News

Spring 2024

• Congratulation to Eunice Opoku for presenting at the American Association of Applied Linguistics Conference in Houston, TX!

Fall 2023

• Congratulations to Shamiso Marondera, Brynne Mills, and Dominic LaRouche on presenting at the Purdue University Fall Undergraduate Research Expo!
• Welcome Kathleen Wagner, new graduate student in Linguistics!
• Welcome back to all of our new and returning Undergraduate Research Assistants: Shamiso Marondera, Brynne Mills, Dominic LaRouche, Izzy Davis, and Daniella Simon!!

Spring 2023

• Congratulations to René Zúñiga Argüello, Ph.D., on his graduation!
  

Fall 2017

• Congratulations to Neda on receiving a CLA Promise Award to attend a conference
• Congratulations to Kwaku on receiving a CLA Promise Award to attend the SPCL conference in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Summer 2017

• Congratulations to Pin-Hsi on receiving a CLA Promise Award to collect data over the
• Kwaku attended the 2017 LSA Summer Institute at University of Kentucky, Lexington, where he also presented a paper titled: Serial Verb Constructions in Ghanaian Student Pidgin. The trip was made possible with funding from the LSA (an institute Fellowship), Purdue’s CLA (a Promise Award), the Rider Grant from the English Department and the IELlab.
• Congratulations to Kwaku on receiving the Summer 2017 PRF grant for his project on motion predicates in Ghanaian Student Pidgin.

Spring 2017

• Congratulations to Kwaku on receiving a CLA Promise Award to attend the SPCL conference in Austin, Texas.

Spring 2016

• Congratulations to Carmen Octavio on receiving a Summer 2016 PRF Fellowship for her project on Heritage Speakers and Linguistic Ideologies!
• Congratulations to alum Sunny Park-Johnson (MA, Ph.D. Linguistics PU) on her new position of Assistant Professor at DePaul University in Chicago!
• Congratulations to alum Jason Overfelt (MA Purdue University, Ph.D. Linguistics UMass) on his new job: Visiting Assistant Professor at University of Minnesota, beginning Fall 2016!
• Congratulations to alum Alyson Eggleston (Ph.D. Linguistics PU) on her new job: Visiting Assistant Professor at The Citadel!

Working Groups

We continue with our five working groups this semester:

• The Motion Predicate Project
  • with Prof. Chiara Branchini and Dr. Lara Mantovan (LIS), Prof. Gladys Tang (HKSL); Guillermo González and Freddy Obando (Cabécar); Elizabeth Salomón (Mayangna, Miskitu)
• The Multilingual Acquisition Group
  • with Erin McConkey, Jennifer Hwang
• The Mayagna Project
  • with Elena Benedicto, Amelia Shettle, Elizabeth Salomón (Nicaragua)
• Linguistic Ideologies Group
  • with Amelia Shettle, Elena Benedicto, P. Morita-Mullaney, Carmen Octavio, and Nan Zhang 张楠
    

Check on our new Transdisciplinary and Interdisciplinary Research Grant on Heritage Speakers: At the intersection of Language Development and Maintenance, and Language Ideologies.

• Language Documentation and Analysis Group
  • with Elena Benedicto, Kwaku Osei-Tutu, and Neda Taherkhani

Conferences

• Elena Benedicto went to Melbourne, Australia, to present at the TISLR 12 Conference (Conference on Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research), 4-7 January 2016:
  • Decomposing the internal structure of motion predicates in three sign languages: LIS, HKSL, ASL. Elena Benedicto, Chiara Branchini, Lara Mantovan and Robin Shay.
• Elena Benedicto went to Washington, DC, to present at the SSILA Conference  (Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas), in conjunction with the LSA 7-10 January 2016:
  • The morphosyntax of Projective and non-Projective PPs in Mayangna. Elena Benedicto, Elizabeth Salomón.
• Elena Benedicto went (via WebEx) to Konstanz, Germany, to present at the 38^th Annual Conference of the German Linguistic Society’s Session on Sign Language Agreement revisited: new theoretical and experimental perspectives  24-26 February 2016:
  • Classifiers as agreement... or not?. Elena Benedicto.

