Presentations at Scholarly Meetings:
Politeness and the business telephone call. Northeastern
Anthropological Association. Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON.
March 1991.
The phonology of urban young
people's Sango. Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics. Philadelphia,
PA. (Co-author: W.J. Samarin). January 1992.
Children crafting creolized
Sango. Sociolinguistics Symposium 9. University of Reading, Reading, U.K.
(Co-author: W.J. Samarin). April 1992.
Verb-marking in Sango predicate
chains. International Colloquium on the Status and Uses of Sango in the
Central African Republic. Universität Köln, Cologne, Germany.
(Co-author: W.J. Samarin). 1992.
The (r)-ful truth about African
Nova Scotian English. New Ways of Analyzing Variation [NWAVE] XXIV. University
of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. October 1995.
A lack of agreement: Celtic
syntax meets the (revised) Minimalist Program. Ottawa-Carleton Linguistics
Seminar. University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON. October 1996.
Rephrasing the copula: Contracted
and zero copula in African Nova Scotian English. NWAVE XXVI. Université
Laval, Québec City, QC. October 1997.
Beyond zero copula: Evidence
from early African American English. Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics.
New York, NY. January 1998.
The decreolization of Canadian
English: Copula contraction and prosody. Canadian Linguistic Association.
University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON. (Co-author: M.E. Meechan). May 1998.
Variability in optimal prosody:
English auxiliaries. Montréal-Ottawa-Toronto Phonology Workshop.
McGill University, Montréal, QC. February 1999.
Prosodic variation and change
in English auxiliaries. Workshop on Change in Prosodic Systems, Deutsche
Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft. Universität Konstanz, Konstanz,
Germany. February 1999.
Using the past to explain the
present: Tense and temporal reference in Early African American English.
Tenth International Conference on Methods in Dialectology, Memorial University
of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NF. August 1999.
The progressive’s progress:
A view from the present in Early African American English. NWAVE XXVIII.
Toronto, ON. October 1999.
"Since my Last, things has
Takeing quite an other aspect": Verbal -s in Early Liberian Settler
English. American Dialect Society. Chicago, IL. (First author: G. Van
Herk). January 2000.
Optimality at the morphology-syntax
interface: Evidence from synthetic compounds. Fourth Bilingual Workshop
in Theoretical Linguistics. York University/University of Toronto, Toronto,
ON. December 2000.
Ain't misbehavin'? Not-contraction
in Early African American English. American Dialect Society. Washington,
DC. January 2001.
Syntax or morphology? Optimality
in synthetic compounds. Canadian Linguistic Association. Université
Laval, Québec City, QC. May 2001.
The ain't constraint
and Early African American English. Third UK Language Variation and Change
Conference. University of York, York, UK. July 2001.
Before you say -s: Grammatical
and prosodic constraints in Early African American English. NWAVE XXX.
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC. October 2001.
"We labors under a great deal of
disadvantiges": Verbal -s in Early African American English. Canadian
Linguistic Association. University of Toronto, Toronto, ON. May 2002.
(Co-author: G. Van Herk).
An English "like no other?"
Language contact and change in Quebec. New Ways of Analyzing Variation
31. Stanford University, Stanford, CA. October 2002. (Co-author: S. Poplack).
(poster).
Variation, category strength and
grammaticization: Agreement and the subect-type effect in English. Sixth
Bilingual Workshop in Theoretical Linguistics. University of Toronto.
December 2002.
A majority language in minority guise:
The future of Quebec English. Canadian Linguistic Association.
Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS. (First author: S. Poplack). June 2003.
What's that? Canadian
Linguistic Association. Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS. (Co-author:
R. Torres Cacoullos). June 2003.
Taking a complement ... variably.
New Ways of Analyzing Variation 32. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia,
PA. (Co-author: R. Torres Cacoullos). October 2003.
Tense and aspect in Bequia.
Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics. Boston, MA. January 2004. (Co-author:
J. Sidnell).
Problems and method in the
study of contact-induced language change. Workshop on the Role of Minority
Status in Language Contact and Change: The Past and the Future in Canada.
Sociolinguistics Symposium 15. University of Newcastle, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne,
UK. (First author: S. Poplack). April 2004. (panelist).
Looking into the future in
English and French. Workshop on the Role of Minority Status in Language
Contact and Change: The Past and the Future in Canada. Sociolinguistics
Symposium 15. University of Newcastle, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK. (Co-authors:
S. Poplack, R. Torres Cacoullos). April 2004. (panelist).
Zero copula in the Caribbean: Evidence
from Bequia. New Ways of Analyzing Variation 33. University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, MI. (Co-author: M. Meyerhoff). October 2004.
"There's bears back there":
Existentials and (non)agreement in Canadian English. Eighth Bilingual
Workshop in Theoretical Linguistics. York University. December 2004.
Another look at zero copula in the
Caribbean. American Dialect Society. Oakland, CA. (Co-author: M. Meyerhoff).
