Linguistic Area of Iran - February 25th 2022 
• Professor Agnes Korn (CNRS, Centre de Recherche sur le Monde Iranien) on Areal Features in the Languages of South Iran: Focus on Balochi and Baskhardi - March 25th 2022
• Professor Geoffrey Haig (Universität Bamberg) on Corpus-based Approaches to the Typology of Iranian Languages - April 22nd 2022
• Professor Erik Anonby and Professor Jaffer Sheyholislami (Carleton University) on Mapping Iranian Languages: Kurdish as a Case Study - May 20th 2022

These events are open to the public, make sure to register to obtain Zoom links! 

An Award Winning Poet in the Department!

We are excited to share that Diane Massam (Professor Emeritus) was the winner of the Federation of BC Writers Literary Contest! Massam won the Poetry category with her piece entitled "Late(ral) Move". 

Congrats Diane Massam! This goes to show that linguists can get pretty creative with their words! 

LSA Meet the Authors Webinar!

The LSA is hosting a "Meet the Authors" webinar and our very own  Katharina Pabst (PhD Candidate) and co-authors will be there to discuss their recent article in Language entitled "Gender Bias in Linguistics Textbooks".

The webinar will take place Friday January 28th, 2022 from 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM EST. Register ASAP as this is not an event you will want to miss!

Virtual Event: Developmental Plasticity and Language Learning

University College is hosting Professor Elissa Newport for an exciting lecture as part of The Neil Graham Lecture series! Professor Newport is a Director at the Center for Brain Plasticity and Recovery, Departments of Neurology, Psychology, and Linguistics at Georgetown University.  

Newport will be speaking on Developmental Plasticity and Language Learning. Specifically discussing how children and adults learn languages when first exposed to them at varying ages, and the outcomes shown when children/adults have strokes to language areas of the brain. 

The event will take place Tuesday, February 1st 2022 from 4:30pm-6:30pm EST. Please RSVP by Thursday, January 27th 2022 to secure your spot! 

Linguist in the Olympics!

Paul Poirier (MA) is proof that we linguists can also double as superstar athletes!

Paul and his partner Piper Gilles will be representing Canada for ice dancing in the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing! 

The Department of Linguistics will be cheering on Paul and Piper as they (ice) dance for the gold! 

Publication: On the unified change of directional/aspectual verb particles in French

Michelle Troberg (Faculty, UTM) and Justin Leung (PhD Student)  have a syntax article published in The Journal of Historical Syntax. Their paper "On the Unified Change of Directional/Aspectual Verb Particles in French" finds that historical French particles change at a constant rate, which is consistent with analysis whereby the loss of each particle is a reflex of an underlying grammatical change. 

This is a can't-miss article for all our Frenchies and historical linguistic lovers! 

Troberg, M., & Leung, J. (2021). On the unified change of directional/aspectual verb particles in French. Journal of Historical Syntax, 5(40), 1-76.

Publication: Complex Structures in Brazilian Indigenous Languages

 Suzi Lima (Faculty) and Tonjes Veenstra have published their semantic article to SciELO - Brasil. The research done in  "Complex Structures in Brazilian Indigenous Languages" project helps to advance discussion in theoretical linguistics on various constructions by means of featuring new data or new analyses  of complex structures in languages that have so far been underrepresented in literature. 

Be sure to check out this article to learn more about the semantics of Brazilian Indigenous Languages! 

Lima, S., & Veenstra, T. (2021). Complex structures in Brazilian Indigenous languages. Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Ciências Humanas, 16.

Publication: Loss and emergence: (Double) demonstratives and ‘indefinite this’ in Ontario dialects

Laura Rupp and Sali A. Taliamonte (Faculty) have published a paper in the Journal of Pragmatics! 

"Loss and emergence: (Double) demonstratives and ‘indefinite this’ in Ontario dialects" examines double demonstrative constructions to demonstrate how tokens can provide key information regarding characteristics of change in conditions of loss! 

This here is an example of a double demontrative from their paper:

(1b)	Oh yes, it was- not too many of them. Them there rocking chairs … (gussweet, 94)

Rupp, L., & Tagliamonte, S. A. (2022). Loss and emergence:(Double) demonstratives and ‘indefinite this’ in Ontario dialects. Journal of Pragmatics, 189, 66-78.

Language Variation and Change Publication!

Pocholo Umbal (PhD Candidate) and Naomi Nagy (Faculty)  have published "Heritage Tagalog Phonology and a Variationist Framework of Language Contact" in the journal Languages. 

Umbal and Nagy examine Tagalog of Heritage speakers in Toronto and homeland speakers in Manila. They analyze intergenerational and intergroup usages of (r), alternation among taps, trills and approximant variants. They use this as a test case for a method of distinguishing sources of language change.

Umbal, P., & Nagy, N. (2021). Heritage Tagalog Phonology and a Variationist Framework of Language Contact. Languages, 6(4), 201.

New Member Of Our Department!

We'd like to introduce the newest member of our department: baby Erik (pictured below)! On Sunday January 9th, Angelika Kiss (PhD Candidate) and her partner welcomed their second son into the world and we would like to extend our warmest congratulations to her and her family.

UofT Presence at LSA!

The Linguistic Society of America held their Annual Meeting from January 6th through to January 9th 2022. And of course, there was a UofT presence. Our graduate students, Lex Konnelly (PhD Candidate) and Gregory Antono (PhD Student), were there to share their incredible work! 