Fall 2015

Moving on…  
At the end of this semester, we bid our farewell and send our best wishes to some of our IELLab’s members:
 
Eric Follett, Tess Milom, Kayleigh Zeeff and Miao Zhang. Good luck to you all!

• Congratulations to Amelia Shettle for defending her MA Thesis (Influences On Native American Language Revitalization In The U.S.: Ideology And Culture)!

• The Motion Predicate Project
  • with Prof. Chiara Branchini and Dr. Lara Mantovan (LIS), Prof. Gladys Tang (HKSL); Guillermo González and Freddy Obando  (Cabécar); Elizabeth Salomón (Mayangna, Miskitu)
• The Multilingual Acquisition Group
  • with Carmen Octavio, Erin McConkey, Jiwu Lee, Jennifer Hwang, Miao Zhang, Kayleigh Zeeff
• The Mayangna Project
  • with Elena Benedicto, Eric Follett, Amelia Shettle, and Tess Milom
• Linguistic Ideologies Group
  • with Amelia Shettle, Carmen Octavio, and Nan Zhang 张楠
• Language Documentation and Analysis Group
  • with Elena Benedicto, Eric Follett, Kwaku Osei-Tutu, and Neda Taherkhani

• Zhang Nan and Carmen Octavio are headed to IUPUI – Indianapolis, to present at INTESOL 2015 (Indiana Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Conference 2015)
  • Round table: Heritage Language Instruction in the Hoosier Heartland; Zhang, Nan and Octavio, Carmen. Professor Morita-Mullaney, P.
• Elena Benedicto went to University of Texas – Austin, to present at the CILLA VII Conference (Conference on the Indigenous Languages of Latin America):
  • Predicados de movimiento en cabécar. Elena Benedicto, Guillermo González Campos, Freddy Obando Martínez.
• Elena Benedicto, Eric Follett and our colleagues in the Mayangna Yulbarangyang Balna went to Granada, Nicaragua to present at the ACALing III Conference (Asociación Centroamericana de Lingüística)
  • El valor de las lenguas indígenas en la lingüística teórica: complementos clausales en Mayangna-Panamahka, Tatar, español, inglés. Eric Follett.
  • Análisis comparativo de patrones sintácticos en predicados de movimiento. Elena Benedicto and Elizabeth Salomón McClean.
  • Dimensiones especiales en los predicados de movimiento en cabécar. Elena Benedicto, Guillermo González Campos, and Freddy Obando Martínez.
  • Asangpas: Preservando y difundiendo el conocimiento Sumu-Mayangna de las plantas. Tomasa Gómez, Modesta Dolores, Elizabeth Salomón, Demetrio Antolín, Gloria Fendly.

 Spring 2015

• Prof. Benedicto continues her sabbatical visiting CIESAS-Sureste,  URACCAN-Nicaragua and UCR-Turrialba in Costa Rica.
• We bid farewell to Xiaorong Zhang, who returns to China!

• The Multilingual Acquisition Group
  • with Carmen Octavio, Erin McConkey, Jennifer Hwang, Jiwu Lee, Cristina Amaro, Jessica González, Leah Jellison, Ashely Lunford, and Xiaorong Zhang

• The Mayangna Project
  • with Eric Follett and Talitha Fisher

• Elena Benedicto went to Portland, Oregon to present at the Annual LSA Meeting 2015 (Linguistic Society of America)
  • The Syntax of Analytic Complex-Path Motion Predicates. Elena Benedicto.
• Elena Benedicto went to Barcelona, to present at FEAST 2015 (Formal and Experimental Advances in Sign Language Theory)
  • Decomposing the internal structure of Motion Predicates in Italian Sign Language (LIS). Elena Benedicto, Chiara Branchini and Lara Mantovan (Università Ca' Foscari Venezia).

Fall 2014

• Prof. Benedicto is on sabbatical at Università Ca´Foscari in Venezia.
• The IELLab gets a much bigger and brighter new space: Heavilon Hall 124!!
• Congratulations to Eric Follett on receiving a Global Synergy Grant from CLA for his work with indigenous languages in Nicaragua!

