DECEMBER 2012, NO 3

University of British Columbia

The Gosling

Contents

Letter from the head 1

Linguistics in the news 2

Faculty Spotlight 3

Grad Spotlight 4

Undergrad Spotlight 4

Alumni Spotlight 5

Faculty News 6

Grad Student News 7

Department Events 8

Letter from the depart-ment head

by DOUGLAS PULLEYBLANK

At a recent meeting, the Dean re-marked that this had been an extraor-dinarily busy fall, and that he hadheard the same from numerous peo-ple both at UBC and other universi-ties. Well, as far as Linguistics is con-cerned, his remarks were bang-on.It feels a bit like we’ve been sprint-

ing since September! So many thingshave happened that it would be ex-hausting to even list them all. Here,however, are a few highlights – thingsthat made this past fall interesting.

- We were extremely happy to wel-come Dr. Kathleen Currie Hall tothe Department in July. Kathleenjoined us from the City Universityof New York, College of Staten Is-land, taking up the position of Assis-tant Professor at UBC. She obtainedher Ph.D. from The Ohio State Uni-versity in 2009, with her disser-tation on “A Probabilistic Modelof Phonological Relationships fromContrast to Allophony.” Her researchhas focussed on issues of phonolog-ical contrast, applying mathemati-cal modeling to the examination ofphonological questions, particularlythrough the lens of Information The-ory. For more on her research andteaching, see her website.

- We are also very happy to wel-come Nahal Namdaran to the De-partment as our Undergraduate Pro-gram Advisor. Nahal is an alumna ofthe Department, having completeda B.A. in Linguistics (minor in Psy-chology) in 2002 and an M.A. in Lin-

guistics in 2006. Her M.A. thesis wason “Retraction in St’at’imcets: An ul-trasonic investigation”. Since thenshe finished an M.Sc. in Speech-Language Pathology at the Univer-sity of Alberta (2008), and is work-ing as a speech-language patholo-gist for the Fraser Health Author-ity. Her work for us is part-time,enabling her to continue her prac-tice as a speech-language patholo-gist. Her experience, both past andpresent, provides important guid-ance to both our Linguistics and ourSpeech Sciences majors.

- Members of the Department con-tinue to support undergraduate re-search, for example, through theAURA (Arts Undergraduate Re-search Awards) program. A partic-ularly exciting recent example ofthis is Clarissa Forbes work, super-vised by Henry Davis. She was thewinner of the Russell Patrick ArtsUndergraduate Research Award forher work on “Preserving knowledgeof Gitxsan elders: Story documenta-tion and linguistic investigation ofGitxsanimx (Tsimshianic)”.

- Becky Laturnus (now graduated!)gave a great talk as the student

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speaker at the May Convocation cer-emony. She represented both Lin-guistics and UBC in a way that wecan all be proud of. Post-graduation,Becky was snatched up by the Cog-nitive Systems program where sheis now the Program Coordinator. Sowe are very fortunate to still haveBecky around the Department in hernew role.

- Graduate research in the Depart-ment continues full-swing. Therange of work undertaken by stu-dents in the M.A. and Ph.D. pro-grams is both exciting and impres-sive. Work spans multiple continentsand multiple research areas. Thelanguage sample includes, for exam-ple, Maori English (New Zealand),German (Europe), Japanese, Can-tonese, Mandarin (Asia), Nata,Medumba, Siamou (Africa), Black-foot, Kwak’wala, Tlingit, Okanagan(North America), Chiquitano, Ni-waklé (South America).

- The Department continues to breakground in terms of methodologiesfor use in language fieldwork. Agreat example is the use of “story-boards” for elicitation. Informationand examples can be found here.

- Language was also in the news.Carla Hudson Kam gave interviewsto at least two news outlets aboutthe language census data releasedthis year: Vancouver Sun; Glob-alBC.

- The Department continues to pro-mote sustainable transportation al-ternatives! According to GunnarHansson, our Sustainability Coordi-nator, we chalked up more than 4%of UBC’s total commuting distancein the Fall 2012 Bike to Work Week.

Of course, what people have mostlybeen involved in is teaching, stu-dent supervision, funded and un-funded research, applications for re-search funding, revisiting our currentprograms, coming up with and devel-oping new ideas for programs – andon and on. It’s been a highly produc-tive semester and we’re all lookingforward to new ideas and initiativesin 2013.

Linguistics in the news

by NAHAL NAMDARAN

Speaking in (More) TonguesEarlier this fall, local and national

media raised attention to recent 2011Canadian Census of Population re-ports which show an increasing riseof Canada’s population speaking atleast two languages at home (17.5%up from 14.2% in 2006). Of thesetwo languages spoken at home, one-fifth of Canada’s population speaksan immigrant language (neither En-glish nor French) at home, ei-ther alone (one-third of these bilin-gual speakers) or in some com-bination with English/French (two-thirds). This is not surprising to mostMetro-Vancouverites – just take a rideon the B-Line and you’ll undoubtedlyhear multiple languages being spo-ken at any given time, and frequentlyby a given person.

