People – Page 7 – Sociolinguistics Lab

MSU people in the new Penn Working Papers

October 10, 2018

In time for NWAV 47, the selected papers from NWAV 46 have just been released. Edited by Jordan Kodner and Lacey Wade, University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 24.2: Selected Papers from NWAV 46 includes articles by MSU researchers Monica Nesbitt, Suzanne Evans Wagner and Sayako Uehara:

Nesbitt, Monica. Economic change and the decline of raised TRAP in Lansing, MI.
Uehara, Sayako and Suzanne Evans Wagner. Progressive outliers in listener perception of sound change.

Both papers explore the sound change in progress we’re observing in Michigan from the Northern Cities Shift to a new vowel system that has various names in the literature, including the Elsewhere Shift, the Low Back Merger Shift and the Third Dialect.

Conferences / Faculty / Graduate Students

Congratulations to NWAV 47 Presenters!

September 27, 2018

The Sociolinguistics lab will be sending many projects to the 47th Annual NWAV Conference at New York University in New York City from October 18-21, 2018, including several talks! Congratulations to Silvina Bongiovanni, Monica Nesbitt, Matt Savage, and Alex Mason for getting accepted!

There will be practice talks in the weeks leading up to the conference, and all are invited to attend lab meetings to learn more and/or provide feedback!

Please see the Sociolinguistics lab calendar for specific dates of each practice talk!

TRAP: The loss of tensing in Michigan (Monica Nesbitt)
Style & attitude: The social evaluation of the BET vowel (Matt Savage & Alex Mason)
On the relationship between vowel nasalization and nasal weakening: Evidence from a Caribbean and non-Caribbean dialect of Spanish (Silvina Bongiovanni)
It’s a TRAP!: The trigger for the Elsewhere Shift in Lansing, Michigan (Alex Mason)
Attitudes toward TRAP in Michigan (Monica Nesbitt)
“It’s an American Symbol!”: Non-native speakers’ take on remarkable LIKE (Irina Zaykovskaya) – Practice Talk: October 5, 2018; Wells Hall B243; 12:30pm-3:00pm via Skype

People / Research / Undergraduates

Undergraduate Updates!

January 18, 2018

Alichia Crandall and Renaysha Goodebailey graduated from MSU last semester. For her senior thesis, Alichia analyzed a dataset from a rapid and anonymous survey of people’s responses to being thanked (you’re welcome vs no problem vs others), modeled on an activity originated by Dr. Aaron Dinkin of San Diego State University. Renaysha collected word list data from friends and family in her home city of Pittsburgh, to investigate the progress of /u/-fronting in the African American community there. Renaysha’s work follows up on research by Dr. Maeve Eberhardt of the University of Vermont.
And congratulations to freshman Socio Lab member Jared Kaczor, who is an MSU Citizen Scholar, and who made the Dean’s List last semester! Jared is working this semester with Savannah Feeley on a project run by Irina Zaykovskaya, investigating non-native English speakers’ acquisition of vernacular ‘like’.

51 Citizen Scholars made the Dean's List for Fall 2017! Congrats to all of our students on their hard work last semester! pic.twitter.com/GDjLz7fuLT
— MSU Citizen Scholars (@MSUCitScholars) January 18, 2018

Graduate Students / People

Dr Mingzhe Zheng!

December 20, 2017

Congratulations to Mingzhe Zheng, who on November 21, 2017 successfully defended his doctoral dissertation You have to learn to adapt: A sociolinguistic study of the “Asian City” of southeast Michigan. Dr Zheng is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Chinese at Earlham College, Indiana.

Graduate Students / People

Monica Nesbitt strong candidate for LSA travel award

December 15, 2017

Monica Nesbitt, PhD candidate in Linguistics, was shortlisted for a travel award to the Linguistic Society of America annual meeting in Salt Lake City, January 2018. Awards are granted by the LSA’s Committee on Ethnic Diversity in Linguistics (CEDL).

In a recent news announcement, the committee named five student recipients of the awards. Monica received an “honorable mention” for what the committee called her “high caliber application”. Congratulations, Monica, and good luck with your application next year!