January 2005.
On the role of the (lexical) individual
in grammatical variation: The future in Canadian English. Canadian English
in the Global Context, University of Toronto. (Co-author: R. Torres Cacoullos).
January 2005.
How Canadians disagree: Variation
in English existentials. Canadian Linguistic Association. University of
Western Ontario, London, ON. May 2005.
Contact in the city: Ethnicity
and language in Toronto. Twelfth International Conference on Methods in
Dialectology, Université de Moncton, Moncton, NB. (Co-author: M.
Hoffman). August 2005.
Contact without convergence:
Variation in the group and the individual on Bequia. Twelfth International
Conference on Methods in Dialectology, Université de Moncton, Moncton,
NB. (Co-authors: M. Meyerhoff, J. Sidnell). August 2005.
Group convergence and individual divergence: Syntactic variation on Bequia.
U.K. Language Variation and Change 5. University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK.
(Co-author: M. Meyerhoff). September 2005.
Ethnolects
and the city: Language and identity in Toronto. New Ways of Analyzing
Variation 34. New York University, New York, NY. (Co-author:
M. Hoffman). October 2005.
The
persistence of grammatical constraints: The ‘urban sojourners' of Bequia.
New Ways of Analyzing Variation 34. New York University, New York, NY.
(Co-author: M. Meyerhoff). October 2005.
The linguistic consequences
of language shift: Evidence from Toronto. Canadian Linguistic Association,
York University, Toronto, ON. (Co-author: M. Hoffman). May 2006.
Accommodation and ethnicity: Language contact in Toronto.
Sociolinguistics Symposium 16. University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.
(Co-author: M. Hoffman). July 2006.
Invited presentations:
Method in the madness of the
copula. Symposium on Objectivity and Commitment in the Study of Early
Black English, NWAVE XXVI. Université Laval, Québec City,
QC. October 1997. (invited panelist)
"The Americans are Smart
Industours hardy people & fears Nothing": Verbal -s on
the eve of the American Revolution. Special session on Accountability
in Reconstructing Verbal -s, Tenth International Conference on
Methods in Dialectology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s,
NF. August 1999. (invited panelist)
Ethnicity as explanation in
linguistic variation: Is it really black and white? Symposium on Ethnicity
and Variation Studies. NWAVE XXX. North Carolina State University, Raleigh,
NC. October 2001. (invited panelist)
Contextualizing variable concord:
Evidence from Early African American English. University of Ulster, Belfast,
U.K. May 2002. (invited speaker).
Prosodic phonology and linguistic
variation: The status of /-s/ in Early African American English. Universidade
de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. May 2003. (invited speaker).
Traces of grammar in pragmatic
formulas. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM. (Co-author: R. Torres
Cacoullos). February 2004. (invited speaker).
How to take a complement in
Canadian English. York University, Toronto, ON. (Co-author: R. Torres
Cacoullos). March 2004. (invited speaker).
How to take a complement in
Canadian English. University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK. (Co-author:
R. Torres Cacoullos). April 2004. (invited speaker).
Toronto
Workshop on Phonetics, Gender and Sexual Orientation. November 2005. (invited
discussant).
Language contact and ethnic
identity in Toronto English. DLLL Lecture Series in Linguistics, York
University, Toronto, ON. (Co-author: M. Hoffman). December 2005. (invited
speaker).
Contact without convergence: Varieties
of English on Bequia (St Vincent and the Grenadines. Centre for Research
on Language Contact, Glendon College, York University, Toronto, ON. March
2006. (invited speaker).
"Not everybody speak the same": Linguistic variation and the individual on Bequia.
Workshop on Variation in the Caribbean: From Creole Continua to Individual Agency.
Sociolinguistics Symposium 16, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.
(Co-author: J. Sidnell). July 2006. (invited panelist).
Language contact and phonological variation in Toronto English. Recherches
actuelles en sociolinguistique, Université du Québec à
Montréal, Montreal, QC.
(Co-author: M. Hoffman). August 2006. (invited poster).
Editorial Activities:
Member, Editorial Board:
Cahiers Linguistiques d’Ottawa (1996 - 2000)
Language Variation and Change
(2005-)
Referee:
Canadian Journal of Applied
Linguistics, Canadian Journal of Linguistics, Language, Language
in Society, Language Variation and Change
Administration:
Member, Committee on Graduate Studies, Department of Linguistics, University of Ottawa
(Ph.D. student representative). (1997 - 2000)
Member, Faculty of Graduate Studies, York University. (2000-present)
Member, Tenure and Promotions Committee,
Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, York University.
(2001-2002)
Member, Merit Pay Committee,
Faculty of Arts, York University. (2004)
Departmental Representative,
Faculty of Arts Council, York University. (2002-2003, 2004-2005)
Computing Coordinator (Linguistics),
Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, York University.
(2003-2006)
Director of Undergraduate Programs (Linguistics), Department of Languages, Literatures
and Linguistics, York University. (2003-2004)