With bilingualism appearing to beon the rise, Canada’s two official lan-guages, French and English, continueto exert a strong influence on thelanguage(s) spoken at home. In fact,only 6.2% of the population reportedspeaking an immigrant language astheir only home language and ap-proximately 63.5% of the populationwhose mother tongue was an immi-grant language reported speaking En-glish at home.

So what does all this mean? Firstoff, it shows that yes, bilingualismappears to be increasing in Canada’spopulation. However, it also suggeststhat households that would have pre-viously spoken only their immigrantlanguage are beginning to shift to-wards more frequent use of Englishas their main home language. Giventhe rate with which English is be-ing used as a preferred “internationallanguage,” would we then expectthat individual Canadians would trimtheir “bi-linguistic trees” towards amore English-preferred monolingual-ism?

The thought of this sets off mylinguist/speech-language pathologistalarm, reminding me of some ben-efits that bi-/multi-lingualism bringsto our social, intellectual, and neu-

rolinguistic development:

- Language is an expression of cul-ture and thought processes or viceversa; thus, knowledge of anotherlanguage has the potential to ex-pand one’s world and word knowl-edge.

- Bi-/multilingualism increases easeof access to, and analysis of, diverselinguistic data with reduced poten-tial for inter-speaker misinterpreta-tions. For example, when a Speech-Language Pathologist is attemptingto assess the severity of aphasia ina foreign-language patient who hassuffered a stroke, an interpreter isneeded. Because the SLP is not ableto monitor the translation directly,there creates room for the inter-preter to add non-intended support-ive cues, which could significantlymask the true severity of one’s lin-guistic function.

- Bi-/multilinguals have the capac-ity for better neuroprotection andneuroplasticity than monolinguals.Multilinguistic terms for individ-ual items may assist in betterword-retrieval/association linkspost-stroke, resulting in potentiallygreater chance for recovery of apha-sia/anomia.

With these benefits and more,bilingualism should be encouraged torise even more in Canada’s popula-tion. Keep up the linguistic diversityCanada, our identity, beliefs, health,and mental processes will be betteroff for it!

Linguistic Diversity in the UBCDepartment of Linguistics andSpeech Sciences

According to the 2011 CanadianCensus of Population, more than 200languages were reported as a homelanguage or mother tongue. Of these,more than 60 languages were FirstNations languages grouped into 12distinct language families, with ap-proximately 213 000 people report-ing a First Nations language as theirmother tongue (most frequently re-ported: Cree, Inuktitut, Ojibway).

The Linguistics and Speech Sci-ences department at UBC is no

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stranger to the celebration of lin-guistic diversity, with 22 languagesbeing spoken fluently by faculty,staff, and graduate students (e.g.German, Icelandic, St’at’imcets, Tlin-git, Japanese, Russian, TaiwaneseMandarin, Siamou, Farsi, and ofcourse, English, etc.), and a fur-ther 20 languages under study(e.g. Nata, Halkomelem, Gitxsan-imx, Kwak’wala, Ktunaxa, Maori,Medumba)! With the combinationof languages spoken and linguisticknowledge in the department, per-haps a unique “UBC Linguistics De-partment” pidgin might arise if En-glish were banned...?

Faculty Spotlight

Martina Wiltschko

by ERIN GUNTLY

In addition to serving as Gradu-ate Admissions Chairperson, teachingLing 100, and co-teaching a Gradu-ate Research Seminar this term, Prof.Martina Wiltschko is also workingon a book, her first. She recently toldus about her book and its progress,and shared her thoughts on manag-ing stress and a demanding work-load.

The Gosling: Tell us about yourbook. What is the title?

Martina Wiltschko: The Structureof Universal Categories: Towards a For-mal Typology. It deals with the prob-lem of reconciling language differ-ences in morphosyntactic categoriesand the implication of this for univer-sal grammar.

TG: How did you come to beworking on that topic?

MW: I let the languages guideme. When I first started looking atHalkomelem, I was looking at deter-miners, then within a year, Strang(Burton) was involved in revitaliza-tion, so we had to look at the sys-tem as a whole. The system neededa morphological treatment, so thatguided us; there was no tense mor-phology, agreement morphology wasdifferent. After I wrote a paper on theabsence of tense, and then on the lackof plural, the question became: Whatis there, then? What does absence ofa category tell you? I started work-ing with Elizabeth Ritter, and we hy-pothesized that there are categoriesthat seem to play an equivalent roleto what seems to be missing in agiven language. Then it was detectivework, figuring out what is there in-stead?

There are other problems that Ihave been struggling with over theyears: when you have a string of mor-phemes, how do you map it onto theuniversal structure the theory is pos-tulating? Basically, we are trying toreconcile Sapir’s old finding that lan-guages differ in the categories theyuse with the universal grammar ofChomsky.

TG: When does the book comeout?

MW: The contract with Cam-bridge has a draft deadline August1st next year, and we’ll go from there.

TG: How did you balance thecompeting demands on your times,these different pressures?

