Bert Vaux

Professor of Linguistics

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

[last updated 7-2005]

Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics                                                      (414) 229-3068

893 Curtin Hall                                                                                                      vaux@uwm.edu

Milwaukee, WI 53201                                                                           http://www.uwm.edu/~vaux

Highlights

   Teaching

·        Selected as one of the five best professors at Harvard by the class of 2003. Selected as one of the top professors in Harvard College by the graduating seniors (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003). Named as one of the best professors at Harvard by the Harvard Crimson (1999, 2001) and Fifteen Minutes magazine (2001). LING award for best teacher and adviser in the Linguistics Department, 2003.

·        Teaching evaluations of 4.86 out of 5 (Psych 1357, Evolution of Language), 4.85 (Ling 495AA, Field Methods), and 4.8 (Ling 80, Dialects of English).

·        Two courses I developed at Harvard, Knowledge of Language and Dialects of English, reached enrollments of 400 and 540 respectively.

·        Three of my thesis advisees won Hoopes Prizes (awarded to the best senior honors theses at Harvard); five of my students have won Rhodes Scholarships.

   Books

·        The Phonology of Armenian published by Oxford University Press, favorably reviewed in numerous leading journals, and has already sold out its first printing

·        Invited to write Introducing Language, flagship intro to linguistics textbook for Cambridge University Press

·        Introduction to Linguistic Field Methods is the standard text in the field and has sold out two printings

   Recognition in the field

               Invited professor:

·        Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute (1999)

·        International Summer Institute in Armenian Dialectology (2001)

               Keynote speaker:

·        Symposium on Phonological Theory: Representations and Architecture, CUNY, February 2004

·        Armenian Linguistics in a Modern Perspective workshop organized by the Association Internationale des Etudes Armeniennes at Leiden University, March 2003

               Citation:

·        Theory proposed in Vaux 1998 (LI) now referred to as ‘Vaux’s Law’ (see Citation Record)

·        Theory proposed in Halle, Vaux, Wolfe 2000 was the topic of semester-long seminar by Profs. Clements and Hume in Paris, and an entire session of the Ohio State phonology group

Invited speaker: NAPhC 3 (2004); NELS 33 (MIT, 2002); 2002 Linguistic Society of Korea International Summer Meeting; MIT, Boston University, University of Chicago, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Berkeley, UCLA, University of Wisconsin, University of Michigan, University of Connecticut, Northwestern University, Hebrew University, Concordia University, Masaryk University, and numerous Armenian organizations.

·        General Editor of Oxford Surveys in Generative Phonology.

·        General Editor of the Annual of Armenian Linguistics, 1999-.

·        Codirector until 2001 of the Harvard Biolinguistics Group, a joint venture of the departments of Psychology, Biology, Anthropology, and Linguistics.

·        Public recognition: my online survey of English dialects (2002-3) had articles written on it in the New York Times, Science, USA Today, MSNBC, CNN, AP, Chicago Tribune, and many other major newspapers. 50,000 individuals completed it, making it the largest linguistic survey to date.

Employment

February 2005 - present    faculty affiliate, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies

Sept. 2003 - present          Professor of Linguistics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

July 1998 - June 2003       Associate Professor of Linguistics, Harvard University

July 1994-1998                 Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Harvard University

Summer 2001                   Institute Professor, Summer Institute of Armenian Dialectology, Stepanakert, Karabagh (administered by the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Paris)

Summer 1998                   Professor, LSA Linguistic Institute, University of Illinois

Education

1994     PhD in Linguistics                            Harvard University (committee: Calabrese,  Halle, Watkins)

1992     MA in Linguistics                             Harvard University

1991     Summer Course in Armenian            University of Venice

1990     Advanced Armenian Course             Univ. of Michigan Summer Program in Armenia

1990     BA with Honors in Linguistics           University of Chicago

1989     Beginning Armenian Course              Univ. of Michigan Summer Program in Armenia

Books Authored (9 + 2)

forthcoming       Linguistic Field Methodology. Oxford University Press. [pending legal clearance]

*in prep.           Introducing Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Invited submission]

*in prep.           Evaluating Optimality Theory. [100 pages completed thus far]

in prep.             Vowel and consonant harmony. [Completed; in the process of submission]

1998                 The Phonology of Armenian. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

                              Reviews:

·        Orhan Orgun, Phonology 17:137-142 (2001)

·        Charles de Lamberterie, Bulletin de la Societe de Linguistique de Paris 96.2:145-149 (2001)

·        Amalya Khatchatrian, Language 76.2:433-437 (2000)

·        Michael Redford, Glot International 4.6 (1999)

·        Marc Mamigonian, Book News (April 1999)

·        Bernard Comrie, Annual of Armenian Linguistics 19:71-73 (1998)

·        John Greppin, Times Literary Supplement 4981:37 (1998)

1998                 Introduction to Linguistic Field Methods [with Justin Cooper]. Munich: Lincom Europa.

                              Reviews:

·        Helma van den Berg, Linguistic Typology 7.2 (2003)

·        Peter Bakker, Anthropological Linguistics 43.1:108-110 (2001)

·        Alan Kaye, Word 52.1:121-125 (2001)

·        Taylor Roberts, Language 76.2:485 (2000)

1994                 Armenian phonology. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University.

1998                 Eastern Armenian: A Textbook [with Kevork Bardakjian]. Ann Arbor: Caravan.    

2002                 A Textbook of Western Armenian [with Kevork Bardakjian]. Ann Arbor: Caravan.

forthcoming       The Armenian dialect of New Julfa, Isfahan. Amsterdam: Rodopi.            [completed]

in prep.             The Cwyzhy dialect of Abkhaz.                              [currently available in draft form]

Other books in preparation

·        An Atlas of English Dialects.