• The Multilingual Acquisition Group
  • with Carmen Octavio, Jennifer Hwang, Cristina Amaro, Leah Jellison, and Xiaorong Zhang

• The Mayangna Project
  • with Eric Follett, Ethan Myers and Amelia Shettle

• While in Venice, Prof. Benedicto presents at Ca´Foscari and at Milano-Bicocca:
  • Benedicto, E. 2014. The internal representation of Complex Path In Motion Predicates. Presented at Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università Milano-Bicocca, Milano (Italy).  December 2014.
  • Benedicto, E. 2014. Syntactic Complexity in Path Motion Predicates Crosslinguistically. A VP-Layer Structure for Analytic Patterns. Presented at the Università Ca’Foscari Venezia. Dipartimento di Studi Linguistici e Culturali Comparati. October 2014.

 Summer 2014

• Prof. Benedicto visits Chinese University of Hong Kong, to work on Hong Kong Sign Language with Prof. Tang
• Prof. Benedicto visits the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS-Sureste) in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico, and presents:
  • Benedicto, E. and Mayangna Yulbarangyang Balna. 2014. Mayangna Yulpûyang. Elaboración de Diccionarios Comunitarios como Formación Lingüística. Presented at the Encuentro-Taller Internacional de Lexicografía en Lenguas Indoamericanas (ETILLI), CIESAS-Sureste, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, México. August, 2014.
  • Benedicto, E. 2014. Predicados de Movimiento: Estructuras por Capas. Soluciones Analíticas desde una perspectiva comparativa. Presented at the Encuentro-Taller Internacional de Lexicografía en Lenguas Indoamericanas (ETILLI), CIESAS-Sureste, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, México. August, 2014.

 Spring 2014

• Congratulations to Eric Follett on successfully defending his MA thesis (Clausal Complements to Attitude Predicates Crosslinguistically: Being Glad About What You Thought You Knew) !
• We welcome Prof. Xiaorong Zhang, from China, as a visitor to the IELLab!
• The Multi-lingual group (Carmen Octavio and Jessica González) collaborates with Battleground Middle School to work with Spanish Heritage 6^th graders. With an Engagement grant from CLA and in collaboration with Prof. Dossin in VPA and Battleground Math teacher Ms Joni Bratcher, we are joined by graduate students Mara Barbosa (SLC), Alejandra Carrillo-Muñoz (VPA), Ileana Cortés (Education) and Héctor Rodriguez (Engineering).

• The Multilingual Acquisition Group
  • with Carmen Octavio, Jennifer Hwang, Alexandra Grimes, Leah Jellison, Ashely Lunford, Jessica González and Xiaorong Zhang

• The Mayangna Project
  • with Eric Follett, Ethan Myers and Amelia Shettle

• Prof. Benedicto visits Costa Rica and presents at the Universidad Nacional in Heredia:
  • Benedicto, E. 2014. Soluciones Analíticas en la Parametrización de los Predicados de Movimiento: Un Análisis Comparativo a partir de las Lenguas Indígenas de Centroamérica. II Simposio Internacional de PROLINCA Distribución Tipológica de Centroamérica, Universidad Nacional, Heredia, Costa Rica. April, 2014.
  • Benedicto, E. 2014. Adquisicion Multilingüe: Factores Gramaticales y No-Gramaticales. II Simposio Internacional de PROLINCA Distribución Tipológica de Centroamérica, Universidad Nacional, Heredia, Costa Rica. April, 2014.

