Emily Elfner
Banting Postdoctoral Fellow
First Nations and Endangered Languages Program
University of British Columbia
Buchanan E-256
1866 Main Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1
[email protected]
http://emilyelfner.sites.olt.ubc.ca/
(604) 822-4021
April 13, 2015
Citizenship: Canadian
Employment
Sept. 2014-present
Banting Postdoctoral Fellow, First Nations and Endangered
Languages Program, University of British Columbia.
Project: The grammar of prosody in Kwak’wala: Documentation,
theory and community collaboration. Supervisor: Patricia A. Shaw.
Jan.-Aug. 2014
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Linguistics, McGill
University. Funded by the “Exploring the Interfaces” FQRSC team
grant (PI: Lisa Travis). Supervisor: Michael Wagner.
Jan. 2012-2014
SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Linguistics,
McGill University.
Project: Evidence for recursion in Irish prosody. Supervisor:
Michael Wagner.
Education
2006-2012
PhD in Linguistics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Dissertation: Syntax-prosody interactions in Irish
Committee: Elisabeth Selkirk (chair), John Kingston, John McCarthy, Jim
McCloskey, Mark Feinstein
2004-2006
MA in Linguistics, University of Calgary.
Thesis: The mora in Blackfoot.
Committee: Darin Flynn (supervisor), John Archibald, Douglas Walker
2001-2004
BA (Honours) in Linguistics, University of Calgary.
Thesis: The role of sonority in Blackfoot phonotactics. Supervisor: Darin Flynn
1
Publications
Journal articles
To appear
Bennett, Ryan, Emily Elfner, and Jim McCloskey. Lightest to the right: An
apparently anomalous displacement in Irish. Linguistic Inquiry, 64pp.
2015
Elfner, Emily. Recursion in prosodic phrasing: Evidence from Connemara
Irish. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. Available as “Online First”:
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11049-014-92815?sa_campaign=email/event/articleAuthor/onlineFirst
Book chapters (peer-reviewed and invited contributions)
In press
Bennett, Ryan, Emily Elfner, and Jim McCloskey. Pronouns and prosody in
Irish. In Plenary Addresses from the Fourteenth International Congress of
Celtic Studies (invited contribution to collection of plenary talks). Dublin:
Institute for Advanced Studies. 42pp.
In press
Elfner, Emily. Stress-epenthesis interactions in Harmonic Serialism. In John
McCarthy and Joe Pater (eds.) Harmonic Grammar and Harmonic Serialism.
Equinox Press. 30 pp.
2011
Elfner, Emily. The interaction of linearization and prosody: Evidence from
pronoun postposing in Irish. In Andrew Carnie (ed.) Formal Approaches to
Celtic Linguistics. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 17-40.
Conference proceedings (based on peer-reviewed abstract)
2013
Elfner, Emily. Recursivity in prosodic phrasing: Evidence from Conamara
Irish. In Seda Kan, Claire Moore-Cantwell, and Robert Staubs (eds.)
Proceedings of the 40th Annual Meeting of the North-East Linguistic Society.
Amherst, MA: GLSA publications, 191-204.
2011
Elfner, Emily. Recursive phonological phrases in Conamara Irish. In Mary
Byram Washburn, Sarah Ouwayda, Chuoying Ouyang, Bin Yin, Canan Ipek,
Lisa Marston, and Aaron Walker (eds.) Proceedings of the 28th West Coast
Conference
on
Formal
Linguistics.
Available
online:
https://sites.google.com/site/wccfl28pro/elfner
2008
Elfner, Emily and Wendell Kimper. Reduplication without RED: Evidence
from diddly-infixation. In Natasha Abner & Jason Bishop (eds.) Proceedings of
the 27th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics. Somerville, MA:
Cascadilla Proceedings Project, 150-158. www.lingref.com, # 1827.
2006
Elfner, Emily. Contrastive syllabification in Blackfoot. In Donald Baumer,
David Montero and Michael Scanlon (eds.) Proceedings of the 25th West Coast
Conference on Formal Linguistics. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings
Project, 141-149. www.lingref.com, #1442.
2
Edited volumes
In prep
Clemens, Lauren, Emily Elfner, and Michael Wagner (eds.) Prosody and
Constituent Structure (Special Issue of Lingua). Anticipated publication in
2015.