·        Edition and translation of Joachim Schröder’s Thesaurus Linguae Armeniacae (with Daniel Lassiter).

·        A History of Armenian Literature, 1720-1910. (Rough draft completed)

in prep.             Bringing up baby bilingual. (A synthesis of research by neurolinguists, psycholinguists, acquisition researchers, and sociolinguists on bilingualism, designed to persuade parents to bring up their children to be bilingual, and providing linguistically-informed suggestions for how to do so. 50 pages completed thus far.)

in prep.             Syllables and Syllabification. [100 pages completed thus far]

Books and book series edited (5)

·        Oxford Surveys in Generative Phonology. [Series editor]

·        Rules and Constraints in Contemporary Phonological Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [to appear]

·        Harvard Working Papers in Linguistics 7. Cambridge: Harvard University Linguistics Department, 1999. [co-editor with Susumu Kuno]

·        Harvard Working Papers in Linguistics 6. Cambridge: Harvard University Linguistics Department, 1997. [co-editor with Susumu Kuno]

·        Harvard Working Papers in Linguistics 5. Cambridge: Harvard University Linguistics Department, 1995. [co-editor with Samuel D. Epstein, Höskuldur Thráinsson, Steve Peter, Andrea Calabrese, and Susumu Kuno]

Articles (49)

pending       Markedness and laryngeal features. Under revision for Phonology.

pending       The transparency of contrastive segments in Sibe: evidence for Relativized Locality. [With Andrew Nevins, Harvard. Currently under review for Linguistic Inquiry.]

pending       Lifting the veil of perception: the Split Effect and non-acoustic factors in perceptual integration. [with Bridget Samuels, Harvard]

pending       Explaining vowel systems: dispersion vs. evolution. [With Bridget Samuels, Harvard.]

pending       Region segmentation with random point sampling in a noisy environment:
an algorithm for automated isogloss generation. [with Yuri Ostrovsky, MIT]

to appear     The syllable appendix. In Contemporary Views on Architecture and Representations in Phonological Theory, Eric Raimy and Charles Cairns, eds. Cambridge: MIT Press.

to appear     The role of features in a symbolic theory of phonology. In Contemporary Views on Architecture and Representations in Phonological Theory, Eric Raimy and Charles Cairns, eds. Cambridge: MIT Press.

to appear     Review of Chitoran 2002. To appear in Phonology, 2005.

2005           The Role of Contrast in Locality: Transparent Palatal Glides in Kyrghyz. [With Andrew Nevins, Harvard] Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Altaic Formal Linguistics.

2004           Consonant harmony in Karaim. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 46:175-194. [With Andrew Nevins, MIT]

2003           Syllabification in Armenian, Universal Grammar, and the Lexicon. Linguistic Inquiry 34.1:91-125.

2000           Feature Spreading and the Representation of Place of Articulation. [With Morris Halle and Andrew Wolfe] Linguistic Inquiry 31.3:387-444.

1998           The Laryngeal Specifications of Fricatives. Linguistic Inquiry 29.3:497-512.

1996           The Status of ATR in Feature Geometry. Linguistic Inquiry 27.1:175-182.

2003           Why the phonological component must be serial and rule-based. NELS 33.

2003           Metalinguistic, shmetalinguistic: the phonology of shm-reduplication. CLS 39. [With Andrew Nevins, MIT]

2003           American dialects. In Let’s Go USA 2004, Kristen Kitchen, ed.

2002           Stang's Law and Szemerenyi's Law in nonlinear phonology. Indo-European Perspectives, pp. 317-327. Journal of Indo-European Studies Monograph Series 41. Series ed. Richard Diebold. Washington DC: Institute for the Study of Man. 

2002           The Armenian dialect of Jerusalem. Armenians in the Holy Land, Michael Stone, ed. Louvain: Peeters.

2002           Oxford Dictionary of American Personal Names. (Author of the Armenian component.)    

2001           The Armenian dialect of Aslanbeg. Annual of Armenian Linguistics 21:31-64.

2001           Hemshinli: the forgotten Black Sea Armenians. Journal of Armenian Studies 6.2:47-71.

2000           Disharmony and derived transparency in Uyghur vowel harmony. Proceedings of NELS 30, M. Hirotani, A. Coetzee, N. Hall, and J-Y. Kim, eds., 671-698. Amherst: GLSA.

2000           Notes on the Armenian dialect of Ayntab. Annual of Armenian Linguistics 20:55-82.

1999           A Note on Pharyngeal Features.       Harvard Working Papers in Linguistics 7, Susumu Kuno and Bert Vaux, eds., 39-63. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Linguistics Department.

1998           Theoretical Aspects of Indo-European Nominal Morphology. In Mír Curad: Studies in Honor of Calvert Watkins, Craig Melchert, Jay Jasanoff, and Lisi Oliver, eds. Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Innsbruck.

1998           Recent Armenological research of Indo-European relevance. UCLA Friends and Alumni of Indo-European Studies Newsletter 6.3.

1997           The Phonology of Voiced Aspirates in the New Julfa Dialect of Armenian. Armenian Perspectives, Nicholas Awde, ed. Richmond: Curzon Press.

1997           The Cwyzhy Dialect of Abkhaz. Harvard Working Papers in Linguistics 6, Susumu Kuno, Bert Vaux, and Steve Peter, eds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Linguistics Department.