MW: I do martial arts. It forces meto take time off, to take a break. Youneed to get exercise, and with martialarts, your mind is doing somethingcompletely different. Plus, it’s familytime as well. The martial arts philos-ophy is to live in the now, and to doyour best. It helps me to do my best.I sometimes feel like I am in a hurri-cane, but in the eye, so I don’t feel sostressed.

TG: How long have you been do-ing martial arts?

MW: 6 years.TG: What’s next on the horizon?

MW: Right now I’m working onCanadian “eh” and other “Confirma-tionals.” They used a lot in a lotof languages, but there’s no formalwork. When I first came (to UBC),I wanted to look at the syntax dis-course of interface, but I wasn’t ready(and maybe the field wasn’t there).Now I think I’m ready. I just appliedfor a SSHRC grant and am hold a[UBC internal] Hampton grant forthis project.

TG: Will there be a book 2?

MW: [Laughs] We’ll see.

TG: How did it come together towrite the book?

MW: I had been planning it for awhile, and I suddenly realized I wasready. I submitted a proposal to Cam-bridge, they accepted. Now I can usethe contract on the desk as motiva-tion.

TG: What thoughts can you offerstudents in the program?

MW: To write a dissertation, youneed to take time to think, to developa theory. It’s a shame that we haveto put the “finish” pressure on dis-sertation writing, it’s hard to be cre-ative under pressure. And sometimes,the pressure to finish makes studentswant to do shortcuts, which in theend turn out not to save any time atall. And often, students have familycommitments or “life” that get in theway. Writing is in part a creative pro-cess, and it can be difficult to fit to atimeframe.

TG: How do you manage this pro-cess with your book?

MW: Even if I don’t have anytime, I still write every day, at leastfor 15 minutes. And I have a support-ive husband who has been there.

TG: Do you use a page goal or atime goal?

MW: A time goal, because youswitch between organizing the argu-ments, rewriting existing pages, writ-ing from scratch.

TG: Any final words of wisdom?

MW: Have fun with what you do.If it gets hard, don’t lose sight of whyyou’re doing it.

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Grad Spotlight

Emily Sadlier-Brown

by SHAINE MEGHJI

Emily Sadlier-Brown is currentlyin the Ph.D. program in Linguistics atUBC.

The Gosling: How did you be-come interested in Linguistics?

Emily Sadlier-Brown: I can’t re-member not being interested in Lin-guistics. But I didn’t know it wassomething you could study until Iwas already in university. Even whenI was a kid I was interested in lan-guages. My grandpa would tell meabout the history of English andI thought it was interesting eventhough I would have been prettyyoung at the time.

TG: What was your Bachelor’s de-gree and why did you chose that andit’s relation to your current field?

ESB: My bachelor’s degree was inMusic. It was something I loved butI really went into it without thinkingabout it. In terms of its relationshipto linguistics, I definitely think thereis a relationship between languageand music: they’re both systems withsmaller components that work to-gether to make up a larger whole. Iwas a composer, and I was interestedin how every note would contributeto the larger system to make a cohe-sive piece. I was a very intellectualcomposer, I mean I was interested inthe sound of course, but I was verymuch interested in how everythingwas put together, I would obsess overevery single note and want to be ableto justify its role in the whole thing,

in the whole system... maybe in a wayI was thinking as a linguist way backwhen I was in Music!

TG: Tell me why you wanted tocome to UBC?

ESB: Well, my family is here forone. But maybe more importantlyI discovered Carla’s work at a talkshe gave... a year ago. And I sud-denly saw this great match that Ididn’t know existed in Vancouver. Ilooked at it more and was convincedshe’d be a good supervisor and thatI could do what I was interested inand stay in Vancouver, so it’s been re-ally lucky actually. The other thingis I always had an interest in FirstNations languages, it was never mymain thing but I was always inter-ested in maybe being involved some-how... so it’s great that by cominghere, I’ll have some opportunity tohave contact with that research, sothat was a bonus for me!

TG: How are you enjoying yourprogram so far?

ESB: So far I’m having a greattime. I think I’m way ahead of whereI started even though I only did 2courses this semester. So I guess thatattests to the quality of the program!I’ve really liked being involved withthe Nata language elicitations andmeeting Joash. It’s been really excit-ing to be doing work that has somedirect relevance to a community. Itmakes studying language so muchmore real and relevant when youknow there’s that connection, likeyou’re doing something worthwhileeven though it’s distant.

TG: Why are you doing yourPh.D.?

ESB: Well, a PhD in my opinionis a real commitment to research andpursuing the advancement of knowl-edge in your field. I know that soundscheesy but I do view it as a life choiceand not just as a degree I want to getor something short-term. Really, whatbetter way to spend your time thanresearching and learning about coolthings that we don’t know about. . .to me that’s really exciting, there’snothing else I’d rather do really.

TG: You have a cute little boy –how do you juggle your commitments

as a mother and a student?ESB: It’s tough! Especially cause

he’s still so young. He’s 9 and a halfmonths now. But I knew it would behard, so I guess I was braced for it. Iget a lot of support from family. Myhusband of course looks after him alot as well as other family memberswho are in town. And I’ve learned tobe efficient! Since my time is limitedI can’t waste it when I have it!

TG: What are your other hobbieswhen not buried in books and lec-tures?!

