#linguistics

CANCELLED: Language Diversity in Educational Settings

Dunstan is the NCSU Assistant Director of the Office of Assessment. Her research examines dialect as an element of diversity that shapes the college experience, particularly for speakers of non-standardized dialects of English. Dunstan and Jaeger (2015) found that students from rural, Southern Appalachia felt that their use of a regional dialect put them at a disadvantage in the college classroom. The students interviewed by Dunstan reported that “they had been hesitant to speak in class, felt singled out, dreaded oral presentations, tried to change the way they talked, and felt that they had to work harder to earn the respect of faculty and peers”. In addition to speaking about her work with Appalachian college students, Dunstan would accompany members of the Department of Linguistics to a meeting with the UK office of Academic and Student Affairs to discuss how to meet the needs of all UK students, regardless of linguistic background.

Date:
-
Location:
233 Gatton B&E

CANCELLED: Language Diversity in Educational Settings

Dunstan is the NCSU Assistant Director of the Office of Assessment. Her research examines dialect as an element of diversity that shapes the college experience, particularly for speakers of non-standardized dialects of English. Dunstan and Jaeger (2015) found that students from rural, Southern Appalachia felt that their use of a regional dialect put them at a disadvantage in the college classroom. The students interviewed by Dunstan reported that “they had been hesitant to speak in class, felt singled out, dreaded oral presentations, tried to change the way they talked, and felt that they had to work harder to earn the respect of faculty and peers”. In addition to speaking about her work with Appalachian college students, Dunstan would accompany members of the Department of Linguistics to a meeting with the UK office of Academic and Student Affairs to discuss how to meet the needs of all UK students, regardless of linguistic background.

Date:
-
Location:
233 Gatton B&E

Year of Equity Series: Linguists often talk the talk but how can we also walk the walk

    Part of diversity is linguistic diversity; part of equity is
    linguistic equity; and part of inclusion is linguistic inclusion.
 Yet, despite the many university initiatives around diversity,
    equity, inclusion and access, language and linguistic diversity
    are rarely part of the constellation of identity practices that
 are seen outside of linguistics as warranting efforts toward
    greater justice. Linguists can and should play an important
    role in advocating for the centrality of language within 
    inclusivity efforts, but many of our efforts to do so are less
    effective than we might hope.
 
    In this talk, I’ll explore some of the potential reasons why
    this has been the case and imagine (with your insight and help) 
    some ways that linguists could have more success in our efforts
    to enhance linguistic justice. By framing linguistic inclusion 
    in the context of standardized language privilege, I’ll present
    what we know about linguistic discrimination, pinpoint the
    linguistic stakes of DEI efforts, highlight some flashpoints
    that occur in public discussions about language such as with
    pronouns and political correctness, and finally offer some
    concrete steps that we as linguists can take to effectively
    advocate for the importance of language at all levels of
    intervention linked to greater inclusion and equity.
 

This talk is made possible by generous support from our friends in Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures; English; Gender and Women’s studies; Sociology; Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies; African American and Africana Studies; and the College of Arts and Sciences.

Date:
-
Location:
233 Gatton College of B&E

Year of Equity Series: Linguists often talk the talk but how can we also walk the walk

    Part of diversity is linguistic diversity; part of equity is
    linguistic equity; and part of inclusion is linguistic inclusion.
 Yet, despite the many university initiatives around diversity,
    equity, inclusion and access, language and linguistic diversity
    are rarely part of the constellation of identity practices that
 are seen outside of linguistics as warranting efforts toward
    greater justice. Linguists can and should play an important
    role in advocating for the centrality of language within 
    inclusivity efforts, but many of our efforts to do so are less
    effective than we might hope.
 
    In this talk, I’ll explore some of the potential reasons why
    this has been the case and imagine (with your insight and help) 
    some ways that linguists could have more success in our efforts
    to enhance linguistic justice. By framing linguistic inclusion 
    in the context of standardized language privilege, I’ll present
    what we know about linguistic discrimination, pinpoint the
    linguistic stakes of DEI efforts, highlight some flashpoints
    that occur in public discussions about language such as with
    pronouns and political correctness, and finally offer some
    concrete steps that we as linguists can take to effectively
    advocate for the importance of language at all levels of
    intervention linked to greater inclusion and equity.
 

This talk is made possible by generous support from our friends in Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures; English; Gender and Women’s studies; Sociology; Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies; African American and Africana Studies; and the College of Arts and Sciences.

