MIT Press has just published The Open Handbook of Linguistic Data Management, which was edited by Andrea Berez-Kroeker (Professor), Bradley McDonnell (Associate Professor), Eve Koller (PhD 2017) and Lauren B. Collister (U Pittsburgh). The Handbook, which is fully free and Open Access and can be found here, features 56 chapters including several from current and former UH faculty and alumni: Gary Holton, James Grama, Nala Lee, Matthew Lou-Magnusson, Luca Onnis, Bodo Winter, and Rory Turnbull. The volume offers a guide to linguistic data management, engaging with current trends toward the transformation of linguistics into a more data-driven and reproducible scientific endeavor. It offers both principles and methods, presenting the conceptual foundations of linguistic data management and a series of case studies, each of which demonstrates a concrete application of abstract principles in current practice. An online companion course can be found here.
Category Archives: Alumni News
Gyu-Ho Shin Accepts Assistant Professor Position
Gyu-Ho Shin (PhD, 2020) has accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Korean Linguistics at Palacký University Olomouc, the second oldest university in the Czech Republic. (Founded in 1573, it currently has some 25,000 students.) Our department congratulates Gyu-Ho on his success.
On-Soon Lee Accepts Tenure-Track Position
The Department of Linguistics is delighted to announce that Dr. On-Soon Lee (PhD, 2014) has accepted a tenure-track position as Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the English program in the Institute of General Education at Sunchon National University (SCNU) in Sunchon, Korea. Congratulations, On-Soon, on your success!
JONNY KIM ACCEPTS TENURE TRACK POSITION
Another alumni update! Jonny Kim (PhD 2018) has accepted a tenure track position as Assistant Professor in phonetics and phonology at the Department of English Language and Literature at Pusan (Busan) National University, Busan, South Korea. Jonny will begin his position in early September 2019.
Jonny’s dissertation for his PhD studies at UH Manoa is now available online: Socially-conditioned links between words and phonetic realizations.
Congrats, Jonny!
Samantha Rarrick accepts Tenure Track position
Another alumni update! Samantha Rarrick (PhD 2017) has accepted a tenure track position as Assistant Professor at Griffith University in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. Sam will begin her position in late June 2019.
Sam’s dissertation for her PhD studies at UH Manoa is now available online: A Tonal Grammar of Kere (Papuan) in Typological Perspective.
Congrats, Sam!
Shigeo Tonoike publishes Minimalist Comparative Syntax of English and Japanese
Shigeo Tonoike, PhD graduate of our department and recent instructor of syntax in our department, has just had his new book published. It is written in Japanese, and its title can be translated to Minimalist Comparative Syntax of English and Japanese. Many congratulations to Shigeo, and we look forward to the English translation of this book that he is working on.
『ミニマリスト日英語比較統語論』[A Minimalist Comparative Syntax of English and Japanese] (xviii+427pp.) by Shigeo Tonoike (published from Kaitakusha Publishing Company) is the compilation of the author’s research on comparative syntax of English over 40 years since late 1980s. It proposes a radical reduction in the operations allowed by UG (basically to the operations of Merge and Agree) eliminating others of dubious conceptual necessity such as LF copying, PF deletion, covert movement etc. It then shows that syntaxes (grammars/ computational systems) of English and Japanese (and by implication of other languages) are essentially the same with parametric variations such as word order and morphology reduced to observable differences between them. One major claim of the book is that English and Japanese are mirror images of each other and that the basic word order in Japanese is OSV as opposed to the widely assumed ordre of SOV.
Bradley McDonnell and Eve Koller teach Satellite Workshop at the Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting in January 2019
Bradley McDonnell and Eve Koller teach a Satellite Workshop on “Tools for Reproducible Research in Linguistics” at the Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting in New York City to be held on January 3, 2019.
Linguistics Department Update 02.27.2018
UHM Linguistics affiliates published together
Language Isolates, edited by Dr. Lyle Campbell, has been released in the 
Routledge Language Family series (2018). The work surveys the world’s language isolates, which form approximately one-third of the world’s “language families”. Contributions from people connected with University of Hawai’i linguistics (as current or former faculty and students) include a survey of the language isolates of Mesoamerica and Northern Mexico by Raina Heaton, a chapter on the endangerment of 
language isolates by Eve Okura Koller, a description of Burushaski by Alexander D. Smith, a sketch grammar of Ainu by Thomas Dougherty, and an introduction and a chapter on language isolates and their history by Lyle Campbell.
A.L. Blake awarded Luce Graduate Research Fellowship
A.L. Blake was awarded the Luce Graduate Research Fellowship for the project, “Documenting the botanical language of the Abui people of Alor Island, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia.” Blake will be doing interdisciplinary research this summer in order to document ecological knowledge encoded in the Abui language. Emphasizing Abui nomenclature, classification, characteristics, and use of food- and medicinal- plants, the project generates Abui audio- and video- recordings, with accompanying transcriptions and translations, as well as high-quality photographic images of plants.
Ryan E. Henke presents at SSILA
PhD student Ryan E. Henke presented a paper, “The development of possession in the L1 acquisition of Northern East Cree”, at the 2018 Winter Meeting of the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas (SSILA) in Salt Lake City, UT. In support of this presentation, Henke was awarded a travel grant from SSILA.
Ryan E. Henke receives GSO Award
Congratulations to PhD student Ryan E. Henke for receiving a Graduate Student Organization grant award. This grant supported his summer research project assisting with community efforts to document Nakota, a Siouan language spoken in Alberta, Canada.
UH linguists publish new book about department’s Catalogue of Endangered Languages project
Cataloguing the World’s Endangered Languages, just published, describes the creation and findings of the Catalogue of Endangered Languages (ELCat, available at www.endangeredlanguages.com). The chapter authors and the editors are current or former linguists in the UHM Department of Linguistics, an
d members of the ELCat team. The book is edited by Lyle Campbell and Anna Belew, with chapters written by Russell Barlow, Anna Belew, Lyle Campbell, Yen-ling Chen, Bryn Hauk, Raina Heaton, Nala Lee, Sean Simpson, and John Van Way.
Cataloguing the World’s Endangered Languages outlines the research on which ELCat is based, discusses challenges and approaches to large-scale language cataloguing, presents new findings about the state of the world’s endangered languages, and outlines ELCat’s potential applications for students, funding bodies, researchers, and language communities.
The book is published by Routledge, and can be seen at: https://www.routledge.com/Cataloguing-the-Worlds-Endangered-Languages/Campbell-Belew/p/book/9781138922082
Macanese Creole Patua is ‘Critically Endangered’
2014 PhD alumna Dr. Nala Huiying Lee has been featured in the Macau News for her study on Patua, a Portuguese-Asian Creole. The language has fewer than 50 speakers, making it “severely endangered” based on the absolute amount of speakers.
The study is also published in Language Documentation & Conservation Vol. 12 (2018), pp. 53-79.
To read the full original article on the Macau News website, please click here.
Jonathan Kuo now in Tenure Track position
Another alumni update! Jonathan Kuo now has a tenure track position as Assistant Professor at National Taipei University of Technology.
Jonathan’s dissertation for his PhD studies at UH Manoa is now available online: Argument Alternation and Argument Structure in Symmetrical Voice Languages: A Case Study of Transfer Verbs in Amis, Puyuma, and Seediq (PDF).
Congrats, Jonathan!