ESB: I play with a Balinese game-lan ensemble, that’s a Balinese per-cussion orchestra, here at UBC. Allmy other hobbies have pretty muchgone by the wayside for the time be-ing. . . I love traveling and being out-doors, and I love swimming and hik-ing, but I haven’t done much of thatlately. My hobbies now are makingthe odd dinner and occasionally vac-uuming the house!

Undergrad Spotlight

Jamie Russel & Valerie Mar-

shall

by JESSICA NAKA

Left: Jamie Russell; Right: ValerieMarshall

Jamie Russell is a UBC under-graduate student with a major inSpeech Sciences and Valerie Mar-shall is in the last year of her under-graduate degree with a major in Lin-guistics. This year, Jamie and Valerieare acting as Co-chairs of the UBCSpeech and Linguistics Student Asso-ciation (SALSA).

The Gosling: How did you be-come interested in Speech Science orLinguistics?

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Jamie Russel: I fatefully signedup for LING 100 after dropping a psy-chology class in my first year andhaven’t looked back since. SpeechSciences is the perfect combinationof everything I love: language, thevoice, science – and I’m really excitedto use that to make a difference inpeople’s lives as a Speech Pathologist.

Valerie Marshall: I was one ofthose anomalous people that alwaysknew what they wanted to do “whenthey grew up.” I figured the bestroute to Speech-Language Pathologywas through Linguistics or SpeechSciences, and after taking LING 100in my first year I knew I was in theright place.

TG: How has it been Co-ChairingSALSA and what are some of thehighlights of your position so far?

JR: Awesome! Not only do wehave a wonderful executive team thisyear, but I am also very lucky to be co-chairing with Valerie—we work re-ally well together. I’m really proudof the direction the club is headedin; we’ve had very successful eventsso far this year, especially the Wine& Cheese. It’s so satisfying to see allour hard work pay off and to knowpeople have both appreciated and en-joyed the events.

VM: Co-chairing SALSA withJamie has been a really great expe-rience! We are lucky to have such astrong and fun exec this year. SALSAhas been really excited to bring somenew ideas to the table this year(IP’EH Beer nights!) and spice upsome of the classics (ice cream so-cial and Wine & Cheese!). We’ve gotlots of new stuff planned for secondsemester too! I’m really excited forour SALSA Ultimate team and Stormthe Wall Team!

TG: What are your futuregoals/plans?

JR: I’ve got one more year andthen will be applying to do my M.Sc.in Speech Pathology.

VM: I am graduating in May andthen I plan on travelling to SouthAmerica for the summer before goingback to school. I am applying to domy Masters in Speech Pathology.

TG: Are you doing any interesting

projects or research?JR: I’m RA-ing in Molly Babel’s

lab right now and we’re doing somecool work on vocal attractiveness(I’m also constantly scribbling downideas for my honours thesis, which I’llwrite next year).

VM: I am currently working onmy honours thesis on negation ofmodals in American Sign Language.

TG: Can you tell us a couple funor interesting facts about yourself?

JR: I sing in an acappella choiron campus called the Undeclared Ma-jors, and have since I started at UBC. Ialso love to lindy hop when I get thechance – it’s a type of swing dance,and the community in Vancouver iswonderfully supportive!

VM: I like to eat grilled cheesesandwiches dipped in applesauce, Ishare the same first name as my idol,Mrs. Frizzle, and I am learning Amer-ican Sign Language!

Alumni Spotlight

James Thompson

by LAURA SHERER

James Thompson completed a Ph.Din Linguistics at UBC in 2012, withhis dissertation entitled: Syntacticnominalization in Halkomelem Sal-ish.

The Gosling: What first interestedyou in Linguistics?

James Thompson: I was study-ing philosophy at Rutgers, and movedin with some linguists in my secondyear. We talked a lot about language,and I loved that they were taking ascientific approach to it. My first classwas with Ken Safir, and he was agreat instructor, very inspiring. That’swhen I caught the bug, so to speak.

TG: Why did you choose to workon First Nations languages?

JT: It was more chance thanchoice, I’d say. I chose a supervi-sor - Martina - and she was work-ing on Halkomelem at the time. Ihad been working on Hungarian andLokaa while at Rutgers, so it was abit of a shift for me. Definitely a goodone though. I found plenty of topicsto explore, both individually and insome fun collaborations with JasonBrown.

TG: What was your experience atUBC like? What were some of the sur-prises, highlights, etc? Is there any-thing you miss?

JT: I enjoyed a lot of my time atUBC. Certainly, there were the lowsthat any grad student goes through,but on the whole it was a wonderfultime in my life. I’d say the biggest sur-prise was just how well the depart-ment matched up with what I wantedout of a graduate experience. Thereare plenty of things I miss, but somequickies would be working with myconsultants, having ready access toscholarly discourse, and dropping into Edna’s office for a chat.

TG: What have you been doingsince you graduated from UBC? Whatkind of teaching, and what else hav-ing you been doing with your sparetime?