2008
Elfner, Emily and Martin Walkow (eds.) Proceedings of the 37 Annual
Meeting of the North-East Linguistic Society. Amherst, MA: GLSA
publications.
th
Working papers/Other
2009
Elfner, Emily. Syllabification and stress-epenthesis interactions in Harmonic
Serialism. Unpublished manuscript. Available on Rutgers Optimality Archive,
#1047. (20 citations on Google Scholar).
2006
Elfner, Emily. The mora in Blackfoot. Unpublished MA thesis, University of
Calgary.
2005
Elfner, Emily. The role of sonority in Blackfoot phonotactics. Calgary Papers
in Linguistics 26:27-91. Available online:
http://www.ucalgary.ca/lingcpl/volume26.html
Presentations
Invited presentations
2015. Rethinking the prosodic hierarchy: Prosodic domain mismatches and implications for
Match Theory. Invited talk, Proseminar in Phonology taught by Junko Ito and Armin Mester.
Department of Linguistics, University of California, Santa Cruz. April 29.
2014. Syntax-prosody mismatches and where to find them. Colloquium, Department of
Linguistics, University of British Columbia. November 14.
2014. Syntax-prosody mismatches in Irish and English verb-initial structures. Exploring the
Interfaces 3 workshop “Prosody and Constituent Structure”, McGill University. May 8-10.
2014. The status of intermediate phrases in Connemara Irish. Workshop on “The Prosodic
Hierarchy in a Typological Perspective”, Stockholm University. March 14-15.
2013. Recursive prosodic structure in Connemara Irish: Implications for the syntax-prosody
interface. Colloquium, Department of Linguistics, McGill University. October 4.
2013. La récursivité de la structure prosodique en irlandais du Connemara: Les implications pour
l'interface syntaxe-phonologie. Université du Québec à Montréal. April 10.
2013. Recursive prosodic structure in Conamara Irish: Implications for the syntax-phonology
interface. University College London, February 25.
2012. Pitch accents in Conamara Irish: Implications for the syntax-phonology interface.
Workshop on “The Syntax-Phonology Interface from a Cross-linguistic Perspective”, ZAS,
Berlin. November 2.
2012. (with Seunghun Lee). Building a database for phonology-syntax interface research.
Workshop on “The Syntax-Phonology Interface from a Cross-linguistic Perspective”, ZAS,
Berlin. November 1.
2012. Pitch accents in Conamara Irish: Implications for the syntax-phonology interface.
Colloquium, Department of Linguistics, University of Alberta. October 19.
3
2012. Pitch accents in Conamara Irish: Implications for the syntax-phonology interface.
Colloquium (Speaker Series), Department of Linguistics, University of Calgary. October 5.
2011. Cumulative constraint interaction in syntax-prosody mapping: Evidence from Irish. PhLunch, University of California, Santa Cruz. May 20.
2009. (with Wendell Kimper). What can Ned Flanders tell us about linguistic knowledge?
Diddly-infixation and the poverty of the stimulus. Hampshire College Cognitive Science
Lunch Talk, Hampshire College. February 18.
Conference/Workshop presentations and posters
2015. Prosodic juncture strength and syntactic constituency in Connemara Irish. Paper to be
presented at Experimental and Theoretical Advances in Prosody (ETAP) 3, University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. May 28-30.
2014. Prosodic boundary strength in verb-initial structures: Evidence from English and Irish.
Paper presented at the Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting. January 4.
2013. Prosodic boundary strength in verb-initial structures: Evidence from English and Irish.
Poster presented at Phonology 2013, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. November 8-10.
2013. (with Seunghun Lee). Building a database for phonology-syntax interface research. Paper
presented at Exploring Data from Language Documentation, ZAS, Berlin. May 10-11.
2013. Locality conditions on syntax-prosody matching (in Conamara Irish). Paper presented in
the parasession on the syntax-phonology interface at the Chicago Linguistic Society (CLS)
49, University of Chicago. April 19.
2012. Cumulative constraint interaction in syntax-prosody mapping: Evidence from Conamara
Irish. Paper presented in the Workshop on the Phonology-Syntax Interface preceding the Old
World Conference on Phonology (OCP) 9, ZAS, Berlin. January 18.
2011. Prosodic constraints on syntax-prosody mapping: Evidence from Conamara Irish. Paper
presented at Experimental and Theoretical Advances in Prosody (ETAP) 2, McGill
University, Montréal. September 24.
2011. Tonal evidence for recursive prosodic phrasing in Conamara Irish. Poster presented at the
85th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America. Pittsburgh, PA. January 7.
