The Complexity of Simple Things: Cross-disciplinary Collaboration for Teaching Colors in Menominee

This paper demonstrates the benefits of cross-disciplinary collaboration for a deceptively simple task: teaching color terms in Menominee. Two of us--a theoretical linguist with expertise in Menominee and an applied linguist with expertise in educational linguistics--joined forces to strengthen our capacity to support Menominee language teacher trainees who are, themselves, learning Menominee through immersion supported by explicit instruction. Color terminology is surprisingly complex in Menominee. There are three systems: Two are closed and partially overlap, and the third is theoretically open, providing a way to express colors not available in the first two. There are five prenouns, bound particles which compound with nouns; seven verbs, which can be used predicatively and attributively; and a construction allowing speakers to describe an object’s color by saying it looks like some other object (e.g. ‘looks like grape’ is ‘purple’). We started by informally assessing the trainees’ current understanding. Many assumed that all color terms are used the same way, and function parallel to English adjectives (a category not found in Menominee). They combined terms from the three systems, without distinguishing syntactic differences. We set aside the important issue of language change under conditions of loss of first-language fluent speakers; in this case, the directors of the language program want the original system to be preserved and taught. We chose an assets-based instructional approach, building on the teachers’ demonstrated strength in applying a previously learned (English) pattern, rather than planning instruction around a classic structural approach moving from syntactically simple to more complex patterns. Based on teachers’ understanding of patterns in English, we are developing lessons (to be piloted Fall 2016) which start with the prenouns (which parallel English adjective-noun ordering) and move through attributive verbs in prenominal position and “looks like” constructions, and only later introduce post-nominal options and the most complex “looks like” forms (see table). It was only through collaboration that we were able to devise this approach. In addition to collaborating with communities, linguists can address the problematic Lone Wolf approach through interdisciplinary collaboration with other scholars

On the Karuk Directional Suffixes

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Argument Status and Constituent Structure in Chalcatongo Mixtec

Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: Special Session on Syntactic Issues in Native American Languages (1993

Verbs of Motion and Arrival in Mixtec

Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (1982

Interacting Semantic Systems: Mixtec Expressions of Location

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Strategies for lexical expansion in Algonquian languages

This paper provides an empirical study of word formation and lexical expansion in a set of Algonquian languages, considering 153 terms for each language. These terms range from words that predate European colonialism to more recent forms coined by English L1 speakers. We propose a classification of the methods of lexical innovation, which involves the intersection of a set of grammatical and a set of semantic strategies. By far, the most common means of constructing new terminology that we found in the data combined nominalization with associated-action metonymy (the use of a form denoting an action associated with the object). We discuss challenges to doing such studies, especially the idiosyncrasies of dictionary creation. We also consider how our results can be used in language reclamation, especially immersion programs that need words for concepts in the school curriculum. We do not prescribe a “right” way to develop new vocabulary, but our findings may make explicit some of the intuitions speakers of Algonquian languages have about how the naming of new objects is approached.National Foreign Language Resource Cente

Tone Metathesis in the Dangme Imperative

Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: Special Session on African Language Structures (1991), pp. 120-13

Age-related decrements in dual-task performance: comparison of different mobility and cognitive tasks. A cross sectional study

This cross-sectional study investigated the age-related differences in dual-task performance both in mobility and cognitive tasks and the additive dual-task costs in a sample of older, middle-aged and young adults. 74 older adults (M = 72.63±5.57 years), 58 middle-aged adults (M = 46.69±4.68 years) and 63 young adults (M = 25.34±3.00 years) participated in the study. Participants performed different mobility and subtraction tasks under both single- and dual-task conditions. Linear regressions, repeated-measures and one-way analyses of covariance were used, The results showed: significant effects of the age on the dual and mobility tasks (p<0.05) and differences among the age-groups in the combined dual-task costs (p<0.05); significant decreases in mobility performance under dual-task conditions in all groups (p<0.05) and a decrease in cognitive performance in the older group (p<0.05). Dual-task activity affected mobility and cognitive performance, especially in older adults who showed a higher dual-task cost, suggesting that dual-tasks activities are affected by the age and consequently also mobility and cognitive tasks are negatively influenced