JT: There doesn’t seem to be awhole lot of spare time these days.I’ve been teaching at UBC and SFUas a sessional. Not ideal, but it’s in-come and experience. I’m also learn-ing how to do shiatsu, a Japanesestyle of massage. What time is leftover from that I spend learning howto be a dad. My wife gave birth toour son, Otis Lester Thompson Bond,on October 1st, and he’s pretty awe-some. Even at 4 in the morning.

TG: What kind of freelance re-search do you intend to do?

JT: As far as I can tell, every dis-sertation ever written has left somequestions unanswered. Some more sothan others. I’d say mine ranks fairlyhigh in the unanswered-questions de-partment, and I’d love to spend sometime working those things out. Luck-ily for me, the Jacobs Grants are not

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limited to people affiliated with a uni-versity. If I can line up some of thatfunding, I’ll be in a position to con-tinue my research. We all know thatas long as a language is being spoken,and even after, provided there’s a de-cent record, there will continue to beinteresting questions to ask.

TG: What advice would you giveto any current UBC grad students?

JT: Ooh, where to begin. Howabout:

- Do what your supervisor tells you,even if it doesn’t make sense at thetime;

- Don’t get pregnant - the Linguisticsdepartment has been seriously fer-tile for the past decade, and whilechildren are the best thing sincesliced bread, they don’t make disser-tating any easier;

- Get to know Edna and Shaine - 1)they are really lovely women andgreat to talk to, and 2) they can beextraordinarily helpful in navigatingthrough the insane bureaucracy ofUBC;

- Keep in mind, as you are plum-meting down the emotional rollercoaster, that it is the nature of thosethings to come back up;

- Don’t do anything that I did, or itwill take you twice as long to finishas it otherwise would.

Faculty News

Patricia Shaw

by DOUGLAS PULLEYBLANK

Dr. Patricia A. Shaw joined theDepartment of Linguistics at theUniversity of British Columbia in1979. Her research, spanning morethan three decades, has been pre-dominantly in the area of languageprosody, examining topics such as syl-lable structure, stress, and reduplica-tion. Her language focus has in manyways defined her career. The First Na-tions languages of Canada, in partic-ular of British Columbia, have consti-tuted the core of her research. Work

on these languages has also been in-tegrated throughout her career intoher teaching, and her commitmentto these languages has formed thecore of her administrative work. Lan-guages that Pat has worked on in-clude Dakota, the language she re-searched in her 1976 Toronto dis-sertation, Theoretical Issues in DakotaPhonology and Morphology (GarlandPublishing). In recent years, her fo-cus has been h@n’q’@min’@m’ (Cen-tral Coast Salish); the results of thatwork have formed the core of theh@n’q’@min’@m’ language program atUBC. Pat’s research encompasses lan-guages from several distinct fami-lies of British Columbia, for example,Kwak’wala and Haisla (Wakashanfamily), Nlaka’pamux (Salish family)and Tahltan (Athapaskan family).

In recent years, Pat, who joinedthe Department of Anthropology inJuly, has focussed her research on is-sues of language revitalization. Shehas served as founding Director ofthe UBC First Nations Languages pro-gram and is currently President ofthe Society for the Study of the In-digenous Languages of the Americas.She has served on numerous com-mittees charged with matters con-cerning North American indigenouslanguages, for example, the Commit-tee on Endangered Languages andtheir Preservation (Linguistic Soci-ety of America), and has served asthe Aboriginal Languages Advisor forthe Canadian Linguistics Association.Pat’s research has been supportedby numerous granting agencies in-cluding the Social Sciences and Hu-manities Research Council of Canada,the BC Ministry of Advanced Ed-ucation, and the National ScienceFoundation of the U.S.A., as wellas various programs at UBC suchas the Teaching and Learning En-hancement Fund, the Hampton Fundand the Arts Undergraduate ResearchAwards. Pat has supervised or co-supervised over 20 M.A. and Ph.D.students whose work has spannedlanguages such as Dakelh (Carrier),Oowekyala, Sliammon, PalestinianArabic, St’at’imcets, Montana Salish,Beothuk, and Kwak’wala.

As part of an effort to consolidatethe Department’s and the University’scommitments to First Nations lan-guages in the early 1990s, Pat playedan important role in recruitment ef-forts to build strength in those areas.She has served on many committeesboth within the Department (Advi-sor for the First Nations Languagesand Linguistics Major, Graduate Stu-dent Advisor, Undergraduate StudentAdvisor, Visiting Scholars Coordina-tor, Reading Room Supervisor) andmore broadly in the University (Pres-ident’s Aboriginal Advisory Commit-tee, Dean of Arts’ Aboriginal Advi-sory Committee, First Nations Stud-ies Committee, Dean’s Committee onNative Studies and Research, var-ious research adjudication commit-tees, and so on). Pat is a Senior Fel-low at St. John’s College and hasserved as a member of the UBC PressPublications Board. Pat’s work hasbeen recognized by various interna-tional bodies. She has twice been in-vited to teach at summer institutes ofthe Linguistic Society of America; shewas a Visiting Faculty member at theUniversity of Pittsburgh’s “Semesterat Sea”; she has been centrally in-volved in several institutes on thestudy of indigenous languages, forexample, the Breath of Life ArchivalInstitute for Indigenous Languagesand the Infield Institute on FieldLinguistics and Language Documen-tation. At this point of change inPat’s UBC affiliation, the Departmentwishes her all the best in her new de-partmental home!