2010. (with Ryan Bennett, Andrew Dowd, and Jim McCloskey). Lightest to the right: An
anomalous displacement in Irish. Paper presented at the 6th Celtic Linguistics Conference,
University College Dublin. September 10.
2010. Tonal evidence for prosodic phrasing in Conamara Irish. Paper presented at the 6th Celtic
Linguistics Conference, University College Dublin. September 10.
2010. Prosodic recursivity in Conamara Irish. Paper presented at the Canadian Linguistic
Association Conference, Concordia University, Montréal. May 29.
2010. Recursive phonological phrases in Conamara Irish. Paper presented in the Special Session
on Prosody in Grammar, Acquisition, and Processing at the 28th West Coast Conference on
Formal Linguistics, University of Southern California. February 19.
2010. Stress-epenthesis interactions in Harmonic Serialism. Poster presented at the 84th Annual
Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America. Baltimore, MD. January 9.
2009. Recursivity and binarity in prosodic phrasing: Evidence from Conamara Irish. Paper
presented at the 40th Meeting of the North-East Linguistic Society, MIT. November 14.
2009. The interaction of linearization and prosody: Pronoun postposing in Irish. Paper presented
at Formal Approaches to Celtic Linguistics, University of Arizona. March 27.
2008. (with Wendell Kimper). Reduplication without RED: Evidence from diddly-infixation.
4
Paper presented at the 27th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, University of
California, Los Angeles. May 17.
2007. Moraic faithfulness: Evidence from Blackfoot and English. Paper presented at the 15th
Manchester Phonology Meeting, University of Manchester, England. May 26.
2006. Contrastive syllabification in Blackfoot. Paper presented at the 25th West Coast
Conference on Formal Linguistics, University of Washington. April 29.
2005. Syllable weight in Blackfoot. Paper presented at the 37th Algonquian Conference,
University of Ottawa. October 21.
2004. The role of sonority in Blackfoot phonotactics. Paper presented at the Alberta Conference
on Linguistics. Banff, AB. October 30.
Grants
2015
2014
2012-2015
Individual grant, Jacobs Research Funds “The grammar of prosody and
intonation in Kwak’wala”. [April 2015, $3,000 USD]
Co-applicant, SSHRC Connection Grant for the workshop “Exploring
the Interfaces: Prosody and Constituent Structure”. (Applicant: Michael
Wagner). [611-2013-0125, March 2014, $14,610 CAD]
Collaborator, National Science Foundation Grant “The effects of
syntactic constituency on the phonology and phonetics of tone”.
(Collaborator/member of primary research team; PI: Elisabeth Selkirk,
University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Co-PI: Gorka Elordieta, University of
the Basque Country; Co-PI: Seunghun Lee, Central Connecticut State
University) [BCS-1147083, July 2012-December 2015, $499,946 USD].
Grant-supported Research
Summer 2009
Summer 2008
Summer 2007
2003-2005
Research assistant, National Science Foundation Grant “Investigations in
Optimality Theory: Typology, Learning, and Modeling”. (PIs: John
McCarthy and Joe Pater, University of Massachusetts, Amherst). [BCS0813829].
Research assistant to John McCarthy, Department of Linguistics,
University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Research assistant, “Black and White Prosody”. (PIs: Lisa Green and Lisa
Selkirk)
Research assistant, SSHRC Grant “Prosody of Western Canadian
Languages”. (PI: Darin Flynn, University of Calgary).
Awards, Scholarships, and Fellowships
Federal Government (SSHRC)
2014-2016
Two-year Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship, Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). First Nations and
Endangered Languages Program, University of British Columbia, beginning
September 1, 2014. Supervisor: Patricia Shaw. $140,000 over 2 years. 1 of 23
recipients selected from an international applicant pool spanning the
Humanities and Social Sciences.
5
2012-2014
2006-2011
2006-2009
2005-2006
Two-year SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship, Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Department of Linguistics, McGill
University, beginning January 1, 2012. Supervisor: Michael Wagner. $81,000
over 2 years.
Four-year Doctoral Fellowship, Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council of Canada (SSHRC). Department of Linguistics, University of
Massachusetts, Amherst (interrupted Spring 2009 and Spring 2010 for
teaching). $80,000 over 4 years.
Three-year Canadian Graduate Scholarship, Doctoral, Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) (declined). $105,000
over 3 years.
