Carol E. Genetti (born 1961) is an American linguist who is known for her

research Research is "creativity, creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular att ...

into

Tibeto-Burman languages The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non-Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people speak ...

and languages of the Himalayans. Her work into

Newar language Newar (), or Newari and known officially in Nepal as Nepal Bhasa, is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the Newar people, the indigenous inhabitants of Nepal Mandala, which consists of the Kathmandu Valley and surrounding regions in Nepal. ...

is the first comprehensive grammar, focusing on the

Dolakhae dialect Dolakha Newar ( endonym Dwālkhā Nepal Bhasa), or Eastern Newar, is a divergent dialect of the Newar language (''Nepal Bhasa'') spoken in Dolakha District, east of the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, by 5,645 Newar people as of 1988. Some speakers ...

. Her investigation into languages of the

Indosphere Indosphere is a term coined by the linguist James Matisoff for areas of Indian linguistic and cultural influence in South Asia and Southeast Asia. It is commonly used in areal linguistics in contrast with Sinosphere. Influence The Tibeto-Burma ...

has increased understanding of many typological features, including auxiliaries.

Academic career

Genetti earned her Ph.D. in Linguistics in 1990 from the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

. Genetti is an emeritus

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

from the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

, where she was a faculty member in the Department of Linguistics until 2020. Between 2013 and 2020 she was also the Dean of the UCSB Graduate Division, and she served as Chair of the Department of Linguistics from 1999-2005. Genetti now serves as the Vice Provost for Graduate and Postdoctoral Programs at NYU Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. In 2008, she founded

InField Infield is a sports term whose definition depends on the sport in whose context it is used. Baseball In baseball, the diamond, as well as the area immediately beyond it, has both grass and dirt, in contrast to the more distant, usually grass-c ...

, an international training workshop in field linguistics and

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

documentation (Grenoble and Furbee: 262). She served as Director of the first InField when it was hosted by the University of California, Santa Barbara. InField/

CoLang The Institute on Collaborative Language Research or CoLang is a biennial training institute in language documentation for any person interested in community-based, collaborative language work. CoLang has been described as part of a modern collabor ...

has provided significant training/support for documentation of

endangered language An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "dead langu ...

s worldwide.

Awards and distinctions

* 2011. Distinguished visiting fellow, the Cairns Institute, James Cook University, Cairns, Australia. * 2009. Inaugural Georg von der Gabelentz Award, Association for Linguistic Typology (for ''A Grammar of Dolakha Newar'')

Publications

* 2014. How Languages Work: An Introduction to Language and Linguistics. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

. (Editor) * 2013. (with Rebekka Siemens). Training as Empowering Social Action: An Ethical Response to Language Endangerment.

Language Death In linguistics, language death occurs when a language loses its last native speaker. By extension, language extinction is when the language is no longer known, including by second-language speakers. Other similar terms include linguicide, the deat ...

Endangerment Endangerment is a type of crime involving conduct that is wrongful and reckless or wanton, and likely to produce death or grievous bodily harm to another person. There are several kinds of endangerment, each of which is a criminal act that can b ...

Documentation Documentation is any communicable material that is used to describe, explain or instruct regarding some attributes of an object, system or procedure, such as its parts, assembly, installation, maintenance and use. As a form of knowledge manageme ...

, and Revitalization. ed. by Edith Moravcsik and Kathleen Wheatley. New York: John Benjamins. * 2013. Tense-Aspect

Morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines * Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts * Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...

from Nominalizers in Newar. Functional-Historical Approaches to Explanation, ed. by Tim Thornes, Erik Andvik, Gwendolyn Hyslop, and Joana Jansen. (Typological Studies in Language 103.) John Benjamins. * 2011. The Tapestry of Dolakha Newar: Chaining, Embedding, and the Complexity of

Sentences ''The Four Books of Sentences'' (''Libri Quattuor Sententiarum'') is a book of theology written by Peter Lombard in the 12th century. It is a systematic compilation of theology, written around 1150; it derives its name from the ''sententiae'' o ...

. Linguistic Typology 15. 5-24. * 2008. Syntactic Aspects of Nominalization in Five Tibeto-Burman Languages of the Himalayan Area. With Ellen Bartee, A. R. Coupe, Kristine Hildebrandt, and You-Jing Lin. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 31.2. 97-144. * 2007. A Grammar of Dolakha Newar. (Mouton Grammar Library 40.) Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

External links

Carol Genetti

InField 2008 webpage

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Genetti, Carol 1961 births Living people Linguists from the United States University of Oregon alumni Linguists of Himalayan languages University of California, Santa Barbara faculty Newar studies scholars Women linguists