linguistics

Linguistics seminar series: Ashley Stinnett sgr252 Fri, 01/26/2018 - 10:21 am

Ashley Stinnett

Ashley Stinnett, is an assistant professor in the Department of Folk Studies and Anthropology at Western Kentucky University. She received her Ph.D. from the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. Her areas of specialization are linguistic anthropology with a sub-specialty in applied visual ethnography and educational documentary filmmaking. Her research primarily concerns the sociocultural and linguistic processes in which locally centered, historical and traditional knowledge specific to food are realized and put into daily practice. Ashley researches language production in communities of practice in occupational settings and community driven efforts, specifically related to food production. Additionally, she partners with local community organizations utilizing applied anthropological approaches while synchronously incorporating visual anthropology methodologies in both the practice and the production of visual media materials. Her primary research focuses on language practices of heritage butchers in the Southwestern United States. Her most recent project utilizes linguistic and sensory ethnography in a focus on food fermentation.

Date:
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Location:
Niles Gallery, Lucille Little Library
Type of Event (for grouping events):
Linguistics MLK Seminar: Barbra Meek kbmc229 Fri, 01/26/2018 - 10:17 am

Date:
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Location:
235 Gatton College of Business and Economics
Type of Event (for grouping events):

Growing Your Elative: Linguistic Seminar Series

A number of comparative, superlative, and elative suffixes are longer than they would be if
they had simply undergone regular sound changes, e.g. the Latin superlative/elative sux
-issimus. Closer inspection reveals that they have developed in a parallel fashion. The
development involves the analogical extension of a longer sound pattern from a small class
of forms to a large one. I suggest how we might relate this to the semantics of adjective
gradation.
 
Date:
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Location:
233 Gatton College
Type of Event (for grouping events):

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:
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Location:
WTY Library 2-34a (Active Learning Classroom)
Type of Event (for grouping events):

Trails and Tribulations: Chatino conceptions of the dead

The Chatino people from Oaxaca, Mexico, believe that the departed begin a new life that is parallel to the world of the living, known in the Chatino language as JlyaG.  In order to reach JlyaG, the recently departed must traverse on a treacherous path that goes through mountains, rivers, and towns. JlyaG  is a metaphysical place that corresponds to an actual location in our plane of existence found towards the northern part of the Chatino region in the municipality of Zenzontepec (coordinates 16° 32′ 0″ N, 97° 30′ 0″ W). 
Prayers, stories, myths, place, and performance are crucial elements in the practice and belief of the Chatino concept of the dead. In the Chatino town of San Marcos Zacatepec, when an adult dies, family members call an expert to perform a speech called TiA SuAKnaA or ‘prayer to the dead.’ The TiA SuA KnaA is recited at the dead person’s wake. The goal of the speech is to guide the dead through the trail of the dead and to encourage them not to come back and taunt their family members, friends, and community members either by showing up in individual’s dreams or appearing as a ghost quB tiqE.
The departed also need to demonstrate endurance, agility, and artistic skills. For example, when they reach a place called SaA tqenA, located in the town of Cieneguilla, San Juan Quiahije (coordinates 16.3000° N, 97.3167° W), the dead have to dance. The dead men, in addition to dancing, must whistle or sing. Women only have to dance. Hence, Chatinos believe that artistic abilities such as dancing, whistling, and singing must be learned and practiced during the course of a person’s lifetime. This presentation will discuss these aspects of Chatino conceptions of the dead and describe the verbal art of the rituals involved as the recently dead move on to JlyaG.
 
Date:
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Location:
Niles Gallery (Fine Arts Library).
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