1997           Armenian Plural Selection and the Nature of Lexical Syllabification. ERIC database of educational documents.

1996           Wackernagel’s Law in Armenian. Révue des Études Arméniennes 25:17-42.

1996           Ethnographic Materials from the Muslim Hemshinli with Linguistic Notes. Annual of Armenian Linguistics 17:25-45.

1996           Vowel harmony in the Armenian dialect of Marash. Association Internationale des Etudes Armeniennes.

1995           Vowel Harmony in the Armenian Dialect of Karchevan. Proceedings of the 9th Biennial Non-Slavic Languages Conference, Chicago, May 1995. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.

1995           A Problem in Diachronic Armenian Verbal Morphology. Proceedings of the International Association of Armenian Studies Conference on Middle Armenian Language and Literature, Leiden, Holland, March 1993. Dutch Studies in Armenian Language and Literature, vol. 3. Amsterdam: Rodopi.

1995           Review of Dora Sakayan, Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Armenian Linguistics. Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies 8:188-190.

1993           ATR Harmony in the Altaic Languages. Proceedings of the 8th Biennial Non-Slavic Languages Conference, Chicago, May 1993. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.

1993           Coronal Fronting in the Armenian Dialect of Akn. Annual of Armenian Linguistics 14:15-29.

1993           Syllabification and Epenthesis in Armenian. Harvard Working Papers in Linguistics 2, H. Thráinsson et alii, eds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Linguistics Department.

1993           The Origins of Altaic Labial Attraction. Harvard Working Papers in Linguistics 2, H. Thráinsson et alii, eds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Linguistics Department.

1992           Adjarian’s Law and Consonantal ATR in Armenian. Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference of Armenian Linguistics, J. Greppin, ed. Delmar, NY: Caravan.

1992           Gemination and Syllabic Integrity in Indic. Journal of Indo-European Studies 20.3:283-303.

to appear     Armenian. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Oxford: Elsevier.

to appear     Armenian. Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn.

to appear     Turkey. Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn.

to appear     Kabardian and Northwest Caucasian Languages.  Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn.

to appear     Homshetsma: The Language of the Armenians of Hamshen. The Hemshin, edited by Hovann Simonian. Peoples of the Caucasus Handbooks #18. Richmond: Curzon Press.

to appear     Armenian Dialectology. Armenian Studies in the Twenty-First Century. Belmont, MA: National Association for Armenian Studies and Research.

to appear     The Dialect of Marash. Chapter in the book Marash, by Paren Sanentz.

Invited lectures and courses (62)

2005/7        Invited discussant, session on Optimality Theory and Second Language Acquisition: Phonology and Syntax, 14th World Congress of Applied Linguistics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, July 25, 2005. Topic: “What L2 phonological effects tell us about the architecture of the phonological component”.

2005/5        Invited speaker, Workshop on Armenian Syntax, Pithiviers, France, May 21-23. ‘Having your cake and being it too: the syntactic, semantic, and morphological history of possession and existence in Armenian.’

2005/4        Invited speaker, Map Society of Wisconsin, April 14, 2005. ‘Mapping Contemporary American English Dialects.’

2005/4        Invited speaker, Remembrance of the martyrs of 1915 madagh, St. Mesrob Church, Racine, WI, April 17, 2005. ‘What exactly is an Armenian? The Genocide, Diaspora, and the Problem of Modern Armenian Identity.’

2004/12      Invited speaker, Armenia: Custom, Culture, and Identity symposium, Milwaukee. ‘Language and religion in the construction of modern Armenian identity.’

2004/9        Invited speaker, Culture Cafe, UW-Milwaukee. ‘Armenia.’

2004/9        Invited speaker, Judicial Council of California, Administrative Office of the Courts’ Interpreters Conference, Los Angeles, CA, September 18. ‘Linguistic differences between Eastern and Western Armenian.’

2004/5        Invited speaker, Armenian Network, Washington, DC. ‘5000 years of evolution: the Armenian language today.’

2004/5        Invited speaker, North American Phonology Conference, Concordia University, Montreal. ‘Relativized locality.’

2004/2        Keynote speaker, Symposium on phonological theory: representations and architecture, CUNY.

2003/11      Invited speaker, St. Hagop Armenian Apostolic Church, Racine, WI. ‘The Dialect of Tomarza: Chomakhlu, Everek and the region of Kesaria.’

2003/4        Keynote speaker, Armenian Linguistics in a Modern Perspective, Leiden University, Holland. ‘The Current State of Armenian Dialectology.’

2003/1        Keynote speaker, Armenian Professional Society, San Francisco. ‘The Hamshen Armenians.’

2002/12      Keynote speaker, Harvard Initiative for Peace and Justice, International Human Rights Day, December 10. ‘What Iraq is really like.’

2002/11      33rd annual meeting of the Northeast Linguistic Society (NELS), MIT, Cambridge, MA. ‘Iterativity and Optionality.’

2002/11      UCLA Conference on Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces XI: Smyrna. ‘The Armenian Dialect of Smyrna.’

2002/10      International conference on Rethinking Armenian Studies: Past, Present, and Future, National Association for Armenian Studies and Research, Belmont, MA. ‘Integrating Armenian Studies in Linguistics and other university courses.’

2002/9        Department of Linguistics, Yale University. ‘Consonant epenthesis, unnatural phonology, and the problem of rules vs. constraints (and gestures).’

2002/9        Invited professor, ‘Conversations with faculty’. One of a few Harvard faculty who led discussions of college education with incoming freshmen.

2002/8        Linguistic Society of Korea International Summer Meeting, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea. ‘Evaluating Optimality Theory I.’

2002/1-7     Visiting Professor of Armenian Studies, University of Chicago [declined].

2002/5        Northwestern University. ‘Evaluating Optimality Theory.’

2002/5        Armenian Medical Association, Boston. ‘The Hamshen Armenians.’

2002/5        Department of History, UCLA. ‘The language of the Hemshinli.’

2002/5        Armenian Youth Association of California. ‘Armenian Dialects.’

2002/4        North American Phonology Conference, Concordia University, Montreal. ‘Explaining vowel systems: Dispersion Theory vs. Evolution.’

2002/3        University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. ‘Aspiration in English.’

2002/2        University of Wisconsin, Madison. ‘The phonology of laryngeal features in English.’

2001/9        Symposium on the Armenian Church, Armenian Cultural Foundation, Arlington, MA. ‘Armenian language and religion, 301-2001.’

2001/9        Invited professor, ‘Conversations with faculty’. One of a few Harvard faculty who led discussions of college education with incoming freshmen.

2001/8        Institute Professor    Université d'été en dialectologie arménienne, Stepanakert, Karabagh (administered by the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Paris).

2001/6        National Association for Armenian Studies and Research. ‘The language and culture of the Muslim Armenians.’

2001/5        UCLA conference on Armenian Constantinople. ‘The Armenian dialect of Bolis.’

2001/4        Acme Balkan Conference, Concordia University, Montreal. ‘There was and there wasn't a Balkan Sprachbund.’

2001/4        Department of Linguistics, Concordia University, Montreal. ‘North American dialects today.’

2001/3        Armenian General Benevolent Union, London. ‘The formation of Standard Western Armenian.’

2001/3        Kings College London. ‘Designing the phonological and morphological components of an electronic lexicon of Western Armenian.’

2000/11      Department of Linguistics, Boston University. ‘American dialects today.’

2000/9        Armenia 2000 International Conference, Halle, Germany [declined].

1999/11      UCLA Conference on Edessa and Tigranakert. ‘The Armenian dialect of Diyarbakir’.

1999/11      UCLA Conference on Edessa and Tigranakert. ‘The Armenian dialect of Urfa’.

1999/9        Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. ‘Aspiration and Glottalization in English’.

1999/7        Invited professor, LSA Summer Institute, University of Illinois            Course title: ‘Basic Methods of Elicitation’.

1999/5        Conference on Armenians in the Holy Land, Hebrew University. ‘The Armenian dialects of Jerusalem’.

1999/5        Conference on Armenians in New England, Bentley College. ‘The fate of the Armenian language in the United States’.

1999/3        National Association for Armenian Studies and Research, Belmont, MA. ‘The Formation of Standard Western Armenian’.

1999/2        University of Chicago. ‘Syllabification in Armenian and Universal Grammar’.

1997/5        University of California at Berkeley [cosponsored by the programs in Linguistics, Indo-European, Armenian, and Central Asia]. ‘The Forty Vowels of Musa Dagh’.

1997/4        Ford Foundation Indo-European Seminar, Harvard University. ‘Long-Distance Compensatory Lengthening in Armenian’.

1997/1        Harvard University Linguistics Colloquium. ‘Fricatives’.

1997/1        University of Pittsburgh. ‘Laryngeal Features’.

1996/11      Yale University Linguistics Colloquium. ‘Laryngeal Features and English Aspiration, Glottalization, and Flapping.’

1996/6        Phonology of the World’s Languages Colloquium, Pézenas, France. ‘Syllabification in Armenian.’ [didn't end up going]

1996/4        Department of Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Civilizations, Columbia University      ‘The Forgotten Black Sea Armenians.’

1996           Armenian Library and Museum of America, as part of an exhibit entitled Van: 3000 Years of an Armenian City. ‘The Armenian Dialect of Van.’

1995/11      National Association for Armenian Studies and Research International Conference on Armenian Studies in the Twenty-First Century, Boston, MA. ‘Armenian Dialectology.’

1995/10      Hamazkayin Foundation, Providence, RI. ‘Language and Ethnography of Armenian Van.’

1995/6        East Coast Indo-European Conference, Harvard University. ‘The Armenian Vowel Shift.’

1995/5        Armenia: Ethics, War, and Peace conference, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. ‘Framing the Genocide: Conflicts between Self and Other in Turkish Minorities.’

1995/3        Armenian Library and Museum of America Colloquium Series. ‘Linguistic Evidence for Armenian Migrations’

1994/11      University of Connecticut Linguistics Colloquium, Storrs, CT. ‘ATR Harmony in the Altaic Languages.’

1993/3        International Association of Armenian Studies Conference on Middle Armenian Language and Literature, held in Leiden, Holland. ‘The Verbal Chain Shift in Middle and Dialectal Armenian.’

Other talks (70)

2005/9        Center for Advanced Study in Theoretical Linguistics, University of Tromso, workshop on freedom of analysis in phonology. ‘Underlying Representations that do not Minimize Grammatical “Violations”’.

2005/5        Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, UWM. ‘Using and misusing Google for primary linguistic research’.

2005/4        Wisconsin Map Society , Milwaukee, WI. ‘Mapping contemporary North American dialects’.

2005/1        LSA Annual Meeting, San Francisco. ‘Formal and empirical arguments for morpheme structure constraints.’

2004/11      MCWOP, Northwestern University. ‘Formal and empirical arguments for morpheme structure constraints.’

2004/10      The role of contrast in locality: transparent palatal glides in Kyrghyz. Second Workshop on Altaic Formal Linguistics, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul. [with Andrew Nevins, Harvard]

2004/5        North American Phonology Conference (NAPhC) 3, Montreal. ‘Relativized locality.’

2004/5        North American Phonology Conference (NAPhC) 3, Montreal. ‘Exchange Rules and Feature-Value Variables: Evidence from Zok Vocalic Inversion.’ [with Andrew Nevins and Justin Fitzpatrick, MIT]

2004/4        GLOW 27, Thessaloniki, Greece. ‘The Transparency of Contrastive Segments in Sibe: Evidence for Relativized Locality.’ [with Andrew Nevins, MIT]

2004/1        LSA Annual Meeting, Boston. ‘Explaining vowel systems: Dispersion Theory vs. evolution.’ [Special long talk with Bridget Samuels]

2003/11      St. Hagop Armenian Apostolic Church, Racine, WI. ‘The Dialect of Tomarza: Chomakhlu, Everek and the region of Kesaria.’

2003/11      UCLA International Conference Series on Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces: The Armenian communities of New Julfa. ‘The Armenian dialect of New Julfa.’

2003/11      University of Wisconsin, Madison. ‘Strict and Relativized Locality.’

2003/10      Leiden University Workshop on the Hemshinli. ‘Homshetsma: The language of the Hemshinli and Hamshen Armenians.’

2003/7        Armenian Professional Society, San Francisco. ‘The Armenians of Hamshen.’

2003/5        Workshop on Altaic Formal Linguistics, MIT. ‘Dorsal consonant harmony in Karaim’. [With Andrew Nevins, MIT]

2003/5        UCLA International Conference Series on Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces: The Armenian communities of Caesarea/Kesaria. ‘The Kesaria (Gesaratsi) Armenian Dialect.’

2003/4        Chicago Linguistic Society Annual Meeting, Chicago. ‘Metalinguistic Shmetalinguistic: The phonology of shm-reduplication. [With Andrew Nevins]

2003/4        Sigma Chi faculty dinner, Harvard. ‘Stereotypes and category formation.’

2003/4        Phonology Circle, MIT. ‘Lifting the veil of perception: The Split Effect and Perceptual Integration.’ [With Bridget Samuels]

2003/4        Armenian Linguistics in a Modern Perspective, Leiden University, Holland. ‘The Current State of Armenian Dialectology.’

2003/1        LSA Annual Meeting, Atlanta. ‘Why the phonological component must be serial and rule-based.’ [Special long talk]

2003/1        LSA Annual Meeting, Atlanta. ‘Underdetermination in language games: Survey and analysis of Pig Latin dialects.’ [With Andrew Nevins, MIT]

2003/1        Armenian Professional Society, San Francisco. ‘The Hamshen Armenians.’

2002/11      33rd annual meeting of the Northeast Linguistic Society (NELS), MIT, Cambridge, MA. ‘Iterativity and Optionality.’

2002/11      UCLA Conference on Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces XI: Smyrna. ‘The Armenian Dialect of Smyrna.’

2002/10      National Association for Armenian Studies and Research Conference on the Future of Armenian Studies, Belmont, MA. ‘Integrating Armenian Studies in Linguistics and other university courses.’

2002/9        Department of Linguistics, Yale University. ‘Consonant epenthesis, unnatural phonology, and the problem of rules vs. constraints (and gestures).’

2002/8        Linguistic Society of Korea International Summer Meeting, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea. ‘Evaluating Optimality Theory I.’

2002/5        The language of the Hemshinli. UCLA Conference on the Armenians of the Black Sea

2002/4        North American Phonology Conference, Concordia University, Montreal. ‘Explaining vowel systems: Dispersion Theory vs. Evolution.’

2002/2        The phonology of laryngeal features in English. Department of Linguistics, University of Wisconsin, Madison

2002/1        Systemic vs. feature-based markedness in laryngeal contrasts. LSA Annual Meeting, San Francisco

2001/11      The Armenian Dialect of Kars. Conference on Armenian Kars and Ani, UCLA

2001/10      Dispersion Theory and the Abkhaz vowel system. NELS 32, NYU

2001/9        Armenian language and religion, 301-2001. Armenian Cultural Foundation

2001/5        The Armenian Dialect of Istanbul. Conference on Armenian Constantinople, UCLA

2001/1        Consonant insertion and hypercorrection. LSA Annual Meeting, Washington DC

2000/12      American dialects today. Boston University

2000/11      The Armenian Dialects of Cilicia. Conference on the Armenian Communities of Cilicia, UCLA

2000/10      Consonant epenthesis. Department of Linguistics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

2000/1        Flapping in English. LSA Annual Meeting, Chicago

1999/11      The Armenian Dialect of Tigranakert. Conference on the Armenian Communities of Tigranakert and Edessa, UCLA

1999/11      The Armenian Dialect of Urfa. Conference on the Armenian Communities of Tigranakert and Edessa, UCLA

1999/10      Uyghur Raising and the Nature of (Under)specification. NELS 30, Rutgers

1999/9        The Armenian Dialect of Ankara. Association Internationale des Études Arméniennes, Vienna

1999/7        Morphological Transparency in Homshetsma. Sixieme Colloque Internationale de linguistique arménienne, Paris

1999/5        The Armenian Dialect of Jerusalem. Conference on Armenians in the Holy Land, Hebrew University

1999           The 40 Vowels of Musa Dagh. MIT Phonology Circle

1999/4        The Fate of the Armenian Language in New England. Conference on the Armenians in New England, Bentley College, Waltham, MA

1999/3        The Formation of Standard Western Armenian. NAASR

1999/1        Does consonant harmony exist? LSA Annual Meeting

1997/5        The Phonetics and Phonology of Secondary Articulations in Abkhaz. Tenth Biennial Non-Slavic Languages Conference, University of Chicago

1997/1        Armenian Plural Selection and the Nature of Lexical Syllabification. Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL

1997/1        Abkhaz Mabkhaz: M-reduplication in Abkhaz. Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL

1996/9        Vowel Harmony in the Marash Dialect of Armenian. Association Internationale des Études Arméniennes Conference, Louvain, Belgium

1996/6        Syllabification in Armenian. Phonology of the World’s Languages Colloquium, Pézenas, France

1996/1        The Laryngeal Specifications of Fricatives. Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA

1995/11      Armenian Dialectology. National Association for Armenian Studies and Research International Conference on Armenian Studies in the Twenty-First Century, Boston, MA

1995/6        The Armenian Vowel Shift. East Coast Indo-European Conference, Harvard University

1995/5        The Zok Language. Fifth International Conference of Armenian Linguistics, Montreal, Canada

1995/5        Vowel Harmony in the Karchevan Dialect of Armenian. Ninth Biennial Non-Slavic Languages Conference, University of Chicago.

1994/3        Nasal voicing and contour segments. Harvard University.

1994/2        Feature spreading and vocalic place. MIT Phonology Circle, February 4.

1993/9        The Phonology of Voiced Aspirates in the New Julfa Dialect of Armenian. Association Internationale des Études Arméniennes, London, England

1993/5        ATR Harmony in the Altaic Languages. Eighth Biennial Non-Slavic Languages Conference, University of Chicago

1993/3        The Verbal Chain Shift in Middle and Dialectal Armenian. International Association of Armenian Studies Conference on Middle Armenian Language and Literature, Leiden, Holland

1993/1        Is ATR a Laryngeal Feature? Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, CA

1992/5        Gemination and Prosodic Integrity in Indic. UCLA Indo-European Conference, Los Angeles, CA

1991/9        Adjarian’s Law and Consonantal ATR in Armenian. Fourth International Conference of Armenian Linguistics, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH

Grants and Honors

2002                 Clark Fund Fellowship for junior faculty for research on Abkhaz ($3000).

2002                 Advisor for David Mihalyfy’s year-long research project on Nivkh (Sakhalin Island), funded by a Rockefeller Fellowship.

2001                 Joint grant from Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for 6-week on-site study of the Armenian dialect of Jerusalem

2000                 Clark Fund fellowship. $4000 for research on The Armenian Dialect of New Julfa

2000                 Faculty Aid grant for working with Tara Macallister         

2000                 Faculty Aid grant for working with Rebecca Starr

1999                 Faculty Innovation Award, 1999 ($10,000 for developing a phonetics lab).     

1998                 Faculty Aid grant for working with James Darrow

1997-8              Harvard University junior faculty research grant  

1997-8              Clark Fund Fellowship for junior faculty 

1996                 Nominated for Society of Fellows at Harvard      

1996-present     Ford Foundation grant for year-long symposium at Harvard University entitled ‘Acquisition and Learnability.’ [co-recipient with Lynn Nichols, Harvard University]           

1991-94            National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship           

1990-95            Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities (honorary 1991-94, during NSF fellowship)

1990                 William Penn Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania [declined]

1990                 Marshall scholarship finalist

1989, 1990        Program for Inter-Institutional Collaboration in Area Studies Fellowship for summer study in Erevan, Armenia          

1988                 Josephine de Karman [National] Fellowship for Excellence in the Humanities         

1986-90            University of Chicago Honors Scholarship (awarded to 20 of 900 incoming freshmen)

1986-90            National Merit Scholarship         

ongoing             Harvard College Research Program grants for working with Daniel Lassiter (2002), Blake Boulerice (2002), Yuni Kim (2001), Eve Marson (2001), Tara McAllister (2001), Maria Gangemi (2000), Maja Groff (2000), Andrew Wolfe (1998-2000), Pawel Nowak (1999-2000), Marcelline Block (1999), Tiffany Beechy (1998)        

PhD Theses Advised

in progress        Dominika Baran, Department of Linguistics, Harvard. Gender and codeswitching in Chinese.

2002                 Makiko Asano, Department of Linguistics, Harvard. Topics in the Prosodic Structure of Japanese.

1998                 Sylvia Zetterstrand, Department of Linguistics, Harvard. The Hierarchical Representation of Vowel Height.

PhD Thesis Committees

ongoing             Karen Grunow-Harsta, Department of English, UWM. A descriptive grammar of two Magar dialects.

2005                 Peter Lenz, UWM. Suppression of dichotic verbal transformations: an analysis of speech-specific influences on transition rate.

2005                 David Elias, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, Harvard. Tigre of Habab: Short Grammar and Texts from the Rigbet People.

2004                 Andrew Nevins, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT. Conditions on (dis)harmony.

2003                 Sook Lee, Department of Linguistics, Harvard. The interaction of verb semantics and functional features in Korean syntax.

2001                 Grace Moon, Department of Linguistics, Harvard. English Imperatives

2001                 Christopher Woods, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, Harvard. The deictic foundations of the Sumerian Language: A study of the pronominal system and the ba-complex of verbal prefixes

1997                 Michele Sigler, Department of Linguistics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Number Agreement and Definiteness in Standard Western Armenian

MA Theses advised

2003                 Charles Chang, Department of Linguistics, Harvard. Thesis topic: The phonology of English loanwords in Burmese.

2003                 Mike Schuler, Department of Linguistics, Harvard. Thesis topic: Phonetic universals in gay speech: a comparison of English, Japanese, and Chinese. (Received the highest overall rating in our department)

2003                 Eugenie Suter, Department of Linguistics, Harvard. Thesis topic: The phonology of the Basel dialect of Swiss German.

2000                 Luce Aubry, Department of Linguistics, Harvard. Thesis topic: Vertical manipulation of the manual and visual indices in the person reference system of American Sign Language.

2000                 Mary Ann Cockerill, Department of Linguistics, Harvard. Thesis topic: Pharyngealization Spread in Arabic Dialects. (Awarded Summa cum laude)

1997                 Hanako Suzuki, Department of Linguistics, Harvard. Thesis topic: A proposal for teaching English pronunciation to speakers of Japanese.

MA Thesis committees

2005                 Laura DiGiorgio Scott, UWM. Thesis topic: Moving from Proto-Indo-European to Latin: motion events in Latin.

2004                 Amy Kuether, UWM. Thesis topic: A cross-linguistic survey of ‘have’ possessive grammaticalization.

2001                 John Kieft, Harvard University. Thesis topic: Saussure's theory of the sign.

2001                 John Benton, Norwich University, Vermont. Thesis topic: The genesis of categories of linguistic universals.

BA Theses advised

2003     Rebecca Starr, Department of Linguistics, Harvard. Thesis topic: The use of dialect in Irish-language radio and television in Ireland.

2002     Yuni Kim, BA Honors thesis in Linguistics, Harvard. Thesis topic: The Phonetics-Phonology Interface. (Summa cum laude; Hoopes Prize winner)

2002     Kiera Butler, BA Honors thesis in Linguistics, Harvard. Thesis topic: Constructing Identity in Hawaiian Pidgin English Literature.

2001     Pawel Nowak, BA Honors thesis in Linguistics, Harvard. Thesis topic: Palatalization in Polish. (Summa cum laude; Hoopes Prize winner)

2001     Andrew Wolfe, BA Honors thesis in Linguistics, Harvard. Thesis topic: Zaghawa Tonology. (Summa cum laude; Hoopes Prize winner)

2000     Rebecca Lubens, BA Honors thesis in Linguistics, Harvard. Thesis topic: The German Spelling Reform.

1999     Tiffany Beechy, BA Honors thesis in Linguistics, Harvard. Thesis topic: Aspects of Poetics in American Sign Language.

1997     Sally Berens, BA Honors thesis in Linguistics, Harvard. Thesis topic: Homshetsma Phonetics and Phonology.

1995     Jesse Tseng, BA Honors thesis in Linguistics, Harvard. Thesis topic: Syllabification in Middle Chinese. (Summa Cum Laude)

1995     Joel Derfner, BA Honors thesis in Linguistics, Harvard. Thesis topic: Constraints on WH-Movement in Abkhaz. (Summa Cum Laude)

BA Thesis Committees

2002     Second reader for Adelaide Papazoglou.

2000     Second reader for Maja Groff, BA Honors thesis in Folklore and Mythology, Harvard. Thesis topic: Kwakwala song culture.

1996     Second reader for Emily Tucker, BA Honors thesis in Linguistics, Harvard. Thesis topic: The Phonology of Latin Diminutives. (Summa Cum Laude; Hoopes Prize winner)

Teaching Honors

·        Selected as one of the five best professors at Harvard by the Class of 2003 (Senior Class Video, 2003)

·        Selected as one of the top professors in Harvard College by the graduating seniors (Harvard Yearbook, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003).

·        Named as one of the best professors at Harvard by the Harvard Crimson (1999, 2001) and Fifteen Minutes magazine (2001).

·        Finalist for the Levenson Teaching Award, given to the Harvard professor selected by the Undergraduate Council as the best teacher from several hundred nominations. (1999-2000, 2002-2003)

·        Nominated for the Phi Beta Kappa teaching award, 1999-2000.

Professional service

·        Editor of the Annual of Armenian Linguistics, 1999-.

·        Associate editor for Linguistic Inquiry, 2000-.

·        Associate editor for Syntax, 1997-.

·        Member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Armenian Studies, 2001-.

·        Referee for Language, 2003-.

·        Referee for Linguistic Inquiry, 1996-.

·        Referee for Journal of Phonetics, 1996-.

·        Referee for Phonology, 1998-.

·        Referee for Journal of Linguistics, 1998-.

·        Referee for Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 2002-.

·        Referee for Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 2000-.

·        Referee for Oxford University Press, 1998-.

·        Referee for Cambridge University Press, 1999-.

·        Referee for the National Research Council, 1999-.

·        Referee for Studies in Language Companion Series, John Benjamins, 2002-.

·        Referee for Phonological theory and the dialects of Italy, edited by Lori Repetti. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2000. Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Series IV, Current issues in linguistic theory.

·        Reviewer of Visiting Professor candidates for Italian Ministry.

·        Reviewer of abstracts for WCCFL, 2000, 2001, 2002

·        Reviewer of abstracts for ESCOL (Eastern States Conference on Linguistics), 1999.

·        Reviewer of abstracts for the 33rd North East Linguistic Society Conference, MIT, November 2002.

·        Reviewer of abstracts for the 26th North East Linguistic Society Conference, summer 1995.

·        Reviewer of abstracts for the Fourth International Conference on the Evolution of Language, Harvard University, spring 2002.

·        Referee for Dora Sakayan, Modern Western Armenian (Montreal: Arod Books, 2000).

·        Referee for Gayane Hagopian, Western Armenian (Berkeley: University of California Press, to appear).

·        Invited to review Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Armenian Linguistics, Dora Sakayan, ed., for the Journal of the Society of Armenian Studies, summer 1996.

·        Referee for Proceedings of the International Association of Armenian Studies Conference on Middle Armenian Language and Literature, Leiden, Holland, March 1993. Dutch Studies in Armenian Language and Literature, vol. 3. Amsterdam: Rodopi.

·        Referee for Proceedings of the Eighth Biennial Non-Slavic Languages Conference, Chicago, May 1993. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.

MA exam committees

External PhD Generals committees

2000     Robert Krikorian, Department of History, Harvard University.

Conference Sessions Chaired

·        Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting, session on Historical Phonology and Morphology, San Francisco, January 4, 2002.

·        First International Conference on Armenian Dialectology, Stepanakert, Karabagh, Aug. 11, 2001.

·        North American Phonology Conference, Montreal, April 2000.

·        Association Internationale des Études Arméniennes, Vienna, September 1999.

·        Sixičme Colloque International de Linguistique Arménienne, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Paris, France, July 1999.

·        26th North East Linguistic Society Conference, Cambridge, MA, October 1995.

·        Fifth International Conference on Armenian Linguistics, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, May 1995.

Research Interests

·        theoretical phonology: syllable structure, stress, vowel harmony, features and feature geometry, locality (and the general problem of abstraction in phonology), psychophonology, rules and constraints

·        phonetics: laryngeal features, tongue root behavior, phonetics-phonology interface

·        historical linguistics (especially Indo-European and Altaic)

·        Armenian linguistics: phonology, dialectology, morphology, syntax

·        field work: Abkhaz, Amharic, Armenian (dialects of Agulis, Ashtarak, Bayburt, Bitias, Chaharmahal, Chomaxlu, Covinar, Erzurum, Everek, Gyärdabad, Gyumri, Hadrut, Hamshen, Karmiravan, Kesab, Köprücü, Marash, Martuni, New Julfa, Salmast, Sasun, Stepanakert, Svedia, Tigranakert, Tomarza, Trabzon, Urfa, Van, Vank, Vaqf, Xdrbek, Xoy, Xnjristan, and Zeytun), Basque, Cape Verdean, Krio, Lak, Polish, Tigrinya, Tongan, Uyghur, Yakut, Zaza

·        other: dialectology, Caucasian languages, Sanskrit, early theories of grammar (especially Indian), morphology, the place of linguistics in the history of ideas

Teaching (excluding reading courses and thesis supervisions)

·        Psychology 1357: Evolution of Language (Harvard)

·        English 806: Psychophonology (UWM)

·        Linguistics 799: Indepent reading and research (Tobias Deutsch, Dana Purdy, Veronica Lündback, Corrine Occhino, Kristina Zakaryan)

·        Linguistics 470: Historical and comparative linguistics (UWM)

·        Linguistics 460: Sounds and sound systems (UWM)

·        Linguistics 440: Psycholinguistics (UWM)

·        Linguistics 350: Introduction to Linguistics (UWM)

·        Linguistics 301: Advanced graduate research (Luc Baronian, Lan Thi Phuong Bui) (Harvard)

·        Linguistics 279: Advanced Structure of Abkhaz (Harvard)

·        Linguistics 242r: Historical Practicum (Harvard)

·        Linguistics 241r: Syntax and Phonology Practicum (Harvard)

·        Linguistics 219: Advanced Phonology (Courses taught under this title: (1) The Syllable, (2) Evaluating Optimality Theory) (Harvard)

·        Linguistics 215: Theoretical Phonology (Harvard)

·        Linguistics 211r: Theoretical and Historical Phonology (Harvard)

·        Linguistics 210: The power of words (UWM)

·        Linguistics 122: Introduction to Indo-European Language and Culture (Harvard)

·        Linguistics 117r: Field Methods (Harvard)

·        Linguistics 115: Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology (Harvard)

·        Linguistics 110: Introduction to Linguistics (Harvard)

·        Linguistics 100: The diversity of human language (UWM)

·        Linguistics 91r: Independent study (Emily Van Dyke, Amanda Fortini, Dominika Baran, Andrew Wolfe, Pawel Nowak, Eve Shaeffer, Maja Groff, Maria Gangemi) (Harvard)

·        Linguistics 80: Dialects of English (Harvard)

·        Freshman Seminar 51: From Eden to Auschwitz: Racism and Linguistics in 19th Century Scholarship (with James Russell) (Harvard)

·        Social Analysis 34: Knowledge of Language (Harvard)

Service

·        External appraiser for the Department of Classics, Modern Languages and Linguistics at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada), January 2003

·        Head Tutor, Linguistics Department, Harvard, 1999-2003. (During my tenure, the number of undergraduate concentrators in Linguistics increased from 23 to 55. It is now back to approximately 25.)

·        Invited professor, ‘Conversations with faculty’, September 2001 and 2002. (One of a few Harvard faculty who led discussions of college education with incoming freshmen.)

·        Codirector of Harvard Biolinguistics Group until 2001.

Media appearances