Canadian Graduate Scholarship, Master’s, Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Department of Linguistics, University
of Calgary. $17,500
Other
2009
2006
2005
2004-2005
2004-2005
2003
2002
2002
2001
2001
Scholarship to attend Formal Approaches to Celtic Linguistics, a four-day
mini-course followed by a conference. Department of Linguistics, University
of Arizona
Graduate Research Scholarship, Department of Linguistics, University of
Calgary
Graduate Student Scholarship, Government of Alberta, Alberta Advanced
Education’s Achievement Scholarship Program
Graduate Research Scholarship, Department of Linguistics, University of
Calgary
Department of Graduate Studies Award, University of Calgary
Louise McKinney Scholarship, Province of Alberta, Alberta Scholarship
Program
Jason Lang Scholarship, Province of Alberta, Alberta Scholarship Program
Undergraduate Merit Scholarship, University of Calgary
Alexander Rutherford Scholarship, Province of Alberta
Undergraduate Merit Scholarship, University of Calgary
Teaching
At the University of British Columbia
Winter 1 2015
FNEL 281: Sounds of Endangered Languages: Conservation and
Revitalization (First Nations and Endangered Languages Program) (to be
taught)
Winter 1 2014
FNLG 448S: Sounds of Endangered Languages: Conservation and
Revitalization (co-taught with Patricia A. Shaw; First Nations Languages
Program)
Course description: Development of skills in the perception and transcription of speech
sounds in endangered languages, focusing on the diversity within BC Aboriginal languages.
Capacity-building techniques for digital recording, editing, analysis, and archiving; guided
by community-based conservation and revitalization goals.
6
At McGill University
Fall 2013
Linguistics 331: Phonology 1 (46 students; supervision of one TA; required
course for linguistics majors)
Winter 2013
Linguistics 417/682: Topics at the Interfaces I: Prosody and Intonation
(cross-listed undergraduate/graduate course) (15 students)
Winter 2012
Linguistics 635: Phonology 4 (leave replacement)
Full responsibility for teaching two weeks of the second course in the firstyear graduate phonology sequence (leave replacement for Michael Wagner) (5
students)
At the University of Massachusetts Amherst
Spring 2010
Linguistics 201: Introduction to Linguistic Theory (30 students)
Teaching assistantships/Grader positions
At the University of Massachusetts Amherst
Fall 2011
Teaching Assistant, Linguistics 101: People and their Language
Instructor of record: Peggy Speas
Responsibilities: teaching two discussion sections per week, grading
student essays (50 students)
Summer 2011
Grader, Linguistics 101 (online): People and their Language (session 3)
Instructor of record: John McCarthy
Spring 2011
Grader, Linguistics 402: Speech Sounds and Structure
Instructor of record: Anne Pycha
Spring 2009
Teaching Assistant, Linguistics 201: Introduction to Linguistic Theory
Instructor of record: Lisa Green
Responsibilities: teaching two discussion sections per week, grading
student assignments/exams (50 students)
Fall 2008
Grader, Linguistics 101 (online): People and their Language
Instructor of record: John McCarthy
Spring 2008
Grader, Linguistics 101 (online): People and their Language
Instructor of record: John McCarthy
At the University of Calgary
Winter 2005
Teaching Assistant, Linguistics 319: Introduction to Semantics
Instructor of record: Ilana Mezhevich
Fall 2004
Teaching Assistant, Linguistics 201: Introduction to Linguistics I
Instructor of record: Susan Bennett
7
Ad-hoc Reviewing
Journal articles:
2015
2014
2013
2012
2010-2011
Journal of East Asian Linguistics
International Journal of American Linguistics, Journal of East Asian
Linguistics, Language, Lingua, Linguistic Inquiry, Natural Language and
Linguistic Theory
Journal of East Asian Linguistics, Language, Phonology, Syntax
Phonology
Natural Language and Linguistic Theory
Book chapters:
2015
2014
2014
2013
2011
2010
Monica Macaulay and Meg Noodin (eds.) Papers of the 46th Algonquian
Conference.
Luiz Amaral, Marcus Maia, Tom Roeper, and Andrew Nevins (eds.)
Recursion and Embedding in Brazilian Languages and Beyond.
Vera Gribanova and Stephanie Shih (eds.) The Morphosyntax-Phonology
Connection, Oxford University Press.
Caroline Féry and Shin Ishihara (eds.) OUP Handbook on Information
Structure, Oxford University Press.
John McCarthy and Joe Pater (eds.) Harmonic Grammar and Harmonic
Serialism, Equinox Press.