Date:
-
Location:
233 Gatton College of B&E

Colloquium Speaker Series: An Overview of the Miami-Illinois Language

In this presentation, David Costa will provide an introduction to MiamiIllinois, an Algonquian language of Indiana and Illinois. Costa will first discuss the geographic setting of Miami-Illinois and its place with Algonquian, following with an overview of the data sources on the language. He will also provide a brief sketch of the phonology of the Miami-Illinois, and, time permitting, finish with a discussion of some of the more notable grammatical features of the language, such as animacy, transitivity, pro-drop, obviation, and basic word order

Date:
-
Location:
233 Gatton College of B&E
Tags/Keywords:

Talking Place, Speaking Race: African Americans, Their Englishes, and Local Identity

Sociolinguists, long concerned with the connections between language and localness, have shown that the ways in which speakers use features of ethnoracially or locally marked varieties are highly salient in their construction of identities of place. In the urban U.S., place identity is enmeshed with identities of class and identities of race: to be from a place is to embody its racial makeup and class delineations just as much as its physical locale.  
 
This present study combines quantitative analysis and discourse analysis to analyze the speech of middle- and upper-class African American residents of a rapidly-gentrifying neighborhood in Washington, D.C. The data show that drawing upon an ethnolinguistic repertoire (Benor 2010) which combines features of African American English style as well as features of prestige white varieties of English allows speakers to reinforce racial identities which align them with the neighborhood's rich African American identity even while their class identity might better align them with the outsiders. Ultimately, I argue that the linguistic expression of class and place identity is not an add-on to the enactment of racial identities, but that language is in fact the primary site wherein these intersecting identities are negotiated.
Date:
-
Location:
WTY Library 2-34a (Active Learning Classroom)

Talking Place, Speaking Race: African Americans, Their Englishes, and Local Identity

Sociolinguists, long concerned with the connections between language and localness, have shown that the ways in which speakers use features of ethnoracially or locally marked varieties are highly salient in their construction of identities of place. In the urban U.S., place identity is enmeshed with identities of class and identities of race: to be from a place is to embody its racial makeup and class delineations just as much as its physical locale.  
 
This present study combines quantitative analysis and discourse analysis to analyze the speech of middle- and upper-class African American residents of a rapidly-gentrifying neighborhood in Washington, D.C. The data show that drawing upon an ethnolinguistic repertoire (Benor 2010) which combines features of African American English style as well as features of prestige white varieties of English allows speakers to reinforce racial identities which align them with the neighborhood's rich African American identity even while their class identity might better align them with the outsiders. Ultimately, I argue that the linguistic expression of class and place identity is not an add-on to the enactment of racial identities, but that language is in fact the primary site wherein these intersecting identities are negotiated.
Date:
-
Location:
WTY Library 2-34a (Active Learning Classroom)

Dr. King and Chatino Political Discourse

Dr. King & Chatino Political Discourse, an event in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

In March 1965, after the bloody march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a sermon entitled, "Our God is Marching On!" This is political discourse trying to affect change in racial understanding towards greater equality while using religious themes and oratorical styles found in the pulpit. In this lecture by Dr. Hilaria Cruz, there will be comparisons on theme, repetition and parallelism to the political discourse found in San Juan Quiahije, Oaxaca, Mexico. Here in this remote place another racial minority to the greater Mexican society strives for equality using religion in political discourse.

 

An event in honor of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. sponsored by the UK Department of Linguistics

Date:
Location:
WTY UKAA Auditorium

Seminar Series: "Notes on the Language of the Cambodia Chinese Diaspora"

There has been a Chinese population in Cambodia for more than 500 years and contact with Cambodia was first mentioned by the eminent China emissary Zhou Daguan as early as 1296 during his travels there. Despite a relatively high degree of integration into to the majority Cambodia culture, ethnic Chinese have maintained their own social organizations, news media, and schools.  The Cambodian Chinese population is organized around five Huiguan (会馆) ‘congregations’  corresponding to the southern-origin Chinese groups that comprise it: Chaozhou 潮州会馆,  Cantonese 广肇会馆，Hakka 客属会馆, Fujian 福建会馆, and Hainan 海南会馆.  Until the Khmer Rouge forced closure of Chinese schools in the mid seventies, the language of Chinese education followed the dialects of each association.  However, in recent times Mandarin has become the lingua franca of the Sino-Cambodia community, though among ethnic Chinese there are few if any native speakers of Mandarin.

Through examination of survey data and recorded interviews, this presentation sketches a picture of the contemporary Chinese community in Cambodian and outlines some of the language change occurring by contact with the majority Khmer langauge. The paper gives special attention to examples from the local Cantonese.

Date:
-
Location:
W.T. Young Library 2-34A (Active Learning Classroom)
Tags/Keywords: