Guests

Andries Coetzee

Andries Coetzee  (PhD 2004, University of Massachusetts) is Professor of Linguistics and Director of the African Studies Center at the University of Michigan. He also holds the position of extraordinary professor at the North-West University, South Africa. His research focuses on phonetics/phonology and their interfaces with sociolinguistics, and has appeared in journals such as Language, Phonology, NLLT, Journal of Phonetics, and Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. He is a fellow of the Linguistic Society of America, and also the editor-in-chief of Language, the flagship journal of the Linguistic Society of America.

Daniel Everett

Daniel Everett is Trustee Professor of Cognitive Sciences at Bentley University. He has lived in the Amazonian jungle for nearly eight out of the last thirty years, studying more than a dozen little or never previously studied Amazonian languages. He has published more than 100 scientific articles and fourteen books. In 2008 his book, Don’t sleep there are snakes: life and language in the Amazonian jungle was published in nearly twenty languages. His book Language: The Cultural Tool was published in 2012 and was a NY Times Editor’s Choice as well as a London Times editor’s choice. His most recent book, Dark Matter of the Mind: The Culturally Articulated Unconscious, was published in 2017 by the University of Chicago Press. A documentary about his life and work, The Grammar of Happiness, was released in 2012. His latest book was published by Liveright (W.W. Norton), How Language Began: The Story of Humanity’s Greatest Invention.

Dermeval da Hora

Dermeval da Hora, Professor at the Federal University of Paraíba, completed his PhD at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Vrije Universiteit – Holland. He was President of ABRALIN (2007-2009) and is currently President of the Association of Linguistics and Philology of Latin America (ALFAL). He coordinated the Area of ​​Linguistics and Literature of the Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) from 2011 to 2018. He conducts research in the area of ​​Sociolinguistics, focusing on phonological aspects. His Project Linguistic Variation in the State of Paraíba – VALPB addresses issues that deals with the interface between variation, style, attitude, accommodation and perception. He recently organized with Carmen Lúcia Matzenauer the book Phonology, phonologies: an introduction, with the contribution of the most important phonologists in Brazil. He is also one of the organizers of the book Phonological Change of Brazilian Portuguese, which presents the results from research on Diachronic Phonology in the Project for the History of Brazilian Portuguese – PHPB, coordinated by Ataliba Teixeira de Castilho.

Eni Orlandi

Eni Puccinelli Orlandi holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of São Paulo and the University of Paris / Vincennes (1976). She worked at USP from 1967 to 1979, teaching Romance Philology, Linguistics, Sociolinguistics and Analysis of the Pedagogical Discourse. From 1971 to 1974 she taught the discipline of discourse analysis in the specialization course in translation at PUC / Campinas. She worked as a lecturer in the Department of Linguistics at Unicamp from 1979 to 2002. She is currently a researcher at the Laboratory of Urban Studies at Unicamp, professor and coordinator of the Postgraduate Program in Language Sciences at the Universidade do Vale do Sapucaí and a collaboratorat the State University of Campinas. She has experience in Linguistics, with emphasis in Theory and Linguistic Analysis, working mainly in the following subjects: discourse analysis, linguistics, language epistemology and scientific journalism. She is a CNPq researcher.

Erez Levon

Erez Levon is Reader in Sociolinguistics at Queen Mary University of London. His work uses quantitative, qualitative and experimental methods to examine patterns of socially meaningful variation in language. In particular, he investigates how linguistic forms come to be associated with different categories of speakers, and how, in turn, speakers use these associations in their everyday linguistic interactions. His work has been published in journals such as Language in Society, Language Variation and Change, American Speech, and the Journal of Sociolinguistics. He is the author of Language and the Politics of Sexuality (2010, Palgrave) and the co-editor (with Ronald Beline Mendes) of Language, Sexuality and Power (2016, OUP). He is currently Associate Editor of the Journal of Sociolinguistics.

Geoff Pullum

Geoff Pullum is professor of general linguistics in the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. He previously held appointments at University College London; the University of Washington; Stanford University; Harvard University; and the University of California, Santa Cruz. He publishes and lectures widely on the grammar of modern English. He is a co-author (with Rodney Huddleston) of a major reference grammar, The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (2002), which won the 2004 Leonard Bloomfield Book Award from the Linguistic Society of America (LSA). He is a Fellow of the British Academy, a Fellow of the LSA, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Jean-Jacques Courtine

Jean-Jacques Courtine is 2018 Leverhulme Trust Professor at Queen Mary, University of London, Department of History; he is also Professor Emeritus at Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris III) and at University of California (Santa Barbara); Honorary Professor, Chair of European Studies at University of Auckland (New Zealand). Latest published works: Historia da falà publica, with Carlos Piovezani, Vozes, 2015; History of Virility, with Alain Corbin and Georges Vigarello, Columbia University Press, 2016; History of emotions (from Antiquity to the 21st century), 3 vols., with Alain Corbin & Georges Vigarello, Le Seuil, 2016-2017; Madness in Paris, Jérôme Millon, 2018.

José Morais

José Morais, is presently Emeritus professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and pursues his scientific activity as invited professor at the Cognitive Neuroscience Research Unit (UNESCOG) of the Center for Research in Cognition and Neurosciences (CRCN), ULB. His research focuses on literacy, in particular on the differences between literates and illiterates, which, with the processing of both written and spoken words, became his main topics. He is author and co-author of more than 150 scientific papers (Cognition, Journal of Experimental Psychology, Science, Nature Neuroscience), more than 100 book chapters, and nearly 10 books. He was honored with the title of Doctor Honoris causa of the University of Lisbon in 2000 and made Great Officer of the Order of the Infant Dom Henrique in 2003. In Belgium he has been Dean of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of ULB, and for many years President of the National Committee of Psychology of the Royal Academy of Sciences.