Andrew Carnie (ed.) Formal Approaches to Celtic Linguistics, Cambridge
Scholars Press.
Abstracts:
2015
2014
2014
2013
2013
2013
Experimental and Theoretical Advances in Prosody (ETAP) 3.
Old World Conference on Phonology (OCP) 12.
Phonology 2014.
Old World Conference on Phonology (OCP) 11.
Workshop on “Quantitative approaches in corpus linguistics
psycholinguistics: Word order and constituent order”.
Phonology 2013.
and
Service
2013-2014
2013-2014
2012
Co-organizer, Exploring the Interfaces 3 (ETI3) conference “Prosody and
Constituent Structure” (with Jessica Coon, Lisa Travis, and Michael
Wagner). May 8-10, 2014 at McGill University.
Co-organizer, Syntax-Phonology Reading Group, Department of
Linguistics, McGill University (with Michael Wagner).
Invited discussant, Exploring the Interfaces 1 workshop at McGill
University.
8
2009
2008-2009
2004-2005
Co-organizer of HUMDRUM (with Brian Smith), a graduate student
workshop on Optimality Theory (participating schools: UMass, Rutgers, Yale,
NYU). April 18, 2009, at UMass, Amherst.
Colloquium coordinator, Department of Linguistics, University of
Massachusetts, Amherst. (Fall and Spring semesters)
Graduate Student Representative, Department of Linguistics, University of
Calgary Graduate Students Association.
Other Academic Experience/Visiting Scholar Positions
2015
2012
2011
2009
2009
2009
2008
2005
University of California, Santa Cruz. One-week visit partially sponsored by
Department of Linguistics. Invited guest lecture in graduate phonology
proseminar taught by Junko Ito and Armin Mester. April 26-May2, 2015.
University of Calgary. Visiting Scholar, Department of Linguistics. Fall 2012.
University of California, Santa Cruz. One-week visit sponsored by CrISP
(Cross-linguistic Investigations in Syntax-Phonology research group), to
pursue collaborative research on Irish prosody (with Jim McCloskey and Ryan
Bennett), May 17-24, 2011.
University of California, Santa Cruz. Research Associate/visiting student,
Linguistics Research Center. (Courtesy appointment, fall quarter).
Irish Language Summer School. International Summer School, National
University of Ireland, Galway. An Cheathrú Rua (Carraroe), Ireland. July 17August 14.
Formal Approaches to Celtic Linguistics mini-course. Department of
Linguistics, University of Arizona. March 23-29.
InField: Institute on Field Linguistics and Language Documentation
(including participation in two weeks of workshops and a four-week field
training and documentation project on Kwak’wala). Department of Linguistics,
University of California, Santa Barbara. June 23-August 1.
Cwrs Wlpan (intensive Welsh language course). Welsh Language Teaching
Centre, Cardiff University. Llanbedr Pont Steffan (Lampeter), Wales. July 1August 26.
9
Fieldwork Experience
2014-present
Kwak’wala (North Wakashan).
Funding: Banting Postdoctoral fellowship 201310BAF-327995-SSH-CAAA249165, Jacobs Research Funds Individual Grant 2015
2009-present
Irish (Celtic; Connemara dialect).
June 2013
January 2012
September 2011
July-Aug. 2009
2009-2012
July 2008
2003-2006
Carraroe & Dublin. NSF grant BCS-1147083 to Elisabeth Selkirk
Dublin. SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship 756-2011-0285, SSHRC standard
research grant on Relative Boundary Strength to Michael Wagner
Carraroe & Dublin. UMass Amherst Linguistics research funding
Carraroe (Irish Language Summer School, 5 weeks)
Boston, MA. On-going elicitation sessions, UMass Amherst Linguistics
research funding
Intensive four-week field methods course and collaborative documentation
project on Kwak’wala. InField, University of California, Santa Barbara
(instructor: Patricia A. Shaw, UBC).
Blackfoot (Algonquian; Siksiká dialect).
Calgary, AB. On-going elicitation sessions, SSHRC grant to Darin Flynn.
Technical Skills
Experiments
Phonetics
Statistics
Databases
Matlab/Psychtoolbox
Praat (acoustic analysis and scripting), prosodylab-aligner
R
FileMaker Pro (relational database design and implementation)
Languages
English (native)
French (fluent)
Irish (conversational; structural knowledge; fieldwork)
Kwak’wala (structural knowledge; fieldwork)
Welsh (conversational; structural knowledge)
Blackfoot (structural knowledge; fieldwork)
10