Thomas R. Wier
University of Chicago
http://home.uchicago.edu/~trwier/
Current as of: May 2008
| Professional Areas |
Broad:
|
syntax,
morphology, morphology-syntax
interface, language typology |
Narrow:
|
case-assignment,
grammatical relations, argument
structure, ergativity, valency,
Georgian, Caucasian linguistics (Kartvelian, Northeast Caucasian,
Northwest Caucasian), Native American linguistics (Algonquian,
Uto-Aztecan) |
| Education |
| Sept.
2001-present |
University of Chicago,
Ph.D.
|
August 1997
- May
2001 |
B. A. in Linguistics,
University of
Texas at Austin, with Honors.
B. A. in History, University of Texas at Austin.
B. A. in Ancient History*, University of Texas at Austin.
Thesis title: Methodological Issues in the Search for
the Indo-European Urheimat. Advisor: Robert D.
King |
June 1999 -
August
1999 |
German Summer School of
the
University of New Mexico at Taos |
*Ancient
History
constituted a
cross-disciplinary major between Classics and History, the course work
for which
consisted mostly of
the study of classical languages.
|
| Conference presentations
and proceedings |
8 Dec 2007
|
Parameterization and Polysynthesis in
Georgian, at the Caucasological Conference at the Max Planck
Institute in Leipzig.
|
| 24 Nov 2007 |
The Typology of Tavization in Georgian
Ditransitive Constructions, at the Typology of Ditransitives
Conference at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig.
|
| 4 Jan 2007 |
Hierarchies, Feature
Geometry and the Morphosyntax of Algonquian Languages, at the
Eighty-first Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America,
Anaheim, CA,
|
| 18 Feb
2006 |
Feature Geometry and the
Morphosyntax of Algonquian Languages, at the Fourth Annual
Workshop in General Linguistics, Madison, Wisconsin, 17-18
February 2006. |
| 7 Jan
2006 |
Meskwaki and Georgian:
Test Cases for the Polysynthesis Parameter, at the Eightieth Annual
Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America. Albuquerque,
New Mexico, 5-8 January 2006. [abstract] |
| 5 Nov
2005 |
The morphological status of
subject markers in Nahuatl and the Omnipredicativity Hypothesis. At
the Ninth Annual
Meeting
of the Texas
Linguistic Society, Austin, Texas, 4-6 November 2005. [abstract] |
23
Oct 2005
|
Polysynthesis in Meskwaki, at
the Thirty-Seventh
Annual Algonquian Conference.
Ottawa, Ontario, 21-23 October 2005. |
| 21 July
2005 |
Georgian and the Theory of
Pivots, at the 2005 LFG conference in Bergen,
Norway. |
| 20 May
2005 |
Georgian Transitivity,
Alignment and the Typology of Split-S Languages, at the Stative-Active
Languages Conference, at Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary
Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, 20-22
May 2005. |
18 Feb
2005
|
(Non)antipassivization and
Grammatical Relations in Georgian
presented
at the 31st annual gather of the Berkeley Linguistic Society
[abstract] |
16
Feb 2004
|
Comparative Markedness
and
Opacity in Meskwaki Palatalization. Presented
at the 30th
Annual gathering of the Berkeley Linguistic Society.
Berkeley,
California, 13-16 February 2004. [abstract]
[handout] |
27 Oct
2002
|
The Effects of Prosodic
Constraints on Reduplication
in Luiseño Plural Nouns. Presented at
the Eighth Midcontinental
Workshop on
Phonology (MCWOP 8). Bloomington, Indiana, 25-27 October 2002. [abstract] |
| Selected
Research and Publications |
- "Georgian and the Typology of Polysynthesis", in
publication in STUF
|
- (Non)antipassivization
and Grammatical Relations in Georgian [abstract]
|
- The pragmatics of
the Georgian
pefect series and its effects on case marking. Ms.
|
- Modularity and the
Role of
Phonology in Autolexical Grammar. Ms.
|
- Toward a
Definition of Subjecthood in Georgian. Ms.
|
| Edited Volumes |
March 2008
|
CLS
40: The Main Session. Papers
from the 40th Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society. Vol. 1.
Chicago: Chicago
Linguistic Society. |
| March 2008 |
CLS
40: The
Panels. Papers from the 40th Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society.
Vol. 2.
Chicago: Chicago
Linguistic Society. |
| Selected Book Reviews
and Notices |
| review |
The Phonology of Standard
Chinese by San Duanmu; The
Phonology of
Hungarian
by
Siptár and Törkenczy; The
Phonology of Portuguese by Mateus and d’Andrade; Phonological Knowledge: Conceptual and
Empirical Issues ed. by
Burton-Roberts et al. In: General Linguistics |
booknotice
|
Papers of the Thirty-Fourth
Algonquian Conference, ed. by H. C. Wolfart in Language
83.1 (March 2007)
|
| booknotice |
Current
Trends in Caucasian, East European and Inner Asian Linguistics: Papers
in honor of Howard I. Aronson ed.
by Kevin Tuite and Dee Holisky, in Language |
| booknotice |
A Grammar of Kalaallisut
(West Greenlandic Inuttut) by Jerrold Sadock, in Language
82.1 (March 2006) |
| booknotice |
Introduction
to Classical Nahuatl
by J. Richard Andrews, in Language 81.4
(December 2005) |
| booknotice |
An Introduction to the Shoshoni
Language by Drusilla Gould and Christopher Loether, in Language.