Fall 2013

Working Groups
We have two working groups this semester:

• The Multi-lingual Acquistion Group
  • with Carmen Octavio, Heather Offerman and UG-RAs Lan Yu, Vivian Gracia and Rachel Kelly
• The Mayangna Group
  • with Ethan Myers, Eric Follett and Janna Ahrndt (2013 MKWURI-Wilke Intern)

• Elena Benedicto and Amelia Shettle are going to University of Texas – Austin, to present at the CILLA VI Conference (Conference on the Indigenous Languages of Latin America):
  • Taim y Sait: cambio categorial y especialización semántica. Elena Benedicto, Mayangna Yulbarangyang Balna and Alyson Eggleston
  • Linguistic attitudes as a crucial factor in language revitalization. Amelia Shettle, Mayangna Yulbarangyang Balna and Elena Benedicto.
• Elena Benedicto joined alumna Alyson Eggleston in Mexico City to attend the Symposium on Meronymy across Languages: Lexicalization, Semantics, Morphosyntax, taking place at the Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, September 27-28, 2013. They presented:
  • What plants tell us about the Mayangna Meronymy System. Elena Benedicto, Mayangna Yulbarangyang Balna, Ethan Myers and Alyson Eggleston
  • Sumu-Mayangna meronyms: Mapping volumes and projecting facets. Alyson Eggleston, Elena Benedicto, Mayangna Yulbarangyang Balna.
     
• Eric Follett, Alejandra Hidalgo and Elena Benedicto went to Tegucigalpa, Honduras for the II Meeting of ACALING (Association of Central American Linguistics), taking place at the UNAH, August 28-30, 2013. There they met with colleagues Tomasa Gómez and Elizabeth Salomón of the Mayangna Yulbarangyang Balna and presented the following talks: 
  • Las Cláusulas Relativas de la lengua Mayangna Panamahka, Nicaragua. Elizabeth Salomón McLean, URACCAN-IPILC.
  • Locación in-situ y locación proyectada: innovación morfológica a través del reciclaje de préstamos. Elena Benedicto, Mayangna Yulbarangyang Balna y A. Eggleston, Purdue University, URACCAN, ECU.
  • Propiedades de complementos clausales de los verbos psicológicos. Eric Follett, Purdue University.
  • Metodología Activa Participativa en la elaboración de materiales lingüísticos. Elena Benedicto, Mayangna Yulbarangyang Balna, IPILC-URACCAN, Purdue University.
  • Construcciones de Complemento del Gerundio Perfectivo en el español de la sierra ecuatoriana. Alejandra Vela. Purdue University.
  • Metodología Comunicativa en la Enseñanza de Lengua Indígena como L2. Mayangna Yulbarangyang Balna, Ager Gondra, Eric Follett, Elena Benedicto, IPILC-URACCAN, SUNY, Purdue University.

Summer 2013

• Ager Gondra successfully defended and deposited his dissertation. Congratulations Dr. Gondra!! He is now going to the Department of Language & Culture in Purchase College-SUNY, as a new Assistant Professor. Good luck in your new adventures!
  
• Elena Benedicto went to University College London to present her joint work with Prof. Gladys Tang at the TISLR 11 Conference on Sign Languages.
  • Parametric variation in H1/H2 Shift: Switch Reference in Serial Verb Constructions
• Amelia Shettle, Eric Follett, Rachelle Henderson and Liz Rutherford went to Rosita, Nicaragua and spent a month doing engaged research with the Mayangna Yulbarangyang Balna, learning Mayangna and Spanish languages and getting immersed in the two cultural environments. 

Fall 2010

• Almost all members of IELLab are going to present papers at the XI Encuentro Internacional de Lingüística en el Noroeste, in Hermosillo, Sonora (Mx), Nov 17-20, 2010.
• Sunny Park is presenting her research on Korean-English Bilingual Children at GALANA, Sept 2010 in Toronto and will be spending the Fall semester at UMass-Amherst.
• Ager Gondra, together with Prof. Hammond, is teaching a class on Euskera.
• We welcome Dah Son (Chun) Zheng as an MA student in the Linguistics Program at Purdue. She is a great addition to our lab.

Fall 2009

• Congratulations to Dr. Ricard Viñas-i-de-Puig for successfully defending his Ph.D. and we wish him good luck at his new position as Assistant Professor at Eastern Carolina University.
• Congratulations also to Jason Overfelt for successfully defending his MA thesis on relativization in Tigrinya. We wish him the best of lucks as he begins his Ph.D. program in the Dept of Linguistics at UMass-Amherst.