Mentor Areas
Formal approaches to the mental representation of linguistic sound structure (i.e., phonology), especially metrical and syllable structure; the interaction of phonology and morphological structure; the relation of phonetic and functional explanation to phonological theory; and the expression of the categories of spoken language in the world's writing systems.
Description:
I am working on the completion of a comprehensive dictionary of Kashaya, an endangered Native American language of northern California. I seek a research assistant to help with various aspects of the editing of the database on which the dictionary is based, as well as the design of the dictionary itself in its various forms: a printed scholarly dictionary; an extensive practical wordlist; a web page version of the printed dictionary; and a smartphone app for accessing the entries. There are also web and app implementations that feature audio files for learning pronunciation. The focus of work will depend on the student's background and interests, and technical skills.
Tasks could include checking the English definitions for clarity and consistency; classifying entries according to their semantic category; analyzing example sentences by associating them with lexical entries; verifying that the structure of the Kashaya words is correctly encoded, with links between roots and derived forms; and finding examples to illustrate the entries by looking in existing texts.
In assisting on this project, the student will learn the basic structure of a complex and fascinating language, will gain experience in the documentation of languages in general. The collaboration could easily lead to a subsequent research project on any aspect of Kashaya that the student finds interesting.
Preferred Qualifications
No previous knowledge of Kashaya is expected, but some knowledge of linguistics from at least one course is necessary. The student should understand basic aspects of phonetic transcription and morphological structure.
Details:
Preferred Student Year
First-year, Second-Year, Junior, Senior
Academic Term
Fall, Spring, Summer
I prefer to have students start during the above term(s).Volunteer
Yes
Yes indicates that faculty are open to volunteers.Paid
No
Yes indicates that faculty are open to paying students they engage in their research, regardless of their work-study eligibility.Work Study
Yes
Yes indicates that faculty are open to hiring work-study-eligible students.