81.4 (December 2005) |
| booknotice |
Abkhaz
by Viacheslav I. Chirikba,
in Language 81.2 (June 2005) |
| Honors and Awards |
2006
|
Summer
Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship, for Georgian
($6,000.00) |
| 2006 |
Summer Foreign Language
Enrichment Program (FLEP) Fellowship, for Georgian ($6,000.00) |
2005
|
Doolittle-Harrison
Travel
fellowship ($500.00) |
2004
|
Documentation of
Endangered Languages (DoBeS) fellowship, Volkswagen-Stiftung (€
550.00) |
2004
|
Academic Year Foreign
Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship for Nahuatl, 2004-2005,
University of
Chicago (Full tuition + $14,000 stipend) |
2004
|
Summer Foreign Language
and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship for Korean, University of Chicago
($6,000.00) [declined] |
2003
|
Summer Foreign Language
and
Area Studies
(FLAS) Fellowship for Russian, University of Chicago
($6,000.00) |
2000
|
Cline Research Fellowship
in the Humanities, University of Texas at
Austin. ($500.00) |
1999
|
Zertifikat Deutsch from
the Goethe Institut,
Houston, Texas |
| Invited Guest Lectures |
2006, Spring
|
"Parameterization and
Language Change", Introduction to Linguistics III (Sociolinguistics and
Historical Linguistics).
|
2005,
Spring
|
“Alignment systems in the
indigenous languages of North America”, in Languages
of the World, University of Chicago, Ilya
Yakubovich |
| 2003, Fall |
“Autolexical
Syntax and other nonderivational theories of grammar” in Introduction
to
Syntax, University of Chicago,
Amy Dahlstrom |
| 2002,
Fall |
"Language
replacement in the Ancient Mediterranean" in Seminar on the Ecology and
Evolution of
Language, University of Chicago, Salikoko Mufwene |
| Teaching and Research Experience |
| March/April, 2008 |
Lecturer, ‘Feature Hierarchies in Natural Language; Or, How (Not) to Linguisticize with a Hammer’ at the Leipzig Spring School on Language Diversity, 31 March – 4 April 2008. |
| Jan-present, 2008 |
Language trainer, English conversation. ICC-Sprachinstitut, Leipzig, Germany |
Spring, 2007
|
Lecturer, Advanced
Georgian-III.
|
Winter, 2007
|
Teaching Assistent,
Introductory Georgian-II. Lecturer: Tamra Wysocki. |
Fall, 2006
|
Teaching Assistent,
Introductory Georgian-I. Lecturer: Tamra Wysocki.
|
Fall, 2005
|
Teaching Assistant,
Linguistics
204/304: Introduction to Linguistics: Syntax, Semantics,
and Pragmatics. Professor: Salikoko Mufwene. |
| Fall, 2003 |
Teaching Assistant,
Linguistics
204/304: Introduction to Linguistics: Syntax,
Semantics, and Pragmatics. Professor: Amy Dahlstrom. |
Summer,
2002
|
Research Assistant,
Chicago Maya Project. |
| January 1998 - May 2001 |
House of Tutors,
Learning Centers, USA, Inc.
Positions: individual and group tutor, standardized test
preparation
(TASS, PSAT, SAT, GRE, TOEFL), elementary school mentoring.
Subjects tutored: introductory linguistics, phonetics, English
language, British literature, American literature, German
language, Latin
language, US history, European history, Texas history, world philosophy. |
| Membership in
Professional Societies |
| 2003-2004 |
Officer, Chicago
Linguistic Society |
2003-present
|
Linguistic
Society of America |
1998-2001
|
Mimung Society for
Indo-European Language and Culture |
| Language Proficiency |
| Length
of coursework in parentheses. |
| German |
Good speaking fluency and
excellent reading
fluency (8 years) |
| Ancient Greek |
Good reading knowledge (3
years) |
| Latin |
Good reading knowledge (2
years) |
| Georgian |
Good reading knowledge (2
years) |
Meskwaki
(Algonquian)
|
Fair reading
knowledge (1 year) |
| Nahuatl, Oapan
and Ameyaltepec |
Fair
reading knowledge (1 year) |
Akkadian (Old Babylonian)
|
Fair reading knowledge (2
quarters) |
| Old
Georgian |
Fair reading knowledge (1
quarter) |
| Russian |
Fair reading knowledge (1
quarter) |
| French |
Fair reading knowledge (1
quarter) |
| Lak (NE
Caucasian) |
Fair
reading knowledge (1
quarter) |
Additional languages,
studied to
a
lesser
degree or independently
include:
|
Atkan Aleut
(Eskimo-Aleut); Onondaga (Iroquoian); Svan and Mingrelian
(Kartvelian); Mam and Quiché (Mayan); Abkhaz (Northwest
Caucasian); Korowai (Trans-New Guinea); Luiseño, Shoshoni and
Classical Nahuatl
(Uto-Aztecan); Hurrian and Urartian (ancient Isolates). |
|