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Friend and Colleague Philip Rabesca Mourned
The department lost a friend and colleague when Philip Rabesca died in Yellowknife in
February 2009. He was faculty member Leslie Saxon's partner and is deeply missed by her, their families,
friends, and communities. More>>
Schedule for Exams Spring 2009
A timetable is available here for spring exams (Winter Term) 2009.
Schedule for Summer 2009
A timetable is available here for Summer Studies 2009 in the UVic Linguistics Department !
Special Presentations in February
Lauren Hall-Lew
Feb. 2, 11:30 – 12:50 Colloquium in CLE C113, “The emergence of identities through linguistic practice”
Vineeta Chand
Feb. 9, 11:30 – 12:50 Colloquium in CLE C113, “Social Alignments and Language Practices in Urban Indian English”
Alexandra D’Arcy
Feb. 12, 11:30 – 12:50 Colloquium in CLE C108, “Quotative be+like: The sociolinguist’s horn of plenty”
Dr. John Ohala, Berkeley Coming in March '09
Dr. John Ohala, Berkeley will be giving a series of lectures during the first week of March.
Click here for details.
Geoffrey O'Grady
January 01, 1928 - December 28, 2008
(from the Victoria Times-Colonist January 3rd, 2009)
O'GRADY, Geoffrey Noel Ph. D. January 01, 1928 December 28, 2008
Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, Loving husband, father, grandfather and friend. Our beloved Aussie Boundary Rider" left us after a lengthy struggle with Parkinson's. He leaves an irreparable gap in the lives of his grieving family: wife Alix after 51 years of marriage; his daughter Liane (Henry) and his grandson Geoffrey Patrick; his daughter Danielle (Tim) and granddaughters Elena and Isabelle; his brother Denis; and family member Rod McCormick. According to friends and colleagues on various continents Geoff was a true gentleman. Geoff was a man of great modesty, outstanding linguistic talent and a total lack of artifice. His lifelong fascination with languages first manifested itself at Adelaide High School by his taking additional subjects in Latin, German, Russian and Hungarian. After a short banking career he ventured into the Australian Outback where he spent six years as jackaroo on a vast sheep station of 25,000 sheep, located between the Eighty Mile Beach and the Great Sandy Desert. He rode approximately 10,000 miles on horseback in the company of his Aboriginal mates, camping in the bush, and learning their rich and intricate languages and dialects. Geoff was adopted into the Nyangumarta tribe and spoke their language fluently. In 1956 the University of Sydney offered him a research assistantship. While working on his B.A. he pursued field trips to record and transcribe indigenous languages usually at his own expense. His endeavours in alphabetizing Nyangumarta resulted in a literacy program and a Nyangumarta newspaper still published. He met Alix from Riga, Latvia at the University of Sydney and they married in 1957. After Liane was born in Sydney, Geoff was granted a Fulbright Scholarship at Indiana University where he completed his Ph.D. and where Danielle was born. Three summers were spent travelling five days in a decrepit Plymouth on Route 66 to Arizona for field studies in HopiTewa. On completion of his Ph.D. he accepted a position at the University of Alberta, Edmonton and proceeded to record northern Canadian First Nations languages. In 1965 he began his long association with the University of Victoria, becoming involved in the study of various indigenous languages on Vancouver Island. Invitations followed for advice from First Nations communities in northern B.C. and Yukon. He was warmly received wherever he went. Geoff's passion remained the Australian Aboriginal languages; he developed the seminal body of work about the origins and relationships of the 250 Aboriginal languages and mapped their boundaries. Geoff is regarded as a pioneer and one of the leading scholars in Australian linguistics. Upon his retirement the Australian National University honoured him with an international Festschrift entitled Boundary Rider". In addition to linguistics Geoff loved the sea and had an extraordinary knowledge of the earth's oceans. The family enjoyed many weekends rowing among the Gulf Islands as well as outings, picnics and frequent get-togethers with friends at their home. Geoff and Alix travelled extensively in North America and abroad. Geoff will be remembered for his class and charm, his easygoing nature and gift for humour and wordplay. This allowed him to form a quick rapport with total strangers. He had a prodigious memory for phrases from a wide variety of languages and throughout his life surprised people with samplings in their mother tongue.
Our thanks go to Drs. Sun and Thorpe and the Staff at RJH Emergency as well as to the thoughtful Ambulance Attendants. In particular, we are grateful for the excellent care of our family physician, Dr. R. A. Sealey and Mary Ann. A private family memorial will be held. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Victoria Epilepsy and Parkinson's Centre will be appreciated (813 Darwin Ave., Victoria, B.C. V8X 2X7).
Links:
http://www.legacy.com/can-victoria/obituaries.asp?Page=Notice&PersonID=122139265
http://www.legacy.com/can-victoria/GB/GuestbookView.aspx?PersonId=122139265
http://blogs.usyd.edu.au/elac/2009/01/_geoffrey_n_ogrady.html
Congratulations to our latest Graduate Grads:
Qian Wang
- Degree: Ph.D,
Thomas Magnuson
- Degree: M.A.
Abby Bell
Degree: - M.A. Applied
Cristina Peterson - M.A. Applied
Dr. Joseph Kess Awarded Japan's Prestigious Order of the Rising Sun
On November 3, 2008, an official announcement was made in Tokyo to confer on Dr. Joseph F. Kess, Emeritus Chair in Japan and Asia-Pacific Relations and Professor Emeritus, Linguistics, University of Victoria, one of Japan’s most prestigious honours, the “Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon”. This award was bestowed on the recipient in recognition of his service and dedication to facilitate better understanding between Japan and Canada.
The contributions of Dr. Joseph F. Kess to greater understanding of Japan have come through all facets of his professional career. His landmark books on Japanese psycholinguistics, his acknowledged excellence as a teacher, and his leadership at the Center for Asia Pacific Initiatives at the University of Victoria stand out among his many accomplishments that have served to increase awareness and knowledge about Japan in Canada.
In recognition of the outstanding contributions of this Canadian, His Excellency Mr. Hirofumi Nakasone, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, has sent a congratulatory note praising his work.
Mr. Seiichi Otsuka, the Consul General of Japan in Vancouver, will host an award ceremony for Dr. Kess at the Consul General’s official residence on Wednesday, December 10th.
Members of the media wishing to seek further information or interview the recipient should contact Ms. Ellen Lee, Consulate General of Japan at 604-684-5868 local 240.
Explanation of the Order of the Rising Sun:
http://www8.cao.go.jp/english/decoration/kyoku.html
New Colloquium Schedule Fall '08 - Spring '09
Click here for the schedule.
Department Research Forum December '08
At this event graduate students have the opportunity to make short presentations about their current research projects. Everyone welcome ! Free Pizza !
Where: Clearihue A127
When: Thursday, December 4th, starting at 1:30pm.
Topics: PDF version here.
Congratulations to our latest Graduate Grads: Nicholas Welch and Scott Moisik !
July 2008: Nicholas Welch has successfully defended his MA thesis "Northwest Passage: Northern Athabaskan Auxiliaries and Copulas".
July 2008: Scott Moisik has successfully defended his MA thesis: "A Three-Dimensional Model of the Larynx and the Laryngeal
Constrictor Mechanism: Visually Synthesizing Pharyngeal and
Epiglottal Articulations Observed in Laryngoscopy".
July 1st, 2008 - New Chair of the Department !
UVic's Linguistics Department has a new chair. Effective 07-01-2008, Dr. John Esling will be wearing the "C" and the yellow armband. After five outstanding years as chair Dr. Leslie Saxon gets a well-deserved break and will be on leave until mid-2009.
Two Senior Professors Emeriti Honoured
At a gathering in late June 2008, the contributions to the department of Dr Geoffrey N. O'Grady and Alix O'Grady and Dr Thomas M. Hess were recognized. The department seminar room will now be called 'The Dr Geoffrey N. O'Grady Linguistics Seminar Room' and the resource room will be called 'The Dr Thomas M. Hess Linguistics Resource Room'. Many thanks to Drs O'Grady, O'Grady, and Hess for all they contributed to the department through their humanity and their research, teaching, and mentorship of junior colleagues and students.
Convocation June, 2008
A big congratulations to all our students graduating this week:
Sheryl McDonald, Laura Penney, Tamara Tobler, Stacy Adams, Giovanna Aquila, Michelle Bunney, Christopher Campese, Yin-Fang Chen, Lucas Damer, Alexa Doering, Elizabeth Duffas, Margaret Fryer, Asako Fukui, Kathleen Gaudet, Lu Lu Guan, Brenna Haimes Kusumoto, Jessie Hemphill, Seung-Eun Hong, Kai-Chieh Hsu, Soohyun Jeon, Yong Mi Kim, Elllen LaVoie, Kelly Laycock, Eui Jin Lee, Yan Jing Li, Melanie Lidstone, Alysin Lypchuk, Fraser MacGillivray, Asami Mori, Yu Nakayoku, Hikaru Nozawa, Aliana Parker, Philana Peawiradiradja, Pauline Quon, Tamara Reiter, Hiu Shek, Mari Shimode, Heather Slack, Andrew Speirs, Sandra Topelko, Valerie Wasylik, Hilary Begin, Jasmine Heschuk, Rochelle Machan, Ashley Orr, Lauren Robinson, Harumi Tominaga, Laticia Walker, Delphine Derickson, Susan Quinlan, Hannah Amrhein, Laura Hawkes and Linda Smith.
Undergrads Reporting on Research This Summer
CLA Annual Meeting, June 2008, UBC.
Lexicon of Tlîchô Yatiì: Echoes from the Nineteenth Century
Aliana Parker and Dr. Leslie Saxon
LSA Summer Meeting, July 2008, Ohio State University
L1 interference in the production of English lexical stress by French learners of English
Jasmine Heschuk and Dr. Tae-Jin Yoon
Travelers Return from China
John Esling (top-right) - along with his research team, just returned from the 2008 Phonetics Conference of China. Professor Hua Lin (not in picture) also presented a paper at the conference. Both the conference presentations and the research projects were highly successful, and much data was collected for further study.
Congratulations to the latest Graduate Grads: Linda Smith & SooYoun Ham!
April 2008: Linda Smith has successfully defended her MA thesis " Súwh-tˆs’éghèdúdính: the Tsìnlhqút’ín Nímính Spiritual Path".
April 2008: SooYoun Ham has successfully defended her thesis: "Tsilhqut'in Ejectives: A Descriptive Phonetic Study".
New Professor Coming Soon!
We are happy to announce that Dr Ming Xiang will be taking up a position with us starting in July 2009. Her expertise in psycholinguistics and other areas will be welcome additions for the department.
SSHRC Student Awards 2008
Students from our department have received PhD and Master's SSHRC awards in the 2008 competition. Three PhD students in our program will receive SSHRC doctoral awards, and hearty congratulations to them. The former president of the Underlings, Jonathan Blasberg, now doing a Master's in Psychology at UBC, has been awarded a Master's Scholarship.
Draft Program Proposal: Master's and Graduate Certificate in Indigenous Language and Culture Revitalization and Maintenance
A draft proposal (MS-Word DOC) for the Master's and Graduate Certificate in Indigenous Language and Culture Revitalization and Maintenance has been prepared for discussion and consultation. Your comments on this interdisciplinary proposal are most welcome. Please direct them Leslie Saxon, Lorna Williams, or Jane Mertz, by 30 April 2008 for this round of comments.
UVic Linguistics Professor Dr. Hua Lin featured in new Canadian Documentary on Language
A press release from Rogers OMNI Television on April 9, 2008 announced the
upcoming television premiere of "Speaking in Tongues: The History of
Language" (Mandarin version with English subtitles; English version to
premier soon), which featured heavy weight linguists Noam Chomsky, John
McWhorter, and Peter Ladefoged.
Episodes 3, 4 and 5 of the series also featured Dr. Hua Lin of our Department of Linguistics, alongside Larry Hyman of U.C. Berkeley, Jay Jasanoff of Harvard University, and Lyle Campbell of the University of Utah.
The 5-episode series is aired Sundays, April 13, 20 and 27 and May 4 and 11; Encore presentation is at 10:00PM ET on April 13.
Professional Development Workshop Series for Linguistics Graduate Students
See the events page for more details.
Special Colloquiums Added
There are three new dates for special presentations coming in the first half of February. You won't want to miss these !
Laura Sabourin, Linguistics Department, University of Ottawa - Monday, 4 February, 11:30 – 12:50 Colloquium in CLE A306, “Sentence Processing in First and Second Language Acquisition: What Can We Learn from On-Line Processing?”
Matthew Wagers, Department of Linguistics, University of Maryland - Friday, 8 February, 3:30 – 5:00pm in Clearihue C108, “Creating and navigating structure in real time”
Ming Xiang, Linguistics Department, Harvard University - Monday, 11 February, 11:30 - 12:50 Colloquium in DSB C126, “Processing scalar implicatures: at the inferface of syntax, semantics and pragmatics”
Click here for more info.
Winner of a National Award of Excellence
In 2007, the Certificate Program in Aboriginal Language Revitalization Program was honoured with an Award of Excellence from the Canadian Association for University Continuing Education.
This innovative and accessible certificate program is offered by the En’owkin Centre in partnership with the University of Victoria’s Department of Linguistics and the Division of Continuing Studies. Congratulations to Jeannette Armstrong, Ewa Czaykowska, Joy Davis and Leslie Saxon for their vision in setting up and developing the program.
Dr. Huang Receives LT Development Grant
The Linguistics Department is pleased to announce that Dr. Li-Shih Huang recently received a Learning and Teaching Development Grant for the 2007/8 Academic year.
October 2007: Brain and Cognition Seminar
Carolyn Pytlyk from the Department of Linguistics will present her recent research on second language learning to the Psychology Department. The title of her talk is "Shared Orthography: Do shared written symbols influence the perception ofnative-nonnative sound contrasts? " The presentation will be held in Cornett A228 at 3:00 PM. All are welcome to hear about Carolyn's work and to join afterwards for drinks and conversation in the Grad Lounge.
March 2008: *Final* Exam Timetable Out
Click here to be directed to the exams timetable page.
October 2007: Colloquium Series Under Way
The fall colloquium series is now underway, with a visit from Dr. Helen Fraser from the University of New England, Australia on the 19th as our first guest speaker. Click here for details
September 2007: Welcome & Welcome Back !
All of the staff and faculty in the Department of Linguistics would like to welcome our new students and welcome back our continuing students for another exciting and rewarding year in our department.
As always, please feel free to contact our office staff if you have any questions or concerns.
UVic Linguistics Department Research Forum
The Linguistics Department will be holding a research forum on Thursday, September 27th, 2007 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:50 p.m. in the Engineering and Computer Science building in Room 128. There will be seven exciting presentations of various research projects that are going on in the department.Everyone is welcome to attend ! Click here for additional info.
Congratulations to the latest Graduate Grads: Yuko Igarashi and Carolyn Pytlyk !
August 2007: Yuko Igarashi has successfully defended her PHD dissertation "The Changing Role of Katakama in the Japanese Writing System: Processing and Pedagogical Dimensions for Native Speakers and Foreign Learners. "
August 2007: Carolyn Pytlyk has recently earned the department's first degree in the Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics program. Earlier this week she defended her thesis: "Shared Orthography: Do shared written symbols influence the perception of native-nonnative sound contrasts?"
Summer 2007: Aboriginal Language Revitalization Program
This innovative and accessible certificate program is offered by the En’owkin Centre in partnership with the University of Victoria’s Department of Linguistics and the Division of Continuing Studies. Summer Institute core coursework, combined with flexible elective offerings, enables individuals concerned with language loss, maintenance, and recovery to develop both knowledge and practical strategies for language revitalization activities across British Columbia and beyond. Participants in this program have come from across British Columbia and as far away as Nunavut, and have learned from one another as well as from expert instructors and resource people. More...
June 7th, 2007: New Resource Room (D338)
There is a New Linguistics Resource Room available to Linguistics Grad Students and Faculty. Located in Clearihue D338, this room contains a number of hard-to-find publications of books and journals. There is also a computer workstation available to look up publications and for general research.
May 15th, 2007: Summer Session Classes
Click here for schedule. Still spaces available in most classes. Register today!
May 1st, 2007: Two Books Published By Faculty Members
Members of the UVic Department of Linguistics have recently published the results of their research in two books. Congratulations to Andrea, Hossein, and Sandra for this major accomplishment.
Andrea Wilhelm Telicity and Durativity : A Study of Aspect in Dene Suline (Chipewyan) and German Routledge (Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics series)
Sandra Fotos and Hossein Nassaji (eds.) Form-focused Instruction and Teacher Education: Studies in Honour of Rod Ellis, Oxford University Press
April 27th, 2007: Two Faculty Members Recognized for Prestigious Awards
Hua Lin, 2007 Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives Asia-Pacific Service Award
John Esling, 2007 Faculty of Humanities Award for Research Excellence
Margaret Florey Visiting UVic April 23rd, 2007
Margaret Florey from the Linguistics Program, Monash University Victoria, Australia
will be presenting the following colloquia:
"Capacity building and community language activism in Central Maluku (Indonesia)"
Download abstract (PDF)
Download Revitalisation Handout (PDF)
Download Vitality Testing Handout (PDF)
Clearihue A206 Monday 23 April, 3:30 pm
Dr. Natasha Warner Coming in March, 2007
Visiting from the Department of Linguistics, University of Arizona, Natasha will give two talks.
New Book Published : The Unity Of Unbounded Dependency Constructions
UVic Linguistics faculty member Dr. Tom Hukari (along with Dr. Robert Levine) has recently published this syntax text which is now available through CSLI Publications.
Linguistics Website Re-Launch:
The Department of Linguistics announces the re-launch of our official Website. More updates and new content is being put on every day, so be sure to check back often. Also be sure to check our events page for more happenings in the department.
UVic Linguistics Department welcomes new and returning students:
The Department of Linguistics would like to welcome all of our new students and welcome back our continuing students for another exciting and rewarding year in our department.
As always, please feel free to contact our office staff if you have any questions or concerns.
UVic Linguistics Department welcomes the following new faculty members:
Dr. Sonya Bird, Assistant Professor in Acoustic Phonetics
Dr. Suzanne Gessner, Limited Term Assistant Professor in Syntax and First Nations Languages
Dr. Li-Shih Huang, Assistant Professor in Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition
Dr. Lorna Williams, CRC Chair in Indigenous Knowledge and Learning
MA in Applied Linguistics
The Department of Linguistics and the Faculty of Graduate Studies at the University of Victoria are pleased to announce the MA in Applied Linguistics degree program.
This Master's degree will provide advanced graduate training in theories and research in the areas of second language acquisition (SLA) and the practice of second language teaching methodology. Students will pursue their research goals through course work and either a thesis or a major research paper. Our department offers excellent opportunities for completing a graduate degree in a distinguished academic program at a dynamic university.
For more information about the program, please click here or contact Dr. Hossein Nassaji at nassaji@uvic.ca.