Colloquium schedule

Cross-language activation in ASL-English bilingual children

Thursday, 9 June 2011, 1pm-2:30pm, 400 Tier

PhD student Brenna Haimes-Kusumoto will be practicing a talk will be delivering at the International Symposium on Bilingualism 8 in Oslo, Norway, on June 15th, based on her work with Dr Wilkinson.

Abstract:

We are investigating what role a ASL plays in a Deaf ASL-English bilingual child's acquisition of a written language. Do Deaf ASL-English bilingual children think in ASL when they are reading in English? Recent studies in reading, speaking, listening and picture identification provide evidence that the language not-in-use is always active even in monolingual contexts and in independent of modality of communication.

The children in this pilot study (8-18 years-old) completed meaning relatedness judgements of pairs of written English words that differ in whether or not they are semantically related and whether or not the ASL translation equivalents look similar.

The preliminary results from the study show that Deaf ASL-English bilingual children are translating English words to ASL.  With the expansion of this research project Canada-wide, including LSQ-French bilinguals in Quebec, the results will provide us with a better understanding of the extent to which the bimodal-bilingual Deaf children's English reading lexicon is determined by the structure of the ASL lexicon. In terms of real-world impacts, this study also has the potential of positively impacting Deaf education curriculum.

Linguistics Colloquium: Julie Hansen (Aarhus University),"History of Research in Danish Sign Language"

Friday, 11 March 2011, 2:40pm, 302Tier

Abstract: This paper discusses the history of research on Danish Sign Language (DSL). In the first phase (1809-1970s), research on DSL was conducted by amateurs and was primarily documentation of the language. The first description of DSL was by medical doctor Peter Castberg who was also the founder of deaf education in Denmark. Following Castberg’s work, several dictionaries werepublished by deaf societies in the 1800s, and the 1900s. In 1910 a grammatical sketch of DSL by priest Johannes Jørgensen was published. During the first phase it was commonly believed that signed languages were not real languages. It was not until the second phase (1970s to present) that research on DSL was conducted by trained linguists. The phase followed the pioneering study on American Sign Language by William Stokoe. Stokoe’s work established signed languages as natural languages and the subsequent studies signalled a change in attitude towards the languages. In 1972 Centre for Sign Language was founded in Denmark. The aim was to spread information about the Danish deaf community and to conduct research on DSL. This phase has been characterized by research on specific topics such as space and special verb constructions in DSL by Elisabeth Engberg-Pedersen. However, no comprehensive grammar of the language has yet been produced. My current Ph.D. research addresses this gap in the research on DSL."

Ms Hansen is a PhD student in Linguistics at Aarhus University, Denmark, specializing in Danish Sign Language and Danish deaf culture.

Summer Institute 2011

Following on the success of last year's Summer Institute, the Departments of Linguistics, Native Studies and English are pleased to host once again "Cree Language and Narrative".  An intensive three-week institute, students and members of the community register for nine credit hours of available coursework, focusing on Cree language structure, teaching Cree language, or the rich tradition of Cree storytelling. Please see link for more information.

Recent defenses

Sky Onosson successfully defenided his MA thesis, "Canadian Raising in Manitoba: Acoustic effects of articulatory phasing and lexical frequency" on 18 August 2010.

Trudy Mitton successfully defended her MA thesis, "A descriptive analysis of the grammar and variable pronunciation of ‘there’ and the Non-Standard There-Tag in Bathurst English" on 16 August 2010.

Saeed Ghaniabadi successfully defended his dissertation, The Empty Noun Construction in Persian,  on 12 August 2010.

Charles Julian successfully defended his dissertation, A History of the Iroquoian Languages, on 20 July 2010.

 Congratulations, all! Now get those revisions in!

Marker/Grader positions

Several marker/grader positions have been posted for the 2010-11 school year.  Please go to the CUPE/student postings page and look for postings for "Linguistics".

Summer Institute

The Departments of Linguistics, Native Studies and English are pleased to host a one-time Summer Institute, "Cree Language and Narrative".  An intensive three-week institute, students and members of the community register for nine credit hours of available coursework, focusing on Cree language structure, teaching Cree language, or the rich tradition of Cree storytelling. 

 For a list of available courses, please see this pdf flyer.  For further information go to Summer Institutes, or contact Summer Sessions by e-mail or by calling (204) 474-6963.