Archie Crowley, Lex Konnelly Julien De Jesu, j inscoe, Brooke English,  and Dozandri (Doza) C. Mendoza presented work on "Advancing Trans Linguistics"! 

Gregory Antono presented work on "Meh Contributes VERUM: A study of biased questions in Colloquial Singapore English"! 

Be sure to check out their abstracts!

Publication: Acoustic classification of coronal stops of Eastern Punjabi

Qandeel Hussain (Postdoctoral fellow) and Alexei Kochetov  (faculty) have published "Acoustic Classification of Coronal Stops to Eastern Punjabi" in Phonetica! 

Together, Hussain and Kochetov study how various coronal place and laryngeal contrasts are distinguished acoustically within and across word positions.

New Publication: Gender Bias In Linguistics Textbooks

Congratulations to Katharina Pabst (PhD) and colleagues for their new paper in the most recent volume of Language. The paper entitled 'Gender Bias In Linguistics Textbooks' investigates cases of gender bias and stereotypes found in syntax textbooks and linguistics journals. A news release has been made by the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) announcing the paper. See the following link for more details:

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937011

The article, which is published open access, may be found here:

https://www.linguisticsociety.org/sites/default/files/03_97.4Cepeda.pdf

This is a must-read!

Cépeda, P., Kotek, H., Pabst, K., & Syrett, K. (2021). Gender bias in linguistics textbooks: Has anything changed since Macaulay & Brice 1997? Language 97 (4).

New publication: Urban-rural dimensions to variable-body/-one

Bridget Jankowski (Postdoctoral Fellow) and Sali A. Tagliamonte (Faculty) have recently had a paper published in Urban Matters: Current Approaches in Variationist Sociolinguistics. Their paper "Urban - rual dimension to variable - body/-one", looks at how social and geographic space influence linguistic change! 

Jankowski and Tagliamonte examine speakers form across Ontario. After reading their paper you'll be sure to pay more attention to speakers from different areas of the province! 

Celebrating the end of the semester

 Students in LIN 456/1156 put together a delicious fondue party at Naomi's house to celebrate the arrival of snow, the completion of a great set of research projects and the end of classes. 

New skills were shared: how to open an orange, how to grate Swiss cheese, and how to eat more fondue than we thought humanly possible.

Around the table, from the left: Haili, Amanda, Runze, Arshan, Naomi and Aki.

(Photo credit: Craig Diegel)

New Heritage Language Papers!

Naomi Nagy (Faculty) and Timothy Gadanidis (PhD candidate) have published a sociolinguistic paper in the Heritage Language Journal! 

The paper focuses on complexity from a comparative variationist perspective, a sociolinguistic approach that examines the different ways of saying the same thing! 

A great read for those interested in sociolinguistics! 

Nagy, N., & Gadanidis, T. (2021). Heritage Language Variation and Change–How Complex Is It?. Heritage Language Journal, 18(2), 1-27.

In the same week, Pocholo Umbal (also a PhD student) and Naomi published a paper on another angle of heritage language variation, formulating a framework to disentangle possible sources of variation:

Umbal, P. & N. Nagy. 2021. Heritage Tagalog phonology and a variationist framework of language contact. Languages 6(4), 201; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6040201.

 

New Publication: Perception and imitation of prevoicing across language backgrounds!

Emily J. Clare (postdoc) and Jessamyn Schertz (Faculty) have published a paper in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America!  Their paper entitled "Perception and imitation of prevoicing across language backgrounds" looks at speakers' ability to perceive and imitate prevoicing, testing contrastive statue of speakers voicing amongst different languages.   

This is a great read for those interested in phonetics! 

Clare, E. J., & Schertz, J. (2021). Perception and imitation of prevoicing across language backgrounds. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 150(4), A43-A43.

Audiology blog!

 Marshall Chasin (Faculty) has been featured on The Hearing Review Blog! 

His post What did Skinner & Miller Have to Say About Hearing Aid Fittings? is an article review on an iconic audiology paper!

Be sure to read his post to get an insight into the world of audiology! 

MoMOT 5!

UofT had a strong graduate presence at MoMOT 5! 

Nadia Takaganova (PhD Student) presented  'Adopositions in bilingual speech: the case of Spanish de in Náhuatl'. 

Omar Gamboa Gonzalez (PhD student in the department of French) shared 'Double aspect of French converted nominalizations'. 

Martin Renard (PhD student)  presented virtually in a poster session regarding 'The "Root Word Method": Theoretical implications of the use of a morpheme-based teaching method in L2 Indigenous Language Revilatlization'.

Great work everyone!

Undergraduate Awards!

CONGRATS to our incredible undergraduate linguists who are the recipients of the following scholarships and awards for the 2020-2021 academic year: 

Ryan Alexander is the recipient of the Henry Rogers Memorial Scholarship Fund, awarded based on financial need and academic merit. 

Kevin Huynh is the recipient of the Jack Chambers Undergraduate Scholarship in Linguistics, awarded based on financial need and academic merit. 

Lee Jiang is the recipient of the McNab Scholarship in Linguistics. This scholarship goes to an outstanding third-year student possessing an A average and who is enrolled in a Major, Specialist or joint Specialist program in Linguistics to contribute to their fourth year of study. Jiang also received the Elaine Gold Award, in recognition of Outstanding Achievements in the required 200-level linguistic courses. 

Huge congratulations to our students! We cannot wait to see what else they can achieve!