UBC Linguistics faculty at

the University of Canterbury

by LISA MATTHEWSON

Henry Davis and Lisa Matthew-son spent July – December 2012 atthe University of Canterbury, NewZealand, where Lisa was the recipi-ent of an Erskine Fellowship. Whileat Canterbury, Lisa participated ina Field Methods class on Niuean(Polynesian), and has begun a col-laborative research project on Ni-uean with Heidi Quinn (a syntacti-cian from Canterbury) and Lynsey Ta-lagi (a member of the Christchurch

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Niuean Community). The three havealready written a squib on the Ni-uean perfect, which will appear inan upcoming UCLA Working Papersvolume. Lisa and Henry gave invitedtalks at three New Zealand universi-ties, and along with co-author CarrieGillon (Arizona State University), arewriting up the talks for submission toa journal before the end of the year.

While in Christchurch, the fam-ily only felt five earthquakes; luck-ily, aftershocks from the devastat-ing earthquake of 2011 have al-most completely stopped. The cityis still in recovery though, withmany businesses still closed, roadsstill not repaired, and many peoplestill without housing. Christchurch isclose to spectacular beaches, rain-forests, and vast landscapes, includ-ing the site of Edoras, the capi-tal city of Rohan from Lord of theRings. The next Erskine Fellow, start-ing February 2013, is Richard Kayne.

Grad Student News

by GUNNAR HANSSON, MOLLY

BABEL, & LAURA SHERER

In the Graduate program, the pe-riod since the last Newsletter hasbeen quite eventful, with severalstudents successfully defending theirM.A. or Ph.D. theses. On March 27,Mark Scott defended his dissertation“Speech Imagery as Corollary Dis-charge” (co-supervisors: Bryan Gickand Eric Vatikiotis-Bateson). On June26, Stacey Menzies defended hermaster’s thesis “Nsyilxcen Modality”(supervisor: Lisa Matthewson). OnOctober 24, Ryan Waldie defendedhis dissertation “Evidentiality in Nuu-

chah-nulth” (supervisor: Rose-MarieDéchaine). Finally, on December 4 wehad a unique “double-feature” event,unprecedented in the history of ourdepartment: two doctoral defenceson the very same day! In the morn-ing, Noriko Yamane defended herdissertation “‘Placeless’ Consonantsin Japanese: An Ultrasound Investi-gation” (co-supervisors: Bryan Gickand Douglas Pulleyblank) and in theafternoon Anita Szakay followed suitwith her dissertation “The Effect ofDialect on Bilingual Lexical Process-ing and Representation” (supervisor:Molly Babel). Needless to say, de-partment members used all of thesehappy events as a good excuse to cel-ebrate and party! We wish all our re-cent graduates and thesis-defenders(or should I say defendants?!) thebest of luck in their future exploits.

But wait, the excitement contin-ues! On January 11, Murray Schel-lenberg is scheduled to defend hisdissertation “The Realization of Tonein Singing in Cantonese and Man-darin” (supervisor: Bryan Gick), andseveral other advanced M.A. andPh.D. students are waiting in thewings, preparing to follow suit in thespring or summer.

While such monumental events ascompleting and defending a thesisare of course a great cause for cel-ebration, there are other milestoneson the road to completion of a grad-uate degree that are likewise worthacknowledging as accomplishments.In particular, several Ph.D. studentshave completed one or both of theirQualifying Papers at the last two QPMini-Conferences. (These are heldtwice a year, at the end of each termof the Winter session.) At the springmini-conference, on April 17, the fol-lowing three QPs were presented:

- “Tlingit relative clauses” (JamesCrippen)

- “Exploring phonetic imitation of lex-ical items through a podcasting cor-pus” (Jennifer Abel)

- “The temporal interpretation ofmodals in Mandarin Chinese” (Sih-wei Chen)

At the fall mini-conference on De-cember 11, an additional five paperswere presented:

- “Laryngeal vowels in Tongass Tlin-git” (James Crippen)

- “Context-of-use of augmented andunaugmented N-stems in Nata”(Joash Johannes)

- “Effect of semantic predictability onspeech production in spontaneousspeech” (Michael McAuliffe)

- “Learning consonant harmony in ar-tificial languages: Locality” (KevinMcMullin)

- “Similarity and half-rhyme accept-ability” (Kevin McMullin)

Many students were also busywith completing publications andpresenting at various conferencesand talks throughout North America:

- Emily Sadlier-Brown’s paper “Ho-mogeneity and autonomy of Cana-dian Raising” was published onlinein a special issue of World Englishes.

- Nacole Walker was part of a panelcalled Sociolinguistic Fieldwork andMinority Communities at the 41stNew Ways of Analyzing Variation(NWAV) Conference in Indiana inOctober.