Marcos Bagno

Marcos Bagno is professor at the University of Brasília and a contributor to the Postgraduate Program in Language Studies at the Fluminense Federal University, as well as an associate researcher at the Galician Language Institute at the University of Santiago de Compostela. He conducts research in the field of linguistic policies, sociology of language and language education. He has done extensive work in scientific popularisation, with emphasis on denouncing social discrimination through language and the recognition of Brazilian Portuguese as a full language, with its own exclusive grammar. In 2012 he received the Jabuti Prize for his novel The Memories of Eugenia. He has published several books, some of them became very popular: Preconceito linguístico (1999), Gramática pedagógica do português brasileiro (2012) and Dicionário crítico de sociolinguística (2017).

Maria Helena Mira Mateus

Maria Helena Mira Mateus is a Full Retired Professor at University of Lisbon. She founded and was president of the Portuguese Association of Teachers, founded and was president of the board of directors of the Portuguese Linguistic Association, directed the International Journal of Portuguese Language, acted as Vice-Dean of the University of Lisbon, created the Portuguese Translation Project Automatic of the EEC, EUROTRA – which determined the start of computer processing projects in the Portuguese language -, founded and chaired the Direction of the Institute of Theoretical and Computational Linguistics. She has developed research on the areas of Phonology and Prosody of Portuguese. She has written numerous articles in Portuguese and foreign journals on the areas of her research interests, namely those related to Language Policy and to General Linguistics.

Noam Chomsky

Considered the founder of modern linguistics, Noam Chomsky is one of the most cited scholars in modern history. Among his groundbreaking books are “Syntactic Structures”, “Language and Mind,” “Aspects of the Theory of Syntax,” and “The Minimalist Program,” each of which has made distinct contributions to the development of the field. He has received numerous awards. Chomsky has not only transformed the field of linguistics, his work has influenced fields such as cognitive science, philosophy, psychology, computer science, mathematics, childhood education, and anthropology. Chomsky is also one of the most influential public intellectuals in the world. He has written more than 100 books. He joined the UA in fall 2017, coming from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he worked since 1955 as professor of linguistics, then professor of linguistics, emeritus.

Oliver Niebuhr

Oliver Niebuhr is the head of the Innovation Research Cluster Alsion and Associate Professor of Communication and Innovation at the Mads Clausen Institute of the University of Southern Denmark (section Electrical Engineering). His main research interests include prosodic constructions, speech reduction and their subtle but powerful communicative functions, also with respect to human–robot–interaction, persuasive technology, and speech in business or entrepreneurship contexts. In 2017, he co-founded the prosody-oriented consulting and speech-technology company Saphire Solutions together with Jan Michalsky, Oldenburg University.

Roland Pfau

Roland Pfau got interested in sign language linguistics while doing his PhD at the University of Frankfurt. Right after completing his dissertation (which investigates grammatical properties of slips of the tongue) in 2001, he accepted a position at the University of Amsterdam, where he now is Associate Professor in the sign linguistics program. His research focuses on the syntax and morphosyntax of sign languages (e.g. negation, agreement, classifiers), sign language typology, and grammaticalization. At present, he is involved in a project (funded by the Dutch Science Foundation) on argument structure in three sign languages, as well as a European project on descriptive sign language grammars, assessment, and cultural heritage of elderly Deaf signers. Together with Josep Quer, he is the editor of Sign Language & Linguistics.

Tom Roeper

Tom Roeper has worked for forty years on developing a theory of language acquisition based on generative theory, as well as the theory of derivational morphology (implicit arguments, nominalizations, and control). He has carried out experiments on most elements of complex syntax, including wh-movement, quantification, Through his experimental work he has developed a theory of Multiple Grammars and Strict Interfaces to capture the acquisition path. He has also written a popular book The Prism of Grammar (MIT Press) as well as co-edited two books on Recursion, most recently: Recursion across Domains and Latitudes (Cambridge Univesristy Press) which brings insights from acquisition experiments to fieldwork studies of Brazilian languages. He has given invited lectures in 15 countries, collaborates with researchers in several countries and holds or has held a variety of NSF, NIH, and foreign grants.

Willem Adelaar

Willem Adelaar is Emeritus Professor of Amerindian Languages and Cultures at Leiden University in the Netherlands. He has conducted extensive field research on different varieties of Quechua and on minor languages of the Andes. He has also worked on the genetic relations of South American languages of the Andes and the Amazonian region and has been involved in international activities addressing the issue of language endangerment. His further areas of expertise cover linguistic typology, contact and areal linguistics, oral literature and cultural history of Native American peoples, and the interface of linguistic studies with archaeological and historical research, in particular, the pre-contact relations between Mesoamerica and the Andes. His publications include Tarma Quechua (1977) and a comprehensive volume The Languages of the Andes (2004) of which he is the main author.

Xinchun Wang

Xinchun Wang is a professor of linguistics at California State University, Fresno. United States of America. She received her Ph.D. in applied linguistics from Simon Fraser University in Canada. Her main focus of research is in the area of applied phonetics and L2 speech learning. Some of her past research projects include cross-linguistic speech perception and production, the impact of length of residence on the perceived degree of foreign accent, and phonetic training for learning L2 vowels and Mandarin Chinese lexical tones. She has published in journals such as System and The Modern Language Journal.