Attitudes and ideologies towards traditional texts in language revitalization Language revitalization Discourse Language documentation

In many indigenous language revitalization contexts, there are many uncertainties in how texts can and should be used. Drawing from data collected through an international online survey and follow-up interviews, I examine attitudes towards texts and the factors that infuence them. I also consider prospects and challenges of using texts and how they are reflective of ideologies about language. I suggest that the varied and creative ways in which texts have been used in language revitalization offer multiple pathways for language revitalization practitioners to enact change and construct meaningful cultures for themselves.

Image: An interview with a language revitalization practitioner.

Youth empowerment in dormant language reclamation effortsLanguage revitalization Discourse

Drawing from video- and audio-recorded interactions at the dormant language revitalization camps of Northern Pomo, I examine the discursive strategies caregivers use while collaborating with youths in joint language-learning activities. By employing discourse analysis, I find that youths often position themselves in the more powerful role of teacher while positioning caregivers in the role of student. The key insight is that caregivers, who act as agents of primary socialization, acquiesce in the roles that are imposed on them by surrendering some of their own authority to create a space that helps to promote youth empowerment.

Image: The layout of the classroom at the second Northern Pomo language camp.

Co-speech gesture and semantic fieldwork Language documentation Discourse

This project proposes that co-speech gesture constitutes a type of semantic data that can be used when investigating particular semantic phenomena. Drawing from video recordings of an elicitation session exploring aspect in Crow, Schuyler Laparle and I employ discourse and gesture analysis to examine the discursive patterns of the linguist and the consultant. We find that during semantic elicitation, consultants sometimes employ gestures as an embodied resource to concretize and convey abstract grammatical notions, such as aspect. As such, documenting and analyzing gestures that are co-produced with speech can be a useful addition to a semantic fieldworker's toolkit.

Image: Annotated stills from a video recording of Jack Real Bird’s co-speech gestures during a linguistic elicitation session.

On the origins of multiple exponence in Crow Morphology Historical linguistics

Multiple exponence (ME) is a phenomenon whereby exponents that encode the same information are multiply exponed within a single word. I explain that one origin of ME in Crow is the grammaticalization of the inflectional future from the motion verb 'arrive there', which brings with it its own agreement prefixes. ME was then extended to compound modals containing the inflectional future and finally to a morphologically unrelated modal — a distinct case of ME begetting additional ME. Thus, this study contributes to the broader understanding of the diachronic pathways to ME.

Anti-locality in Crow applicatives of unaccusativesMorphosyntax

In generative syntax, anti-locality effects, which ban "too close" movement, have been reported for A'-movement. More recently, anti-locality effects have also been demonstrated for A-movement. I argue that anti-locality involving A-movement can be observed in Crow particularly between plain unaccusatives where the underlying theme remains in-situ and applicatives of unaccusatives where the theme undergoes A-movement. I claim that movement in the latter construction occurs due to the presence of an intervening projection (ApplP) thereby obviating the effects of anti-locality.