- Michael McAuliffe gave a talk atthe 13th Annual Conference ofthe International Speech Commu-nication Association (InterSpeech2012) in September in Portland, ti-tled “Predictability affects vowel dis-persion and dynamics in the Buck-eye Corpus.” He also gave a posterpresentation at the 164th Meetingof the Acoustical Society of Amer-ica in October in Kansas City, titled“Predictability effects on vowel real-ization in spontaneous speech.”

- Heather Bliss presented "Assign-ing Reference in Clausal Nominal-izations" at the Workshop on Nom-inalizations in London, Ontario inMay. She also presented “A Split DPAnalysis of Blackfoot Nominal Ex-pressions” at the Annual Conferenceof the Canadian Linguistics Associa-tion in Waterloo, Ontario in May.

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- Heather Bliss, Elizabeth Ritter,and Martina Wiltschko presented“Blackfoot Nominalization Patterns”at the 44th Algonquian Conferencein Chicago in October.

- Anita Szakay received an Hon-ourable Mention Award with her pa-per presentation titled “Abstract lex-ical representations are mediate bysocial codes: Evidence from long-term cross-language auditory prim-ing” at the 8th International Confer-ence on the Mental Lexicon, Mon-treal, Canada, October 2012.

We look forward to an equally ex-citing 2013!

Department Events

Imagine Day

by MOLLY BABEL

Imagine Day is a unique event or-ganized by UBC to inaugurate thenew school year by welcoming newand returning students back to cam-pus. The goal of the Linguistics De-partment’s Imagine Day was to con-vey that we are a dynamic groupof faculty, graduate, and undergrad-uate students who study languagefrom a diverse range of perspec-tives. Undergraduates gathered tohear about the department’s interdis-

ciplinary laboratory space, our field-work teams, and research opportuni-ties for undergraduate students. Stu-dents also learned about how to getinvolved in the Speech and Linguis-tics Student Association (SALSA), Co-op, and Go Global. Susan Atkey, theLinguistics library at Koerner, alsogave a presentation on how to makethe most of the library’s resources.

An estimated 75 undergraduatestudents attended the event, notcounting those who volunteered andhelped organize the event. Approx-imately eight undergraduate stu-dents, six graduate students, onepost-doctoral fellow, and five facultyworked to make the day a success.

Photos taken by Anne-Marie Comte

Halloween Party

by KEVIN MCMULLIN

It was a dark and scary Fridayevening on October 26th, as mem-bers of the UBC Linguistics depart-ment descended in costume uponDoug’s house. We gathered for a cel-ebration of Halloween as well as thesuccessful completion of two verybusy months. The identities of all at-tendees cannot be known with cer-tainty, but there were at least twoTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a pro-

fessional wrestler, a giraffe and acowboy taking part in the festivities.It was a delightful get-together, andwe owe a big “thank you” to the hostsfor allowing such a frightening groupof linguists to enjoy some great foodand conversation in their home.

Skill Sharing Workshops up-

date

by BLAKE ALLEN

The Skill Sharing Workshops pro-gram that was revived last year hascontinued this fall, and plans are be-

ing set up for continuing workshopsin the winter and spring. The two ses-sions that met this semester focusedon LaTeX and phonetic data process-ing. Natalie Weber presented an in-troduction to creating and typsettingdocuments in LaTeX, with a partic-ular focus on the class (.cls) filesshe has created that enable LaTeXusers to automatically create docu-ments conforming to the UBCWPLstyle guidelines. Blake Allen de-scribed a suite of software he de-signed for working with ultrasound

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video data; using Python and variouscommand line utilities, this softwareautomates the most time-consumingsteps required to refine raw ultra-sound video into statistical measuresof significance for information en-coded in them. Materials from thesesessions are available on the de-partment website under Research →Skill Swapping Workshops. Sessionsplanned for next term include ad-vice on keeping current with new re-search and building your academicprofile, both with Linguistics Depart-ment librarian Susan Atkey, as well asintroductions to Praat scripting andusing Praat’s phonological grammarmodel functions.

Language of the Year event

by ANDREI ANGHELESCU

On Friday November 9th, the Lin-

guistics department celebrated Nata,a Bantu language spoken in Tanaza-nia. As Joash Johannes, a nativespeaker and expert linguist, told anaudience composed of linguists andlanguage enthusiasts, Nata speak-ers face linguistic, economic and so-cial pressures due to the locationin which Nata is spoken, border-ing the Serengeti National Park. Be-cause Nata speakers are in competi-tion with other Tanzanian’s for jobsin one of the many luxurious resortsalong the Serengeti, it is crucial totheir employment to learn Swahili.As a result, many young Nata peopledo not use their native language.

Joash’s talk was followed by amusical performance by Yoro Nouk-oussi. In several pieces Noukoussi, asinger and songwriter born in NorthBenin, displayed the famed WestAfrican talking drum among other in-

struments. Anke Jenkins spoke abouther project the Jipe Moyo Nurs-ery school outside of Mombasa. Sheshared with the audience the value ofcharitable work.

Joash followed up Anke’s presen-tation by speaking about his ownproject, the Mugeta Children Cen-tre. Joash established the school in2010 as a way to provide nurseryand primary education to poor chil-dren. Since then, the number of stu-dents has grown from 15 to 70. Joashis currently extending the classroombuildings and working on addingroofing to complete the extension.Joash was hopeful that the schoolwould grow to include even moreclassrooms, a library and even dor-mitories; he explained “this is an on-going project and this is just the firstphase.” You can find out more aboutthe Mugeta Children Centre here.

Photos at TFS taken by Sachie Kotani (PhD, U of Delaware)

Rolling out the yoga mat!

by SHAINE MEGHJI

Nothing is as satisfying as a ses-sion of yoga, filled with continuousflow of invigorating, yet revitalizingmovement and breath.

We were very fortunate to havethis well sought after practice ar-rive at TFS early this semester. EdnaDharmaratne our Linguistics Admin-istrator pursued her efforts with theUBC Health and Fitness to make thispractice a reality.

Our magnificent yoga teacher LilaPopa uses her calm, nurturing styleto take us through the introduc-tory sequences that flow into in-tense vinyasa with gentle sync be-tween movement, breath to awakenthe practice and finally culminating

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into meditation. Lila helps the groupdelve into deeper contemplation asshe conducts the poses with reassur-ing, soothing and inspiring words.

We have a regular group of par-ticipants attending our hourly ritualwhere the seminar room is trans-formed from a raucous lecture roomto a tranquil yoga chamber. Someattendees are veterans of countlessdownward dogs and can perform themost extreme permutations while therest of us can perform well deservedvariations. Namaste and Peace be toall as we resume our practice back inthe New Year.

Fall 2012 Commencement

by MOLLY BABEL

Congratulations to the Fall 2012Linguistics Graduates! The Novem-ber 22, 2012 commencement at UBCincluded nine Linguistics graduates:Esther Bergen, Crystal Chih, Tin WanTiffany Choy, Phil Howson, Anne-Marie Kidd, Natasha Knopfel, MarissaShields, Jonathan Tang, and BonitaYau. Congratulations graduates, andgood luck!

SALSA News

by JESSICA NAKA

So far this year the Speechand Linguistics Student Association(SALSA) has been very busy! Wekicked off the year with a brandnew event, IP’EH Beer nights at thegallery. Our first one was a huge

success; a lot of our club’s mem-bers came out and unwound withus over a beer. We look forward tomany more great get-togethers nextsemester.

Our next event was the traditionalIce Cream Social, held every yearto introduce new SALSA membersover some wonderful ice cream sun-daes. All the students seemed to havea good time chatting, playing madgabs, and eating ice cream.

In November, SALSA hosted twoexcellent talks about “What to dowith your degree.” Two grad stu-dents were invited to come and sharetheir experiences with university andto answer any questions the newundergraduate students had. Alongwith the grad students were a num-ber of SALSA exec members who pre-sented on various ways to get in-volved with the department and thedifferent paths each has taken to getthe most out of his or her undergrad-uate degree thus far.

The biggest event of the year waswithout a doubt the annual Wine &Cheese. There was a new venue thisyear, it was held in Buchanan Mass,which was the perfect place to holdan event for the large number of peo-ple who came out. The support fromthe faculty and students was phe-nomenal and we were so glad to seeso many smiling faces enjoying oneof SALSA’s best events of the year.Every exec member did an excellentjob preparing for the Wine & Cheese.

The team worked extremely hard tomake sure that everything from foodto decorations to clean up was a hugesuccess!

Although the past months havebeen busy, we hope that the secondsemester is just as jam-packed withevents as the first semester was. Theclub has put together a UBC Rec Ul-timate Frisbee team that will be hit-ting the field in January. Anyone whois interested in some exercise in be-tween their studying is welcome tojoin! Also look for our Storm theWall announcements so that SALSAcan enter a team in this traditionalspring challenge.

One of our biggest events nextsemester will be a “Minute to Winit” game night! This will be basedoff a popular TV show where contes-tants are given one minute to com-plete a silly task, such as pulling allof the Kleenex out of a box or bounc-ing pencils into plastic cups. Not onlywill this evening be full of laugh-ter and good times, but it will alsobe where SALSA steps in to helpfundraise for the Mugeta ChildrenCenter School in Tanzania. It’s a greatway to show your support and have agreat evening!

Last but not least, the 2012/2013Speech and Linguistics Student As-sociation T-shirts will be ordered inthe New Year. Make sure to contactSALSA with your t-shirt size if youwish to buy one!

The Odd One Out

by MERLIN MATTHEWSON

Newletter of the University of British Columbia Department of Linguisticsm http://www.linguistics.ubc.ca T (604) 827-5468 B lingsec@interchange.ubc.ca Page 10

Newsletter Committee: Contributors: Photo Credits:Nahal Namdaran Blake Allen Anne-Marie ComteShaine Meghji Andrei Anghelescu Sachie KotaniJoe Stemberger Molly BabelLaura Sherer Gunnar HanssonMichael McAuliffe Kevin McMullinErin Guntly Lisa Matthewson

Merlin MatthewsonJessica NakaDouglas PulleyblankEmily Sadlier-Brown

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